We Apologize To Our Inmates For The Non-Gender-Neutral Language

By the staff of the United States Penitentiary for Males, Leavenworth, Kansas

On behalf of all the employees and outside contractors operating this facility, we hereby extend our sincere apologies to any resident of this prison who has taken offense at the institution’s use of gender-specific formulations in signage, forms, instructions, disciplinary talks, or other forms of communication between the administration and the inmates.

Sensitivity to the emotional needs of our population has become an ever-greater concern in recent years, as a welcome wave of awareness of this issue sweeps through the nation. While detention and correctional facilities lie outside the general area of concern for those seeking to address this pressing new consciousness, the warden and executive staff of the penitentiary have taken a proactive stance on the matter, and will henceforth strive to convey announcements and information to the inmates without resorting to language that implies an assumption on anyone’s part as to the genders of this facility’s inhabitants.

To that end, our guards and other staff will no longer address the population as “men,” “boys,” “girls,” “ladies,” “bitches,” or other terms rooted in a gendered view, let alone a binary gendered view. We will leave it to inmates individually to decide on their gender identity, if any.

We also realize that by itself, mere refraining from hurtful, gender-specific language fails to provide a satisfactory solution for those inmates whose declared gender identity differs from that assumed by the federal corrections system in placing them in an “all-male” facility. To help address this ongoing injustice, the warden’s administrative staff have begun drawing up a budget proposal with the Department of Justice to redesign the Leavenworth complex as a gender-neutral facility, with such new features as toilets marked for use by all genders, among other improvements.

The safety and health of our inmates remain among our top concerns and mandates. We apologize for the use of “mandate” in the previous sentence, for those who associate it with toxic masculinity; we understand that explaining the etymology as unrelated to gender-specific notions merely dismisses the hurt the reader may feel and fails to address it, since, in the narrative of the individual seeing offense, no “explanation” will suffice to “justify” the pain caused. We would have used the term “responsibilities” instead, but many of those who have raised concerns about gender-specific terminology often take similar offense to notions of responsibility.

Going forward, we hope to provide all Leavenworth inmates with an environment free of gender-specific triggers. And we apologize to those who identify as asexual for the implication that the term “inmates” implies having a mate.

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