I wrote a story a few months ago that included details about a transgender woman housed in a federal men’s prison who faces daily risk of sexual assault and rape.

I was writing about the need to consider the high risk of sexual assault when determining where to house transgender women inmates in correctional facilities.

Somebody actually responded by saying, “prisons aren’t supposed to be country clubs,” which … where do you even start unpacking that?

There isn’t just a wide gulf between a country club and a place where daily sexual assault is a real possibility, there’s a vast canyon.

I think what the commenter was really saying was that inmates are so low in the pecking order that if they get sexually assaulted or raped, that’s just par for the course and basically okay.

It’s hard to understand how anyone could make a statement like that or get behind the values of a statement like that, which presumes that some people aren’t worthy of even the most minimal humanity or human decency.