Policy Case

Rationale

The reason I chose this policy was because I noticed while reading the client handbook and the rules for clients of the Salvation Army Lighthouse Recovery Center, I noticed that a few of the prohibited items were a bit strange. It some lights it would make sense to ban certain things because it is a Male treatment facility, but overall not enough sense. When it came to the banned clothing, tanktops and spaghetti straps are listed and womans undergarments are also listed. Like I mentioned before, in some lights it makes some sense. It is a male facility so why would the males need spaghetti straps or specifically womans panties?... And then it hit me, what if the client is a transgendered individual whose gender is female but his sex anatomy is of a male. It makes perfect sense for a transgendered individual to dress like the gender they declare themselves to be.

In my mind I thought to myself that this is a form of discrimination, because we are not allowing our transgendered clients to wear certain clothing, but allowing our heterosexual clients to wear whatever they want as long as there are no drug related content, sexual content, and violent content on the clothing. We are granting one group of people more freedom of choice than another group. While reading the client handbook, I came across the client rights. According to the Client Handbook revised in (2010), "These Rights Include: M. Freedom from discrimination due to race, religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability". I noticed that discrimination due to gender and sexual orientation is not listed. I would like to add gender and sexual orientation to the list to ensure that everyone will be treated fairly.

Internal Aspects

In the client handbook under the section Unacceptable Behaviors, clients who wear or are caught having the clothing listed in the prohibited items list (tank tops. Spaghetti straps, women undergarments), will fall under Category 3: Minor Misconduct. Clients with a first of offense face restriction from leaving LRC (unless with staff) 1-4 days. Sanctions Include furlough/free time, visits, store runs, activity room, community Aa/NA meetings, telephone calls, Loss of 1 or more privileges, 1-5 days no phone use or visitations, Refocus period up to 12 hours, Self report, Extra duty for not more than 4 hours actual work. Clients with a second offense face restrictions from leaving LRC unless with staff 1-9 days, Loss of 1 or more privileges 1-9 days, refocus period up to 28 hours, self report, written assessment, and extra duty for not more than 10 hours actual work. Clients with a third offense face restriction from leaving the LRC unless with staff 1-13 days, loss of 1 or more privileges 1-13 days, refocus period up to 32 hours, written assessment/self report, extra duty for not more than 16 hours actual work, and possible dismissal from the program. My