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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Prisons

32 replies

Rumbledore · 23/07/2018 16:39

After reading a few posts about trans women and prisons. I'm interested to know if there are trans men in male prisons? Do they get to choose between male or female prisons?

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Wanderabout · 25/07/2018 01:52

Presumably the women prison stats include any transwomen out of the c.25 transpeople in the female estate

Wanderabout · 25/07/2018 01:50

I should have added historically stealth F2M,S and stealth M2F,S who have served time without other inmates knowing have kept their heads down done their time with no reported incidents whatsoever

It's such a shame for people like that the line has blurred so much.

foxyliz26 · 25/07/2018 01:32

I should have added historically stealth F2M,S and stealth M2F,S who have served time without other inmates knowing

, have kept their heads down done their time with no reported incidents whatsoever

foxyliz26 · 25/07/2018 01:28

VickyEadie
No, there are currently none. I'm not sure if there ever have been any, however.

As a LGBT supporting Solicitor , can tell you there has been a few passing F2M,s with Phalloplastys historically who have served sentences in men jails pre GRA 2004 without anyone but the Prison Dr Or Prison Governor knowing

and a few passable M2F who have served their total sentences in female jails pre GRA 2004

the cases I have had knowledge of the prisoner was initially taken to the appropriate jail to their birth sex , it was up to the prison Dr if they were admitted or TRANSFERED to appropriate jails to their acquired gender

Not everything is reported in newspapers !

VickyEadie · 24/07/2018 16:33

The majority of women in prison are some of the most vulnerable women in society.

And some people think that shoving male-born offenders - some of whom are sex offenders - into women's prisons is a good idea.

GenderApostate · 24/07/2018 15:35

A professor of criminology has said TW should go into Male prisons due to the inherent risk to Female prisoners, in a direct reply to Jean Hatchet asking him on twitter. Smile Thank goodness that not everyone is in thrall to trans activists.

BettyDuMonde · 24/07/2018 11:47

Those are some seriously sad statistics, Pam.

I started looking up charities to help pregnant women/ women caring for infants in prison after last weeks thread - didn’t find anything much locally although nationally there are some groups, including visiting breastfeeding supporter, which I thought was nice (I’ve done the peer supporter training myself but haven’t been actively volunteering since my youngest started school).

LaSquirrel · 24/07/2018 11:47

Interesting Pam. But it does confirm what I said, even if some of the figures shifted slightly.

The number of community sentences for women has fallen by nearly half in the last decade

I read that as more get custodial over community sentences, not good.

Most women entering prison serve short sentences. 70% of sentenced women entering prison in 2016 were serving six months or less.

This is a slight rise on before. Meaning, more women are getting custodial sentences, confirming the above speculation.

Around one-third of women prisoners lose their homes, and often their possessions, while in prison.

This is tragic. And sets them backwards, and more likely to re-offend. If they were not given the custodial, instead a community sentence, this could be avoided. Leading to...

48% of women are reconvicted within one year of leaving prison.

and finally

Some foreign national women in prison are known to have been coerced or trafficked into offending

Disgusting. Double victimisation. The law has no humanity at all.

LaSquirrel · 24/07/2018 11:38

Thanks Betty was not aware of that one. Although she did seem to have 'male helpers'? Certainly an odd-duck if she was the primary.

Female pyschopaths are rare, but they do exist. Like most females, violent crime is far less than male counterparts, even in the world of psychopathy.

theOtherPamAyres · 24/07/2018 11:37

These are the up-to-date key facts about women in prison in the UK.
They are prepared by the organisation Women In Prison.

It's a useful, at-a-glance, list covering everything from their backgrounds, suicides and their treatment on release. A truly awful indictment of our country.

www.womeninprison.org.uk/research/key-facts.php

BettyDuMonde · 24/07/2018 11:32
  1. Joanna Dennehy.
LaSquirrel · 24/07/2018 11:29

There are only three women who have ever received a whole-life tariff btw

Myra Hindley, Rose West and ...?

Neither of the above acted alone, either.

BettyDuMonde · 24/07/2018 11:15

There are only three women who have ever received a whole-life tariff btw - one of those was imposed by the trial judge & other two were imposed by Home Secretaries. Out of approx 100 overall.

BettyDuMonde · 24/07/2018 10:59

I suspect this court hearing (scheduled for Sept) will be something of a landmark case going forward.

TH is a Transwoman (no similar cases of Transmen have hit the news so this is most info we have re: the current position) the circumstances around TH’snincarceration were high profile at the time and thus well documented across tabloids and broadsheets. TH has done several interviews since and the story is always a little different. There is a thread highlighting these differences on here somewhere - the inconsistency could well be due to poor journalistic standards, of course. The governor of the women’s prison TH was transferred to has been reported as being very GC, although I cannot recall if that was through direct quotes or TH’s allegations of discrimination.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/20/tara-hudson-transgender-prisoner-sues-government

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/bath-transgender-woman-suing-government-1650979

R0wantrees · 24/07/2018 10:47

Recent article from The Independent in response to propsosed changes Govt. Prison policy which identifies some of the key sex-specific (long recognised) aspects in offender profiles of females in the prison estate.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-prison-uk-community-sentences-centres-reoffending-rates-children-funding-a8418271.html

LaSquirrel · 24/07/2018 10:43

It's because they are women, and they don't commit the type of crimes that require them to be incarcerated for the public's protection. If they are involved in any type of crime, then it is low-level, non-violent, no-risk to the public types of offences that attract cautions, fines and community sentences.

Actually Pam, it is a bit more of the opposite - in that a majority of women in prison actually receive custodial sentences, when the dudely type would not get a custodial sentence, for similar non-violent crime. But yes, most women are in prison for non-violent crime.

Two thirds of women in prison, are in for short sentences (six months or less). And the prison population is roughly 95% male, 5% female, and if you look at the 'over 4 year' sentences, males are much higher than 95% of that population. There are women in prison on those longer sentences for killing an abusive partner (or pimp).

For stats, although based on 2004-2011, see here

R0wantrees · 24/07/2018 09:00

There's a lot of information and data about the impact of trans rights on the female prison estate:
fairplayforwomen.com/prisons/

Wanderabout · 23/07/2018 22:05

Thanks Rowantrees.

I wonder of those 25 transgender prisoners in women's jails how many were born male.

And how many if any of the mere 40 'women' in prison for violent crimes are actually males. It could be 25 for all we know. Or none.

R0wantrees · 23/07/2018 21:48

Snappity
See Francis Crook's comment in recent article,

'As more trans women who were convicted as men hope to follow rapist Martin Ponting into female wings, prison governors fear vulnerable inmates could be attacked'

(extract)
"Ms Crook, executive director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, added: ‘These men are not transitioning because they like women and want to be a woman, but in order to exert a new kind of control and dominance over women, a sort of infiltration.

‘Moreover, the process is inherently discriminatory. A woman identifying as a man could not be transferred to a man’s jail because placing a person with female attributes into a prison to live with 1,000 men, all using communal showers and living areas, would put them in serious danger.’

The Ministry of Justice refuses to say how many of the 25 transgender prisoners in women’s jails – almost double previous estimates – were born men, and how many were women identifying as men.

Last night, it again refused to release this information, claiming it does not hold this data – although there are transgender inmates in just seven women’s prisons.

The ministry has confirmed there are no female-born transgender inmates in men’s jails (continues)

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5798945/Trans-women-convicted-men-attack-vulnerable-inmates.html

VickyEadie · 23/07/2018 21:05

I said No, there are currently none. I'm not sure if there ever have been any, however.

Snappity snapped Of course there have been

I'm not sure why Snappity felt obliged to be so fucking snotty when I said I wasn't sure about something.

theOtherPamAyres · 23/07/2018 20:57

I think we know the answer to why there are no transmen in prisons.

It's because they are women, and they don't commit the type of crimes that require them to be incarcerated for the public's protection. If they are involved in any type of crime, then it is low-level, non-violent, no-risk to the public types of offences that attract cautions, fines and community sentences.

Alternatively, they are involved in 'white collar crime' and haven't been caught yet.

OlennasWimple · 23/07/2018 18:40

In terms of safety, one of the big elephants in the prison cell is that around half the current population of TW prisoners have been incarcerated for sex crimes. So although the TW population more generally may be no more or no less likely to pose a threat to women, the prison population absolutely does, particularly given how tough it can be to secure a conviction for sex offences

Rumbledore · 23/07/2018 18:31

Thank you for your comments. So why aren't there transmen in men's prisons? If they don't feel safe with men, would they feel safe with trans women in women's prisons?

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BettyDuMonde · 23/07/2018 17:11

None in the UK prison population presently, Snappity.
I’m sure you realised that though?

Wanderabout · 23/07/2018 17:09

Both vulnerable trans people and vulnerable women should be safe in prisons.

This article was good on the rights issues around this:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/07/are-female-prisoners-at-risk-from-transgender-inmates/amp/