Dr Nicola Williams on BBC2 at 10.15, Victoria Live

GreenWitch, if you click on the image it gets bigger

@Rowantrees
I can't read the screenshot from Twitter. It is too small.

The Carlos Delacruz case. Reported here that CD is held in segregation while they assess where CD should go. Presumably in a male prison at the moment

They will never put a trans identifying female in a male prison, because they know that the natal female will be raped and abused by some of the men. The prison services know that people can’t change sex, but since it’s only affecting female prisoners, it’s easier to capitulate to the TRAs.

No trans identifying female has, to my knowledge, EVER demanded to be put in a male jail. Even they, for all their ‘I’m a real boy’ protestations know that they are living a lie and won’t be accepted as, or safe as trans identifying females in a male jail.

28/10/2015 Jane Fae New Statesman:
'Why has the trans woman Tara Hudson been sent to an all-male prison?
Tara Hudson must now endure cruelty because the authorities following the rulebook only read half of it. For trans people, that is the reality of justice in Britain today'.
(extract)
"How did we get here? At the individual level, the issue is either the failure of Hudson to change the gender recorded on her passport or, acccording to the MoJ, the fact that she does not have a gender recognition certificate (GRC), which is awarded by a panel once a person has lived in their new gender for two years. The MoJ have not said this in so many words: it’s just that every time they are asked why she has been sent to a men’s prison, they respond by talking about “legal gender” and GRCs.

Why Hudson would not have a GRC is unclear: we do not know precisely what surgeries she has had, nor why she has not got a GRC. I don’t have one. I will not, because I absolutely refuse the right of the state to demand money from me for the simple purpose of acknowledging who I am. In that sense, the GRC is NOT like a passport or driving license. Because it says that my gender is dependent on the ratiocination of some state apparatchik, who obviously knows who I am better than I do.

A growing number of trans men and women agree with me, objecting to this imposition for a variety of reasons. It’s a gender tax. State intrusion." (continues)
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/10/why-has-trans-woman-tara-hudson-been-sent-all-male-prison

29/10/15 Independent article by Cerian Jenkins 'Why I started the petition to save a trans woman from an all-male prison'

"There must be no uncertainty – Tara's welfare is under incredible strain because of the cruelty of our justice system. Confirming all of our fears – not least her mother Jackie's – it has just been reported that her time in prison has so far consisted of constant and terrifying sexual harassment. She needs help, and she needs it now.

I first heard about Tara’s case via my local paper in Bath, and I knew immediately that the members of the BGEN would want to launch a campaign. We support national campaigns as much as we can, but this was right on our doorstep, and that gave us huge impetus and potential leverage. Within five minutes of my bringing it up to the group, we were formulating a plan – and getting in contact with Tara’s mother, Jackie, to ensure that she was happy for us to move forward with our campaign" (continues)

Tara Hudson's mum was interviewed by media:
October 2015 Guardian 'Transgender prisoner at HMP Bristol 'being sexually harassed' '
(extracts)
"In her first phone call home since being jailed, Hudson told her mother, Jackie Brooklyn, that she has become the victim of sexual harassment and innuendos, confirming the worst fears of her family and supporters.

Brooklyn said: “The prison allowed me to speak to her for about two minutes. She’s in a cell next to someone who has tried to commit suicide six times since she’s been there. She’s getting sexually harassed. Inmates are screaming from their cells: ‘Tara, Tara, Tara, show us your tits.’”

Prison officials only gave Hudson fresh underwear to change into on Wednesday, Brooklyn claimed, adding that until then she had been wearing the same clothes as when she was jailed on Friday.

Hudson has been kept in the healthcare wing, away from the general population. “She’s very isolated because she’s locked up for 23 hours a day and obviously when she’s allowed out she’s getting sexual harassment from all the other inmates,” Brooklyn said.

On Friday Hudson’s supporters will gather outside Bristol crown court, where her case is expected to be taken to an appeal. They hope that a judge will decide to commute her 12-week jail term to a non-custodial sentence." (continues)

Hudson had lived as a female since she was a teenager, her mother said. “We always knew that she was born into the wrong body from a very early age,” she said. “From the age of five she knew she wanted to be a girl. She started going to gender reassignment clinic at 16.”

It was six years ago that Hudson began the surgical and hormone treatments needed to make the full transition from male to female. “It’s been going fine,” Brooklyn said. “She’s got really big boobs, as you’ve seen from the pictures. But it’s a really long, slow process – there’s a lot of counselling involved.”

She fears her daughter will suffer emotionally because of her experience in the male prison. She said: “It’s going to set her right back, she’s very sensitive. She’s had problems with her mental health before because of all the transphobic abuse.” (continues)

concludes:
"Brooklyn said she hoped the attention focused on her daughter’s case would lead to more sensitive treatment for transgender prisoners. “I just hope that the laws are changed, that transgender people can live their life as they want and go to the appropriate prison. If they are living as a woman they should go to the women’s prison,” she said."
www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/29/transgender-prisoner-tara-hudson-sexually-harassed-hmp-bristol

GreenWitch you have to subvert the rules a bit. Talk constantly about 'her penis', it just shows up how ridiculous it is.

That Tara tweet!

Yikes!

Tara’s court case (suing the MOJ) is scheduled for the end of the month.

TELI retweeting allegations from a parent involved with Mermaids Charity.

'your SJW stuff'.

fucking hell.

LOL.

See (attached image) Tara (now called Dannii) saying that the intersectional feminist that started the petition (www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-i-started-the-petition-to-save-a-trans-woman-from-an-all-male-prison-a6713881.html) that got Tara and other penis-owners out of men's prison ruined Tara's life.

Tara's quite the ungrateful 7" prick, isn't she?

Cerian started #ISeeTara on Twitter.

It seems Cerian didn't see Tara too clearly after all.

The recent TELI Twitter thread is very intersting Wanderabout, its worth looking at, especially as so many legal firms and lawyers are associated.

I honestly think that this is another reason why men claim to be transitioning in prisons. Transitioning is a headache for the prison service - eg the need for separate showering times and other special treatments - so there is an inclination to get rid of the problem.

I strongly agree - the prison estate doesn't have the spare capacity or building infrastructure to cope with more than a tiny number of prisoners who are transitioning.

Self-ID would break the system in no time and see either early release or other community surveillance release. (I quoted some Howard's League statistics on current prison over-crowding in another thread.)

Thanks for that tweet Rowan. What are TELI doing ?

When the prison service stood by their decision to put Tara Hudson in a men's prison, in the face of a huge campaign to get them to change their minds (150,000 signatories to the petition, protests, media and politicians lobbying and NO-ONE supporting their action) they did a very brave thing:

They released him early.

I honestly think that this is another reason why men claim to be transitioning in prisons. Transitioning is a headache for the prison service - eg the need for separate showering times and other special treatments - so there is an inclination to get rid of the problem.

I suspect that the trans person in the Scottish prison will be released when no-one's looking, very soon.

Francis Crook commented in June 2018 Daily MAil 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.’

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

This person pleaded guilty in July.

And was sentenced in September.

Ample time to have an assessment about where to put the criminal, you would think.

Demonstrates that prison authorities really have no clue about what they are doing with this.

That headline is like something out of a Carry On film!

LAG IN LIMBO Prison chiefs segregate Falkirk sex beast with no penis because they don’t know if he can be held in a male nick

The Carlos Delacruz case. Reported here that CD is held in segregation while they assess where CD should go. Presumably in a male prison at the moment.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/3181313/carlos-delacruz-falkirk-fake-willy-prison-male/

This made me laugh in the article.

"The Spanish delivery driver’s gender is now officially male but he hasn’t had full realignment".

Note that Scottish prisons wouldn't be included in the Ministry of Justice figures as they cover England and Wales only.

Tara Hewitt (co-founder of TELI)

there is already a mechanism for trans women, they could just use those facilities?

There are mechanisms - there literally isn't the physical infrastructure to cope with more than a tiny number.

One of the reasons behind prison riots is the abysmal physical condition of the prison buildings and their facilities: these are crowded beyond capacity (and the reality of this varies from one region to another with some having spare capacity and others being more overcrowded.

This week's Howard League count of prison numbers and overcrowding for England and Wales reports 82,846 prisoners in England and Wales (including Young Offenders):

Prisons are extremely overcrowded. Under the Ministry of Justice’s own definition of safety and decency, the prison estate should not hold more than 75,346 people. There are currently 7,500 men and women held above this level. Overcrowding is not evenly distributed across the prison estate, so some prisons hold many more people than they are designed to do so safely.

howardleague.org/prisons-information/prison-watch/

The word "woman" will soon come to mean all female people plus male sex offenders. Sex offences will be seen as something that primarily women commit against women and children. I give it 3 years.

I wish I felt confident enough to bet against you on that.

I don't.

I think there is already a mechanism within the male estate for female prisoners. Rules are that any female prisoner deemed too dangerous for the less secure environment of the female estate (women don't generally commit these crimes hence the female estate not really having the facilities) can be moved to special facilities in the male estate?

This has never actually happened, not even with the likes of Rose West, but surely that means there is already a mechanism for trans women, they could just use those facilities?