Judicial review for woman prisoner alleging sexual assault by trans rapist in prison

The piece on Center Parcs is on the same page as this, in the app version and I assume print editions. Join the dots...

Lang - Where is that 64% domestic violence stat from? I can feel a letter to my MP coming on.

This judicial review is long overdue. Well done to the brave woman taking her case to the courts and the team supporting her.

Hoping the outcome is transgender, non binary wings regardless of GRC status. My personal opinion is GRC status should have no bearing on incarceration in cells with women. If you commit an offence and were born male you go to a transgender unit or male prison.

Well said, Datun.

No man should be in the female estate. Women aren't a service ffs.

Sixty four percent of female prisoners have been subjected to domestic violence. The majority are already victims of men.

It's insane.

It's insane because, as a concept, it is treating women like dogs for the sake of men's self serving feelings. But, more than that, it's disgusting because it is perfectly legal to prevent it.

The law was written to create exceptions for just this kind of situation. No one, absolutely no one, expected men to enter the female state, and certainly not if they were a fucking rapist!

It's unbelievable. That in 2019 letting raping, violent men have access to incarcerated women is considered progressive.

And yes, well bloody done, to all the women who have actually had to write down, email, record, talk about, meet over, and articulate the utterly self evident reasons why this is one of the most immoral things this country is doing.

It's not complicated. It's not something that prison officials can't comment on. It's not hard to understand.

Just stop fucking doing it.

If they moved all the transwomen to women's prisons that would mean one in three incarcerated women were not women.
There be the evidence that transwomen commit crimes at a higher rate than women.

Name changed for obvious reasons -

Every prisoner at HMP Littlehey is a sex offender and it has a small but significant trans population.

But it would be fair to say that there are a number of motivations for being trans:

Getting to wear womens clothing
Getting to wear your own choice of clothing instead of prison wear
Not doing programmes
Saying you can't have committed offences because you are actually a woman
Just being annoying
Attempting to get in to the women's estate
Actually being dysmorphic and wanting to do the whole thing including surgery - this off course doesn't mean that you will stop your offending behaviour

So there are many reasons why being trans might have advantages to you as a prisoner aside from you actually having been trans all along

This was a great article

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

James writes: Perhaps I am a bleeding heart liberal. Perhaps I am too quick to condone and too slow to condemn. But I believe that how we treat the weakest and worst among us is a comment on how we conduct ourselves as a society. I also believe that rules matter. Our rules, our laws passed by the Parliament that expresses our will, demand and dictate that it is not acceptable for women to be put in fear, to be exposed to abuse and violence. Our rules, our laws, demand that each and every single one of us is properly protected – by the coercive power of the state if needs be – from harm. It doesn’t matter if we break those laws ourselves; the whole point of those laws, what gives them meaning and value, is that they apply to everyone

She says the transgender woman, who is serving a sentence for rape of a female, groped her breasts in the prison toilets. Shortly after the assault, the victim was moved to a different prison only to find her assailant had also moved there and would be sharing accommodation.

Absolutely appalling lack of care.

It would be very interesting to see the breakdown of offence type for these trans prisoners, would it not?

Yes. FPFW did some work a while ago via FOIs and at that time, about half of XY trans prisoners were either sex offenders or Cat A (the highest risk level, usually violent). It would be nice to see this updated although I fear the numbers have been obscured due to recording by gender identity rather than sex.

It would be very interesting to see the breakdown of offence type for these trans prisoners, would it not?

Might shed some light on whether you're more likely to want transfer to a women's unit if you're convicted of fraud versus sexual crimes, for example.

Thanks for sharing. I'm pleased this is happening but angry for every woman that's suffered or will suffer in the meantime at the hands of male prisoners in female estates.

The 1 in 50 figure says it all.

When I told my female MP about what was happening in prisons a year or so ago, she didn't seem bothered. While she expressed some interest in other matters relating to gender ID, it felt like prisoners' lives were so far removed from her own that it didn't matter.

I can't think of anything MORE terrifying than women being incarcerated with male predators.

I do judge the Government by how it treats these women.

Oh, and while I'm about it...

.. the prison population as of 2018 broken down by offence type.

Well done to Dr Williams and FairPlay for Women who I am sure have been a big driving force of this behind the scenes.

Well done to th brave woman who is going to have to relive her trauma over and over through this.

Locking up women with RAPISTS is probably th most cruel and inhumane thing happening in this country

If they weren't being promised access to women's prisons the number of trans prisoners would drop like a stone.

'We can't comment on that'

In other words 'we refuse to respond to women'

Female prisoners do have access to lawyers who will work on their behalf. This needs to be a human rights case too.

Am assuming no holes need to be dug for this one, but if there is I'm in there with my spade.

Here is another letter to Inside Time from an old school transsexual objecting to the self-ID policy (and this is within the male estate).

this is brilliant news. and yes, and thanks to the brave woman prisoner bringing the case

it is outrageous that she and other women are being put at risk in this way by the authorities

nice to see Nicola Williams being quoted in the article

For context: a letter to prisoner magazine Inside Time about the Downview unit.

One in 50 inmates in adult male prisons claims to be transgender or transsexual, according to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons.

1 in 50.

www.statista.com/statistics/283475/prison-population-and-capacity-of-united-kingdom-uk-by-gender/

There were approximately 78.71 thousand men and 3.83 thousand women in prison in the United Kingdom as of May 2019.

78,710 ÷ 50 = 1,574.2

These 'transwomen' don't sound particularly rare to me. Surely their numbers justify building separate and dedicated units in MEN'S prisons to house them.

"One in 50 inmates in adult male prisons claims to be transgender or transsexual, according to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons"

What a transphobic comment from the Chief Inspector of Prisons. I assume he'll be piled on and expected to resign?
There is no "claiming" to be transgender. If you say you are, then by definition, you are.

Asking whether it's even theoretically possible to lie about one's gender identity is transphobic.

Unless the person goes on to detransition, in which case they were lying all along.

Wow, 1 in 50. That is ridiculously high. Even one male person in a female prison can have a devastating impact on all the women in that prison. Small numbers make little difference when we are dealing with incarceration.

Does this relate to the Karen White case or is this another one? This seriously needs to stop and it’s barbaric. Women in prison are often already victims of assault and abuse. It’s disgusting that these men’s feelings are placed above that.

FINALLY.

This is such good news. Birnberg Pierce do a lot of work on prisons and for prisoners. Perfect legal choice.

Interesting to see that there are two prongs to the review: putting any XY trans prisoner in the women's estate if they have been convicted of sex offences against women; if the Downview unit is for unmanageable (Cat A, sex offending, badly behaved) trans prisoners, why aren't they fully segregated from a potential pool of victims?

My gratitude to the female prisoner who has been prepared to be the person courageous enough to be the "face of the case".

If it's true that 1 in 50 male prisoners are now identifying as trans, there is a more than sufficient population for a dedicated prison - this is as many as 1,600 inmates. I would suggest this would be the solution. Although, if no transfer to the female estate is available, would the number still be 1,600?!

Male prisoners belong in the male estate, in a separate wing if necessary. They should never be shoehorned into the womens estate.