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Original poster

Transwomen in women's prisons - what's the problem?

152 replies

HeadAboveHeadBelow · 28/09/2022 13:54

This is one of the many fraught conversations I've had with a friend recently. She acknowledges incidents happen where a TW harms a female inmate, and agrees that is terribly wrong. However, where I say the problem is that the TW s claimed gender identity is prioritised over their sex, she says the prison system should be better at screening prisoners as often these incidents involve a TW who has previously been a risk to women, so, why were they housed with women?
She does have a point, but I think that gender identity based policies makes it hard to put this kind of screening in place... I'm finding it hard to argue it though, so maybe I'm just wrong. Thoughts?

OP posts:
BorgQueen · 28/09/2022 14:03

Well given that half of Trans id Male prisoners are Sex offenders I would have thought it was blindingly obvious.
I doubt there has been any research to see what percentage of these Men were trans before they were charged either.

mynameisnotkate · 28/09/2022 13:59

First of all I think it’s worth pointing out that the vast, vast majority of rapes and sexual assaults don’t result in a conviction and most don’t even go to court, so there’s actually no way of knowing which men/male-bodied people have harmed women in the past. It’s also worth pointing out that if even a man has never and would never harm a woman, women can’t know that about him, and most women - especially those you’ve had experience of sexual assault, as most women in prison have, will be anxious and afraid to be trapped with them in a situation they can’t escape from. It’s absolutely awful for the well-being of women in prison, even if nothing actually happens. Women deserve to feel safe.