Interesting speech.....seeing as she's my local MP, and DD1 is a prison officer in a female prison (although not Downview).
DD1’s view is this (and you probably don’t want to hear it)…..it’s fearmongering to a large degree. It’s allowed only in exceptional circumstances, and the group at Downview are the only ones. Trans prisoners are like any other prisoner, and they are continually and individually risk-assessed, and there’s a lot of intel that goes into this. If any were deemed to be a threat to others (or at risk themselves) they would be kept segregated and/or lose their right to associate; this is absolutely no different to any biological female prisoner who was threatening or violent towards others, or was felt to pose a risk. Incidentally, there are plenty of biological females wandering around our prisons who were convicted of violence towards other women, and of sexual/child abuse offences.
To be clear, this is a tiny group we are talking about, and only in one prison. DD1’s prison has no trans women at all.
However, trans women are between a rock and a hard place. The alternative is for them to go into the male estate, as most do, where they are classed as vulnerable and have to be kept segregated, like paedophiles or child killers are currently. They are not generally safe in the male prison population.
Contrast this with trans men in a female prison - they mix freely with the general population, and there are no issues specifically around them being trans.
Rebecca's comment about protecting prison officer safety was nonsensical, as both male and female officers work across both estates. They are no less “safe” around trans prisoners than they are around the general prison population, many of whom are not nice people.
Her comments about mental health and history of domestic abuse amongst female prisoners were spot on. They are indeed hugely vulnerable.