There was a recent internet opinion article from the Guardian (I think) on sending transgender women to male prisons, because of the suicides of Vicky Thompson and Joanne Latham.
I think any prisoner in any prison needs to be protected, and prisoners at risk of harm from others or self harm need support, but I don't think a knee-jerk reaction of opening up a women's prison to anyone who identifies as female is the answer.
This is an issue that needs to be looked at carefully and sensibly, for the sake of all involved.
We know that Tara Hudson has a record of violent crimes, and in this most recent one attacked a man so badly that he needed medical and dental treatment costing hundreds of pounds. We also know that her idea of living as a woman includes sex work with her own fully functioning penis, which she boasts about online.
That to me indicates that her identity as a woman is applied as it suits her, and her imprisonment with men or women and the safety of everybody needs to be carefully considered. He working life needs to be discussed because it's relevant to the argument that she has lived as a woman for years.
I don't know what Vicky Thompson did to be sent to prison. I'm sorry she wasn't protected in the right way to prevent her suicide.
Joanne Latham was in prison for three attempted murders. Her victims were men. Two of those murder attempts happened while she was in prison and then a secure hospital.
She had only recently identified herself as a woman, and only changed her name this summer.
I don't think sending her to a women's prison or secure hospital would have achieved anything towards keeping her safe. And as she has managed to commit two very violent crimes against men while serving her sentences, I doubt the women in prison with her would have been any safer.
Sadly I think her issues went far deeper than being imprisoned with men or women, or identifying with men or women. Reading about her crimes gives the impression that she was a risk to herself and to those she was imprisoned with regardless of their sex or gender.
She had attempted to poison her flatmate with mercury, stabbed her third victim in the neck, I can't remember what she did to her second victim. I don't believe that any prisoner would have been safe with Joanne Latham because of her past crimes. When she wanted to harm the people she was imprisoned with, she found a way. And when she wanted to harm herself, again, sadly, she found a way.
But it's important to note that she hadn't asked to be sent to a woman's facility, and that in her case there is no women only facility suitable for her because of the danger she posed to everybody. Arguing for a women's prison in her case is letting her down as well, I think, because there's nothing to say she would have been less of a danger to herself or anyone else in a women's prison. She sounds like a troubled person, and I hope she is at peace now, but she was a danger to everyone if you consider her crimes and her determination to commit them.
It's important to make that known because hiding facts like this doesn't help the discussion, or achieve the right conclusion.
It's also important to talk about the crimes committed, it's important to talk about lifestyle and whether or not someone is working as a prostitute with a fully working penis. It's important to recognise that any prison may not be the best place for people like Joanne Latham because they are a danger to everyone, and that secure hospital's might be falling short on protecting inmates/patients too. It's important to think about the risks posed to everybody concerned, and the problems that might arise.
Because this issue isn't going to go away, and it needs to be tackled effectively with the best result for all prisoners, not just the ones making the news but with details glossed over.
We need to get this right for everybody's sake, not rush something through that may cause further harm to someone else.