Do you people spend a tenth of the time u spend howling about this stuff campaigning for actual constructive causes? Like improving conditions in women's prisons, or getting them work when they get out, or better support for their families while they are incarcerated? Or do you only care about women prisoners when it gives you a chance to shriek about the horrors of a penis (or former penis) hidden behind a skirt?
Tabsicle yes, I do, and I have for a very long time.
Which is how I know how vulnerable the vast majority of women prisoners are. How more than 80% of them are in there for nonviolent crimes. How more than half are victims of childhood emotional, physical or sexual abuse. How a third of them spent time in care as a child. How many are victims of domestic violence - one stat says 46%, another 80%.
Women prisoners account for 28% of the prisoners who self-harm - wildly disproportionate when you consider they make up only 5% of the total prison population. Nearly half the women in prison have attempted suicide.
Now, let's have a look at all the transwomen in prison who have come to public attention now.
Paris Green - kicked a man to death over a bag of chips. Begun transition after arrest. Was put into a women's prison, but had to be moved because was having sex with the women prisoners there. (Was moved to another women's prison - wtf?) Since women's prisons are full of women who have spent their whole lives learning how to appease the violent males in their lives in order to survive, we will never know if this sex was consensual.
Vikki Thompson - died by suicide in a men's prison awaiting sentencing for robbery (theft by force or threat of force).
Tara Hudson - attacked a barman, headbutted him, broke his teeth. Claimed to be "living as a woman" despite working as an escort and advertising their "seven inch surprise". Moved to a women's prison after an outcry.
Davina Ayrton - raped a 15 year old. Announced intention to transition after arrest.
Joanna Latham - was serving several life sentences for attempted murder, committed before announcing intent to transition. (Attempting to poison female flatmate, then stabbing fellow inmate.) Died by suicide in custody in a men's prison shortly after changing name and announcing intent to transition. Was so dangerous, could not be left alone with their own lawyer.
Any I have missed?
Yes, women can be and occasionally are violent. Yes, women can commit vile sex crimes, and occasionally do. But shame on those of you here who are trying to make out that the numbers are in any way comparable, or who have derailed this thread with cries of "women can be violent, too!" Overwhelmingly men commit more violent and sexual crimes than women, and transwomen commit crimes at the same rate as men do.
Even the Pink Paper, a publication not known for giving a single shiny shit about women, has published on the need for a third space prison for trans and nonbinary prisoners.
Finally, women (however you define women) in men's prisons are not a new thing, mainly because there are facilities in men's prisons (because of the vast number of men prisoners when compared to women in prison) that just don't exist in women's prisons. "Close supervision centres" (CSCs), for example, I don't think exist in women's prisons, so a prisoner such as Joanne Latham could not have been moved to a women's prison whatever the prison policy on transitioning prisoners. The MEP Martina Anderson, when a Cat A high-profile and high-risk prisoner, was held in Brixton Prison and Durham.
Satisfied, Tabsicle?