Write to Caroline Dineage Justice Minister about MoJ Review

[PlonitbatPlonit]

I have emailed the Ministry of Justice to ask to whom comments about the terms of reference for the Ministry of Justice Review of care and management of transgender offenders should be sent.

They have told me that comments should be marked for the attention of Caroline Dineage Justice Minister and sent to the email address [email protected]

The specific comment or question that I want to raise is that, given the context of the review (presented as a response to concerns that deaths of transgender prisoners are due to not being held in the women's estate) female prisoners should be explicitly mentioned, and not just alluded to as 'relevant stakeholders'.

I think there are grounds for arguing that the aspiration to 'safeguard the wellbeing of all prisoners' requires a balancing of the needs, and that therefore it is not reasonable that the terms of reference explicitly reference the transgender community but make no mention of female prisoners.

I'm going to email now, but if there are others here who feel similarly perhaps you could email along the same lines.

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483208/review-transgender-prison-tor.pdf

PAQ, I am in awe of how articulate the women of MN are and feel inadequate when posting here, yours will be really well worded because your posts always are

Hermione wow thanks, really thanks that is lovely to hear. i often feel like an illiterate grunt on many of these threads.

I'm sending mine now, having borrowed heavily from Hermione's post

I've also added this link to my email, page 14 is relevant:
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/training11Add3en.pdf

It will be very interesting to see if any of us a get a response. I am particularly intrigued by the book club!

I shall let you know. I have never done this before, I wonder if we'll all just get the same automated response?

I've emailed too. Thanks for finding the contact information!

Has anyone received a response? I haven't, and I'm wondering if I should ask for confirmation of receipt. And also how to submit opinions to the review itself (since I've only made a comment on the terms of reference).

No response yet, but mines only been a day

Still nothing. Does anyone know how long this sort of thing takes?

no response here

It takes however long it takes the overworked junior official responsible for monitoring the consultation inbox to go through the replies and send acknowledgements.

Honestly I wouldn't bother chasing, unless you have reason to think your email might not have been sent correctly.

Ta! I shall give them until after the Christmas break.

Can't promise the Hecate and friends book club ladies will

Just reread the OP and remembered that this isn't a consultation, it's essentially correspondence from the public. I have no idea how efficient MoJ's correspondence division is, but they probably have published targets, eg reply within 15 working days. Worth checking online and chasing if you haven't heard back by then (perhaps allow a few extra days as it's Christmas).

Just sent mine off. Thanks, Plonit.

I received a reply to my email as follows

"Thank you for your email to Caroline Dinenage MP, raising the concern about the implications of decisions to transfer transgender prisoners to the female estate. I have been asked to reply on her behalf.
I am very grateful to you for raising this issue and I hope you can be reassured that the review seeks to ensure that the wellbeing of all prisoners is safeguarded. Although not expressly mentioned in the terms of reference, we have explicitly noted "Safety: Female Prisoners" as one of the headings on which we will be seeking views.
Among other prisoner groups, we will be directly contacting organisations working with women in prison, some of whom are members of the Advisory Board for Female Offenders which is chaired by the Minister.
We welcome comments from all interested parties, so If you would like to contribute to the review, please email George Barrow who is the official coordinating the review within the Ministry of Justice at [email protected] and we will ensure your name is added to the mailing group. Please feel free to share with anyone who might want to register their interest and be kept abreast of developments."

So, I will definitely email George Barrow and register my interest. I suggest that anyone else who is concerned does the same.

Just to add: seems that the email I was given was wrong (some people have had their email bounced). It should be [email protected]