BBC reporting: First UK transgender prison unit to open

[misscockerspaniel]

"The UK's first prison unit for transgender inmates will open this week, the Ministry of Justice has said.

The wing, within a woman's prison in south London, will initially cater for three offenders who were born male but have since changed gender.

Officials say that the three prisoners, who have Gender Recognition Certificates, will not have access to the other women at HMP Downview, in Sutton.

The Ministry of Justice said prisoner safety was "our biggest concern"."

[Copied from teletext, or whatever they call in now]

I think that counts as a win all round.
Those prisoners and any others that follow get what they want and the women in the rest of the prison are safe from chancers.

Please note that I am not saying that the current trans prisoners are any danger to women at all, but that some men are utter cunts and will go to any lengths possible to get to women.

My other question though is what about transmen?

Also, and I don't know much about the prison system, what about prisoners who are just have a short sentence or are in prison awaiting trial?

I also think this is probably a win win. The fact they have GRCs is a sign that the individuals are committed to being female. I do wonder what will happen when a self-id'er is sent to that unit.

I can only put an educated guess as to why this is happening. It's nothing to do with 'Karen White'.

I still don't see why the wing can't be in a men's prison, if the reason transwomen can't go to male prisons is because they will get murdered or whatever?

But it's miles better than being in with women.

Will they be completely segregated the whole time or will they still share certain facilities (gym, shared areas etc?)

I have already seen some very transphobic comments on twitter about this.

Can you link to those transphobic comments on twitter?

I've never personally seen a transphobic comment on twitter but I only follow gender critical threads.

Perhaps your not with the in crowd.

I’m guessing it’s a wing in a woman’s prison because there is more space what with men’s prisons being crammed to the ceiling already.
Also I’m guessing this means female prison staff.

I don't think so.

Transgender prisoners are already accommodated in such a situation and they are not a problem.

I think this is a small building that is going to house some very surprising inmates.

placemats they are not from accounts I follow (I don't partake in twitter or follow anyone, I just read it, hence I haven't been blocked by anyone!)

But underneath Andrew Gilligan's tweet to his article on this there are a few what I would definitely call 'transphobic' comments and under the BBC tweet there is some uncalled for stuff. Don't want to link in case it gets deleted!

Thanks for the lead to that. I'll certainly check it out.

ChesterGreySideboard: It doesn't necessarily mean it will be staffed by female prison officers, although I'm sure there will be some. Both male and female Prison Officers work in Male and Female Prisons.

Placemats knows or has guessed something. The clue is surprising inmates, hummm. I can think of one that might be kept well away from women.

My other question though is what about transmen?

There are something like a total of 20 transmen currently housed in female prisons across the UK.
They will continue to be housed in female prisons.

I don't know why they're calling it a "transgender wing" when it's more specific than that. It's surely a male-transgender wing.

As long as the prison guards who are watching over this new unit have freely consented to do this, I don't mind it being in the womens estate.

The problem I forsee however is when these units house a violent male sex offender like Karen White. We already know that there aren't sex offender rehabilitation programs in womens prisons because theres such a low level of females who do this kind of behaviour and even if they did have programs like this for women (they should regardless of small numbers) we know the kind of sexual assault women commit is very different to the type males commit. So what happens if there is a Karen White put into a transgender unit and not given sex offender rehabilitation like they would get in a mens prison and they reoffend, this could be very embarrassing for the government and very expensive for the tax payer

Fortunately miri on a practical level it turns out not to matter - there was a report of recent research on sex offender "rehabilitation" which showed that far from improving their recidivism, it plugged them into a bigger network of like-minded people (during group therapy sessions), and taught them enough "therapy speak" to blag their way through parole hearings. So arguably lack of "therapy" could actually be a blessing in disguise.

I think the biggest problem may turn out to be that it’s not safe for a lot of trans prisoners to have a trans wing. TW sexually assaulting TW is not exactly unknown. As long as they’re separate from the female population that’s the most important thing though, TW who aren’t safe can be housed in another accommodation for vulnerable prisoners in the male estate.

Did anyone hear Radio 4 just now?
Another transwoman unchallenged about transwomen in sport.
Presenter conflated intersex and transgender.
They are a fucking disgrace.

Ah yes the delightful John Humphrys, great friend to women.