Downview Protest

[KenDoddsDadsDogsDead18]

Big ups to the women protesting at Downview today. Sounds like it's been well received. Lovely day for it. I spied a pic of Julia Long radically sitting on a chair, hopefully this dangerous act will go unpunished.

Solidarity with you all & I hope this action yields results. No person who is anything other than biologically female should be in a women's prison. A wing that allows daytime access to women doesn't cut it.

twitter.com/LilyLilyMaynard/status/1111986360976637952?s=20

Well done and thank you

Brilliant, well done

Love to all those splendid women.

What a fabulous sight! I hope they made all those poor women forced to share space feel that someone cares

Well done to those women!

I was there today. It was brilliant. So many visitors and several officers were incredibly supportive.

We will not be silenced. No men in women's prisons.

Sounds great.

CallMeWoman

Thanks for being there .. it sounds like the support from visitors and officers is very good news. Hopefully the visitors told the women in there that we care about them.

Hopefully the visitors told the women in there that we care about them.

We hope so, too. The prison officers certainly know, and we have posted a card signed by all of us, addressed to the women of Downview.

Brilliant protest

A 'trans wing' was recently opened at Downview women's prison in Surrey.

Downview is a women’s jail, and one source reported “significant concern” among its 320 female prisoners at the arrival of male-bodied trans inmates. Almost half of trans prisoners are sex offenders, compared with 19% in the prison population as a whole. Prison governors and doctors say some sex criminals transition to get access to women.

However, the new trans wing is understood to be in a separate building within the prison perimeter, with an inner fence dividing it from the rest of the jail.
...
Nicola Williams, of Fair Play for Women, which has campaigned for reform, said she “cautiously welcomed” the move.

The Ministry of Justice said three transgender prisoners with gender recognition certificates would initially be housed in the new wing and would not have access to other offenders at the prison.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/europes-first-jail-in-a-jail-for-trans-women-vg7r57qfh?shareToken=b67f9d337b588b8933bce325fe4d3b0e

However it turns out the MoJ lied, the prisoners on the trans wing are only separated from the women for sleeping and showers.

Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors’ Association, said they were placed in the new unit because they had been “risk assessed as not suitable to go into main women’s prisons”.
...

However, the justice ministry said: “They are mixing [with the general population] for certain activities such as religious services, the gym, or the library, always with a prison officer at their side supervising them.”

As far as we know there are still only 3 inmates on the trans wing but already one has managed to stage a rooftop protest.

Nicola Williams, of the campaign group Fair Play for Women, said: “We cautiously welcomed the creation of a ‘third space’ but it is very worrying that the Prison Service is not keeping its promises that trans prisoners will be separate. This is exactly why women’s organisations must be involved in the development of this policy.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/high-risk-transgender-inmates-at-downview-mix-with-women-zt33zb2ks?shareToken=bcbd400282c6e173a03ef2712e5d06f2

The Prison Reform Trust are currently collecting views ahead of their Transforming Lives Women's Summit. Their survey is open until 08/04/19 and is open to women with lived experience of the criminal justice system and to others who work in the field.

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LYNWKPP?platform=hootsuite

If you don't fit in one of those groups it's worth noting that Edward Argar MP is the minister responsible for women in the criminal justice system and also for transgender offenders. I believe you can ask your own MP to forward questions to relevant ministers and they have a responsibility to get answers.

We will not be silenced. No men in women's prisons.

Well said. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you.

From Twitter

twitter.com/LesleySemmens/status/1113943115277242368?s=20

I've been thinking more about this.

We are told that the MoJ are rethinking their trans in prisons policies. With that in mind, I was wondering whether PSI 17/2016 The Care and Management of Transgender Offenders was still in place. It is, and it's available on this page:

www.justice.gov.uk/offenders/psis/prison-service-instructions-2016

It was updated in January 2019 to include new rules about prisoners' rights to wear their own clothes so we can assume it's current and has not been superseded by another document somewhere else.

The PSI says this:

6.3 There may be exceptional cases where it is necessary to refuse a transfer to the female estate for a transgender (male to female) prisoner with a GRC. This can only happen if the risk concerns surrounding the prisoner are sufficiently high that other women with an equivalent security profile would also be held in the male estate.

In the document this paragraph is written in italics. From the front of the document:

All mandatory actions throughout this instruction are in italics and must be strictly adhered to.

The second Times article about Downview says this:

The trans prisoners have gender recognition certificates making them legally women. Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors’ Association, said they were placed in the new unit because they had been “risk assessed as not suitable to go into main women’s prisons”.

Which, read together with the PSI, very strongly indicates that the trans prisoners in Downview are extremely dangerous.

I'm guessing that one of them will be the father of 7 who is into bomb-making.

Who a judge insisted was a woman and forced the GRC panel to issue a GRC.

Apparently this person is back in prison.

Many references to the case (including this person's prior criminal history) have since been removed from the internet.

As far as we know there are still only 3 inmates on the trans wing but already one has managed to stage a rooftop protest

What is it about men and rooftop protests? King of the castle wearing Emporor's new clothes.

Not sure Popchyk. The severity of the crime doesn't necessarily mean they'd be especially difficult to manage in prison.

I found the GRC appeal judgment (hard to find, lots of dead links!) here:

www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed193387

There are refererences to self harm and suicide attempts in prison but not violent attacks on other prisoners or staff.

The explosives thing seems to be a theme.

www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/09/04/ex-soldier-jailed-for-hoarding-explosives-and-ammo-stash/

"Joanne Morris had seven sticks of plastic explosives and a home-made bomb when police swooped on her home in Station Street, Bloxwich on November 14 last year.

During a three-and-a-half day search of the property officers also seized 1,990 rounds of live ammunition, a dismantled 12-bore shotgun and 15 detonators".

Another person convicted of explosives offences who identifies as transgender. Military background again, which we see a lot.

Accidentally shot her wife in the leg while cleaning a gun.

Come on Orchid, we've all done that, surely?

I've often seriously wounded DH when cleaning my semi-automatic weaponry. He knows to stand further back now.

And we all stash thousands of rounds of live ammunition, plastic explosives, detonators, a home-made bomb, chemical warfare suits, samurai swords, harpoons, shotguns and air pistols in our houses and gardens.

It is just a hobby. Can't believe the amount of people who hobby-shame. Bigots.

Isn’t it dreadful that when we want to protest something really important like this, we have to do so quietly so we can be allowed to do so?