Who is currently responsible for the prison policy?
Its unclear who the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation at Westminster is.
www.gov.uk/government/ministers/parliamentary-under-secretary-of-state--47
Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC was appointed as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on 24 July 2019.
He was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice from May 2019 to July 2019. He was previously Solicitor General. He was elected the Conservative MP for South Swindon in 2010.
www.gov.uk/government/ministers/secretary-of-state-for-justice
In Scotland MSPs are calling for male prisoners to be removed from female prison estate.
Im unsure if Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has responded.
16th January 2020
'MSP calls for transgender prisoners to be barred from all-female prisons'
(extract)
"Kenny Gibson said putting male-bodied trans prisoners into women’s jails could lead to psychological harm to vulnerable women inmates who had been abused by men.
In a sign of the tensions within the SNP over trans rights, the Cunninghame North MSP raised the issue at First Minister’s Questions.
In 2018, transgender prisoner Karen White, a “predatory and controlling” rapist born Stephen Wood, was jailed for life after attacking women in a female prison in England.
According to the chief inspector of prisons south of the border, around one in 50 male prisoners now self-identifies as transgender, four times the level of the general population.
The figures have led to fears other abusive men are abusing transgender rights in order to be housed alongside female prisoners.
Mr Gibson told Ms Sturgeon: “Last night, I attended a meeting with 12 other MSPs and around 50 people, mostly from front-line women’s organisations, to discuss women’s sex-based rights.
“We heard from one of my constituents, who is a retired prison governor, that, although the Scottish Prison Service would not contemplate placing a trans man in a male prison, it has fewer qualms about placing a trans woman who is still physically male in a female prison." (continues)
www.heraldscotland.com/news/18166158.msp-calls-transgender-prisoners-barred-all-female-prisons/