Sex offenders and Prison

[lionheart]

fairplayforwomen.com/transgender-prison-policy/

Here is the policy document:

fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Equality-Analysis-Document-E-Wing-Version-16.0-for-publication.pdf

'E Wing will hold transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (“GRC”) who present a high risk of harm to other women. Women will only be able to be placed on E Wing when they meet the criteria set out in the policy and have been allocated to E Wing
through the National Complex Case Board.'

On page one and confused. A cohort of 'high transgender women'.

High? Have they missed a word such as 'risk' there? Is there a definition I'm unaware of yet?

Etc.

'There may be legitimate concerns regarding pregnancy etc. but also a potential risk of bias and unfavourable treatment if risks aren’t
assessed holistically.'

Ok on page two and struggling.

'It became apparent' ..... aka 'whoopsy daisy'. No mention at all that the problem was what happened to female prisoners. None. Nada.

What is meant by a 'greater regime' that is available in women's prisons ? And 'female services' which could be provided on a male wing but to a much lesser degree?

And no unpacking of 'association with other women' and what that really means.

Female people are mentioned throughout as some kind of prison owned equipment or furniture.

JFC. The contempt shown for women prisoners - amongst the most vulnerable in society - by those with a duty of care- is sickening.

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women”

This sums it up doesn't it. It doesn't matter about consent or risk for women when it comes validating transwomen. It doesn't matter where it is. Prisons, toilets, changing rooms, refuges, anywhere that are women's spaces. It's not about providing safe spaces for transwomen, which could be provided. It's about ensuring that those spaces that they use has actual women in it.

It's not about providing safe spaces for transwomen, which could be provided. It's about ensuring that those spaces that they use has actual women in it.

Yes.
Each of these policies demonstrate that everyone - particularly those shouting TWAW, know this is not true.

This is odd. Are they confused about 'protected characteristics'?

'In relation to fostering good relations between those with protected characteristics and those without, there is a risk that the relationships between the wider transgender population at HMP Downview and other women may be impacted upon by the creation of this unit within the community of HMP Downview. Specialist units within a prison can create tensions across the wider community, particularly given
the needs being addressed by E Wing.'

Later on the report mentions 'protective' characteristics. The whole thing seems rather full of mistakes.

Interesting when you come to the sections mentioning transmen, the language is very plainly transmen and male prisoners, absolutely straight forward. No phrasing such as non trans men, non trans males or other men which are all over the references to women.

Also rather concerning that the aim is that this is a wing only for TW prisoners of such high risk but that the aim is that they will earn their way into the main body of the prison alongside lower risk TW. The bar for female prisoners is subterranean as it is set at trying to only avoid openly too risky situations as much as possible when the risk assessment is obviously not going to work.

It is useful in that it does specify that the high risk female population could not on assessment be added to this wing (first thought was just to make a high risk women's provision for all) and that there is undeniably a difference between TW prisoners, risks and needs, and female prisoners.

But otherwise.......

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women"

Surely a wing for transwomen would meet this criteria?

It's about ensuring that those spaces that they use has actual women in it

But TWAW

It's a euphemism. It needs stating in plain English and then considering whether this is actually a right. And whether those being associated with are being regarded as stakeholders or even as sentient humans anywhere in the situation.

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women”

What do biological women have particularly in common with men that transitioned in middle age? Totally different upbringings, lived experience, lifestyles and lives? As PP have said, other transwomen or even other bog standard men would probably offer a better social interaction, especially to men who are all about stereotypes of women. Your average female prison inmate probably doesn't give a shit about makeup and high heels.

The perfect example of an organisation defining women as support humans whose purpose is always to support born males, no matter how dangerous said born males might be towards women.

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women

But do women need association with transgender sex offenders? I would say 💯 women don't need association with any sex offenders, particularly those born male. Women are not a resource or commodity there to validate the feelings of born males. Same old same old isn't it. In one form or another.

Rarely have I seen something so obviously biased in favour of one particular cohort and so prejudiced against the other.

Hateful is bandied about a lot so much so it has lost meaning, but that document and the EQA Impact Assessment is an exercise in utter hatred and contempt for women. I know we are always bottom of the pile but this is treating us a sub human.

I note the document states TW prisoners with a GRC, however in the Judicial Review those defending the practice of putting TW in the female prison estate stated they didn't know which TW had a GRC as they were not allowed to ask and nor did they have the means to find out (which I don't believe), so it is just any male who says he is a woman who is included. Disgusting.

This is horrendous and the whole policy needs to be torn up.

Validation of one group more important than safety of a more vulnerable group. FFS.

Also if transwomen need to be associating with women, why are transmen offenders not immediately put into the male prison estate? Surely they need to be associating with men too and yet as far as I know they are all incarcerated in the female estate?

Some transgender women pose specific risks to other women which do in part derive from their transgender status. These may be from their offending history(eg sexual offences,or violent offences) or may be as a result of their anatomy or physiology ( eg their size/ strength/ genitalia)

Well thank goodness someone has thought ahead and made sure these poor souls are housed in a woman’s prison, even if it is initially in a special unit . Presumably when they are allowed to have association with the vulnerable women in the rest of the prison this will only happen because they have said sorry for their violent and sexual offences, they have lost six inches in height, their strength has reduced and their penises have dropped off . And no, those “specific risks” do not arise “in part” from transgender status, they arise 100% from male status.

This report is so depressing. It’s a bit like a zoo deciding to put impalas and lions in the same enclosure because they come from the same continent.

The other potential problem is that currently women inmates are only allowed to be searched (including strip searching/rub down) by same sex prison officers. These protocols are under review meaning trans women prison officers could be allowed to undertake these searches on women prisoners...

The MoJ is considering removing the existing right of women in prison to only be searched by officers of the same sex. It is proposed that prison officers who are transgender women are able to both strip search and rub down search female offenders.

This is horrendous.

Not just female prisoners who could find themselves being strip searched by somebody they perceived to be male, but also female prison officers being forced to strip search male prisoners who identify as women.

I’ve just seen this and I’m incoherent with rage. I hadn’t known the unit at Downview was specifically for high risk prisoners. The sheer lack of humanity towards the women there, the absolute refusal to recognise the women there as human beings with rights and needs themselves - it’s so stark and brutal. These women are being brutalised, for many of them all over again.

This is the endpoint of entertaining the delusion that some of the people we used to be able to refer to as men are actually women. This is the endpoint of allowing some people who were previously recognised as men to legally change their status to women. This is what the whole edifice of lies leads to. This is what happens to women in a society where biologically male people reign supreme. This is how fucked we are.

I am so thankful for the women behind FPFW and KPSS and all the other grass roots orgs doing so much to expose this and try to bring about justice for these women, for all women. Brava to each and every one.

@Erikrie

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women”

This sums it up doesn't it. It doesn't matter about consent or risk for women when it comes validating transwomen. It doesn't matter where it is. Prisons, toilets, changing rooms, refuges, anywhere that are women's spaces. It's not about providing safe spaces for transwomen, which could be provided. It's about ensuring that those spaces that they use has actual women in it.

This is what it is. Clear as day. Utterly repugnant and utterly misogynistic.

And yes, the possibility of female prisoners being strip searched by biologically male officers, or of female officers being obliged to strip search biologically male prisoners, is truly horrendous.

Do the unions have anything to say about this, I wonder?