The Times Scotland: Four of five trans inmates in women’s prisons are murderers

[ResisterRex]

Lead story in the Scotland section:

Four of five trans inmates in women’s prisons are murderers

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2d7e9ec8-acba-11ed-bfe8-f09d3c021ab0?shareToken=4096439c0e5f5aa84ef6a6e18fefc664

"Michelle Thomson, SNP MSP for Falkirk East, said that the decision to house the violent inmates in a women’s prison was “impossible to believe”. She said the prison authorities had failed to give “any consideration to women with trauma” and added: “If they had, they would simply not have considered placing self-identifying trans women murderers and rapists within the female estate.”

The four convicted murderers are:

• Alex Stewart, formerly Alan Baker, was jailed for life for murder in 2013 after stabbing the victim, John Weir, 16 times in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire.

• Sophie Eastwood, formerly Daniel Eastwood, then 19, was convicted of murder after strangling Paul Algie at a young offenders’ institution in Dumfries in 2004. That sentence was increased for an attack on a prison guard, before Eastwood reportedly self-identified as a woman in 2018. Eastwood is now said to identify as an infant and wants all meals “blended like baby food”.

• Paris Green, formerly Peter Laing, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years in 2013 for the murder of Robert Shankland, 45, in Glenrothes, Fife.

• Melissa Young, once Richard McCabe, was convicted of the murder of a neighbour in Edinburgh, Alan Williamson, on Christmas Day 2013. The victim sustained 29 stabbing injuries."

I suppose Stonewall would have them categorised as "individuals".

I'd be interested to know, did these individuals transition after their conviction and imprisonment or before. Does anybody know?

A lot of the media coverage features shy, gentle 20 year old Toby (née Tania) and Sophie (né James), who started playing with dolls at three. These prison cases are what happens when you have sloppy gender recognition laws and policies with no safeguards. It’s Stonewall’s “acceptance without exception” mantra in action.

Datun · Today 09:49

"A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “All trans men and trans women in our care are risk assessed.”"

As many of us here have pointed out, the risk assessment is done for the murderer, to see if he's in danger from the women in the prison, with less than no regard as to the danger HE poses to the women prisoners.

Quite

No wonder NS is going - another nail in her coffin.

Don't forget that they are also the most vulnerable people in society

This is what I understood when they said there were risk assessments done.

Yes. Won’t anyone think of those poor vulnerable murderers?

I find the idea of a “risk assessment “ for a man convicted of murder really strange. We know what he’s capable of, and he’s been convicted “beyond all reasonable doubt”.

What further proof is needed that he poses a risk? It’s already been proven in court.

Who must be afforded respect and allowed to transition etc

*I find the idea of a “risk assessment “ for a man convicted of murder really strange. We know what he’s capable of, and he’s been convicted “beyond all reasonable doubt”.

What further proof is needed that he poses a risk? It’s already been proven in court.*

Well, they murdered men. They were physically strong enough to overpower a male but .... that means they could never ever murder women. So women are safe.

Also, don't forget that transitioning goes some way to supporting kind gentle inner feelings (as Bryson's defence lawyer suggested).

I mean, those women might be traumatised, scared, uncomfortable, distressed, on high alert all the time ... but not murdered. So that's ok.

This is the balance: happy transwomen murderer feeling affirmed and recognised vs women safe from women killers. Women know how to live with fear so no biggie here. Risk assessed as fine. That's how it works, I think.

Wait, I thought they were all mild mannered accountants who'd committed some petty fraud?

And even if they were... would you put a convicted fraudster who believes they are the other sex among vulnerable women? Imprisoned for fraud = very dishonest or persistently dishonest. Someone who takes advantage of other people and gets away with things (until they get caught) Would that not make you wonder?

Do you think Nicola is sitting there thinking she could have got away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky rapists and murderers?

Or that she would have got away with it, if those pesky women hadn't pointed it out?

What????????

Circumferences · Today 13:59

Yes, it's absolutely barmy, isn't it?

We may get to see this play out yet!

I’ve always considered male murderers to be the most vulnerable in society and therefore too vulnerable for male prisons.

Are these risk assessments like the one they did on Colin Pitchfork where he was released with 30-something conditions (IIRC murderers typically have around 8) and was recalled to prison for breaching them about a week later?

Thanks for posting it

There’s an episode of Antisocial on BBC sounds that looks at the issues of men being put into women’s prisons in Scotland.
The guests on it are Steph Richards, founder of Translucent, a trans advocacy group, and Prof. Jo Phoenix, a criminologist at Uni of Reading.
It is actually quite balanced and JP shares a lot of facts and statistics, and talks about the risk assessments, which seem to be pretty weak.

Antisocial- Trans women and prisons

Ooh, a chance to use this meme!

As an aside, I hope they're not actually blending that trans-age murderer's food? Have they not heard of baby led weaning?

Can anyone find numbers for how many women are currently in prison for murder in Scotland?

I can't, but some vey rough calculations make me believe it's likely that the Scottish women's prison estate holds more men convicted of murder than women convicted of murder.

(roughly 7% of the prison population are convicted murder, but 10 times more men than women are convicted of murder. So would expect 1 or 2 in the prison population of 260. Note - this is a very rough estimate )

People sometimes say that the number of Trans prisoners is so small, we shouldn't worry about it. You need to look at the actual numbers, because that is absolutely not the case.

What crime do you have to commit to fail the risk assessment?