Come on Ireland! Leo Varadkar says violent males should NOT be in prison with women

[ArabellaScott]

https://twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1638242240609804288

'"Is Barbie Kardashian a woman?": Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says that biological males should not be put in women's prisons.'

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2022/03/24/sonia-osullivan-transgender-athletes-cannot-be-allowed-to-compete-in-womens-sport-1.4834586/

Excellent article from Sonia O Sullivan

@Mommymoments Thanks for posting that excellent article - Sonia was really on the ball in her arguments. Somehow I managed to miss the article when it was published last year so I’m glad to have got reading it now.

She should have been allowed talk on Morning Ireland this morning along with the Transgender Scientist & male doctor... Disgusting there was no woman's perspective

Sonia is one of the best Irish female athletes of all time when she speaks her voice carries a lot of weight.

That article was great for me last year. The day after I read it, I worked up the courage to ask a friend what she thought about it and we had a great discussion and have been able to talk more about this issue since. I suspect we weren't the only people who were inspired by that article and ones like it to start talking to each other in real life.

Hasn't "Barbie" already ripped some woman's eyelids off? A social worker?

How they can think for a moment that this person should be in a woman's jail - and even less that they should ever be considered for released when they are obviously so disturbed, is beyond me.

Particularly when many programmes refuse to discuss the matter "because there is no TW to put their point of view".

Says it all.

Excellent article except even she conflates "sex" and "gender"

It all comes back to the reasons why we have a women’s sporting category in the first place. It’s so that women can compete against the same gender, at the same level

(My italics)

Using "sex" and "gender" as synonyms when they are two different things has been deliberately (IMO) engineered to mask what has been happening and contributes to the problem. It think it started as a euphemism for "sex" (though God knows why - "sex" is not a dirty word) and has become almost universal.

SEX = physical, observable, definable, binary, immutable

GENDER = societal expectations of a particular sex, varies from culture to culture and over time, cannot be observed or defined

The fact that Sonia made this error shows just how all-pervasive this is - and how important words, and the clarity of definitions, are.

@Emotionalsupportviper I had meant that it probably won't get anywhere until Barbie actually harms either a prison officer or a fellow prisoner in the women's prison.
He is serving time for brutally assaulting the social worker, but he should be serving this in a male prison.

Mick Clifford, who writes a lot about problems in the Irish prison system, has this in the Examiner today:

Mick Clifford: The needs of female prisoners are as worthy as other vulnerable groups

How have we reached a point where an article about female equality should matter

a) needs to be written at all

and

b) is seen as contentious and edgy?

Rather like the one in the Scots prison system, also in the women's provision, you're left thinking 'if that one is considered ok to be in the general prison system wtaf are the ones like who are in Broadmoor and the Scots/Irish equivalent?"

And considering that this will be a category A type male prisoner and no category A women's prisons exist because there are never enough category A women in the country to need one, the male prisoner is automatically down graded to an easier regime just by identifying.

Although if this batshit is not stopped, it will not be long before a category A women's prison will have to be built, except there will then be the problem that it will in actual fact be a male prison.

The Journal's "FactCheck" disgraces itself again:

Debunked: Leo Varadkar did not say that 'biological males' shouldn't be put in female prisons

Sorry - I semi-misunderstood your post. I had thought that the social worker was a prison social worker and BK had attacked her in prison.

Yes - you are right. Unless he attacks and injures someone inside the terrifying prospect is that he will get out onto the streets and God alone knows who he will harm or perhaps even kill.

You're absolutely correct @UtopiaPlanitia .
If you're familiar with the process of discourse analysis, it is very interesting to listen to him and realise that he completely and utterly avoided giving a straight answer.
And , he hung the Prison Service out to dry.

Claire Byrne (CB) Simon Harris (SH)

CB: I want to ask you as well about ..ehm..questions that the Taoiseach was asked about whether a biological male should be imprisoned in a female prison and Leo Varadker replied “No I don’t, quite frankly”. Do you agree with him?

SH: I think he was asked specifically in relation to ..ah, the word violent as well..and I want to really reassure people in relation to this and I met the Director General of the Irish Prison Service yesterday.

There is no scenario ..in an Irish prison ..where a violent sex offender is mixing with.. ah..other prisoners.
If there’s somebody at risk of [slows] being violent or harming other prison.. other prisoners [emphasis] or other prison officers or prison staff, there are regimes and structures that are followed to keep people safe.
So, I..I think it’s right and proper that the Irish Prison Service is now putting in place a policy in relation to this, is looking at best international practice.

But I don’t want anybody listening to this programme to think that there is a scenario today where a violent sex offender who is at risk of harming other prisoners ..eh…is mixing with that general prison population .

CB: mmhhmm..and in general terms, lets take out the word violent from that... do you believe that a biological male should be imprisoned in a female prison?

SH: So, I believe firstly that the Irish Prison Service should carry out it’s policy.
I believe that the overriding objective here has to be the risk assessment of every prisoner. This is about human rights but it’s also about..crucially.. ah.. about the safety of the prison population, the prison estate and prison staff.

And I don’t think there is a ..I don’t think there is one universal answer.
I think it’s about risk assessing.
But, it is right and proper, outside of kind of politics here that the Irish Prison Service gets to examine the ah.. the evidence, look at what other jurisdictions do and finalise it’s policy. And I expect them to be in a position to do that in the next few weeks.

CB: (ironically) moves on to ask about familicide.

I m pissed off that violent male crimes are recategorised as female crimes, if the male perpetrator decides in his fantasy world that he is a woman. His fantasy overrides important classifications and statistics that will guide policy.

Various reports and posts on social media have suggested that Varadkar, after being asked about the case, said that “biological males” should not be in women’s prisons in Ireland.

However, the Taoiseach did not say these words or utter quotes ascribed to him on the subject.

His negative answer was to the question about whether he believed “violent biological males should be put into female prisons”, not trans women who had been identified as male at birth in general.

FFS, talk about trying to split hairs! What do they think transwomen actually are? What do they think BK is? Because I see a violent biological make with awful make skills. And a piece of paper saying he is now a woman is just that a piece of paper. Although the piece of paper did once identify as a tree.🌳

🙄
"It should also be noted that Ireland has no specific ‘male’ or ‘female’ prisons, so prisoners here are not currently sent to specific jails based on their gender."

Yeah they're sex segregated. Literally from the prisons website "Mountjoy Female Prison" "A closed, medium security prison for females aged 18 years and over. It is the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the Munster area." https://www.irishprisons.ie/prison/dochas-centre/

Why do prisons like the one BK is in have a list of male beds and female beds? https://www.irishprisons.ie/prison/limerick-prison/

Should I write to the prison service and tell them the information on their website is wrong?

Also if prisons aren't gender segregated why not send BK somewhere else

He needs to be in Portlaoise prison.

A powerful piece by Eilis O'Hanlon in the Sunday Independent today:

If Leo Varadkar is serious about tackling the issue of biological males in women’s prisons, let’s see him prove it

Mark Tighe reports the views of the DRCC and others:

Decisions over transgender prisoners ‘have to prioritise safety of all’

Am I wrong or is that the first time one of the broadsheets has published a picture of BK?

'So, I..I think it’s right and proper that the Irish Prison Service is now putting in place a policy in relation to this, is looking at best international practice.'

I love this international best practice line.

Scotland held up Ireland as 'international best practice' on self ID! None of the fuckers have a clue what they're doing, they're just desperately trying to evade responsibility for putting violent men in women's prisons.

He touts the same lines about individual risk assessments, best international practice and prison service policy the Scottish government tried over the "Isla Bryson" case too. And the credulous Irish media let him away with it.

It is infuriating that ministers can pretend to be bystanders on their own brief and not get called on it. Prison service policy is his department's responsibility. Women are imprisoned with violent men because of policy, and Simon Harris sits on his hands.

Am I wrong or is that the first time one of the broadsheets has published a picture of BK?

It is the first time, I think. Hope it brings this to greater attention with the public.

Tremendous "yeah, I don't know, it's my first day" energy. How do they get away with it?