The safety of female prisoners is not at the heart of the Scottish Prison Service’s new policy
On February 24, the revised Scottish Prison Service (SPS) policy for the management of transgender people in custody comes into full effect. In my view, it shows callous disregard for women in prison, treating them as tools to facilitate the wishes of male prisoners who identify as transgender. I won’t list the statistics on female offenders which show their vulnerability, providing clear evidence that they should never be held alongside male offenders. Nor will I examine the Angiolini Report which makes the case for dedicated services to meet the distinct needs of female offenders. All of this is online.
The policy is shocking. At its heart is not the safety of women, rather it is the principle of maximising the opportunities for transgender prisoners to be allocated to the estate corresponding to their expressed gender. Put more straightforwardly, the aim is to increase the possibility for male prisoners who identify as transgender to have access to women in prison. This commitment runs deep: even those who are ineligible to be housed in a women’s prison may still receive a “day pass” to access activities and to mix with women. This blatantly sees women as providing a service of “validation” and as objects for these male prisoners to emulate so they can practise being women before release.
The policy is committed to secrecy. February 24 sees the implementation of guidance on “gender diverse” prisoners, which no one has seen, much less been able to challenge. Crucially, the SPS will no longer publish data showing in which estate transgender prisoners are held: thus the effects of this policy will be impossible to track. Bryson and Miller are in the male estate. For now. Those male prisoners currently held alongside women include those convicted of murder and torture, and those with intact male genitalia.
The Prison Officers’ Association (Scotland) wouldn’t sign off on this policy: that the union representing those to whom the task of implementing this policy will fall made this decision is telling. I urge the SPS and the Scottish government to pay heed and pause the implementation of this policy.”
Full article at https://kpss.substack.com/p/women-treated-as-tools-to-satisfy
KPSS are urging anyone concerned to write to their MSP