The organisations i work for collect prisoner views routinely as well as looking at the research done by others that focus on prisoner experiences and outcomes.
That is what helps them decide the best way staff and volunteers can help the prisoners. Much of said research is available publicly.
Trans women in women's prisons never comes up.
If so, perhaps you could reflect on why women prisoners at Foston Hall have never mentioned any issues about the Early Days Peer Mentor who receives personal information about all new prisoners and has one-to-one meetings with them?
Why they might only feel safe to disclose how this affected them after they were released and only then to women who they knew would be sympathetic?
Rather than to you or others in your organisation.
This is the person I am referring to, the Early Days Peer Mentor appointed by the prison to meet women when they arrive at a women's prison:
Michael Jameson / Lauren Jeska, a violent male who identifies as a trans woman, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for attempted murder in March 2017 after pleading guilty at Birmingham Crown Court in 2016.
Jeska, 42, admitted stabbing Ralph Knibbs in the head and neck at Alexander Stadium in March 2016, and also causing actual bodily harm to two other UK Athletics officials, Kevan Taylor and Tim Begley, who tried to intervene during the attack.
Judge Simon Drew said the attack had been planned and executed with “chilling precision”, meaning Jeska posed a “serious risk in the future”. Mr Knibbs suffered a stroke during the attack and now has limited vision in both eyes, rendering him disabled, and has difficulty eating due to severed nerves.
Competing in the female category, Jeska was England’s champion fell-runner three times between 2010 and 2012. After failing to produce samples to determine testosterone levels, Jeska’s eligibility to compete in female competitions was questioned by UK Athletics and these racing results were subsequently declared null and void.
When initially appearing in court to plead guilty in September 2016, the BBC, The Guardian and Sky News made no mention in their reporting that Jeska was a male who identified as a trans woman, despite the CPS and West Midlands Police both confirming that it was a factor in the motive for attacking Ralph Knibbs.
Detective Sergeant Sally Olsen said of the case: “We understand Jeska had been asked to provide further evidence of hormone levels after historical complaints to UK Athletics that she had an unfair advantage competing in women’s events because she had been born a man. The governing body’s policy required the athlete to take a blood test but she took exception to this and feared being unable to compete.”
While on remand, Jeska told friends of feeling traumatised by the meeting with UK Athletics, and suffering flashbacks. Jeska self-diagnosed these as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (a diagnosis not made by any of the four psychiatrists who examined Jeska, though some did suggest the defendant was on the autistic spectrum).
Jeska, of Machynlleth, Powys, is to serve the 18 year sentence in HMP Foston Hall, a women’s closed category prison. Sentencing details from the Crown Court indicate that this violent crime will be recorded in female crime statistics rather than male, as Jeska is listed as female. In 2016, Ministry of Justice statistics reveal there were only 6 women convicted of attempted murder in England and Wales (presumably including Jeska), meaning that Jeska’s inclusion has effectively distorted and increased the female crime statistics in this category by 20%. Likewise, Claire Darbyshire‘s 2016 conviction for murder will also be counted in female statistics.
Full details:
https://transcrimeuk.com/2017/10/31/lauren-jeska/
Incidentally, are the "women" you speak of all actually female?
I have been a member of an Independent Monitoring Board of a Women's Prison. You have mentioned several issues that, in your experience, women prisoners are concerned about and I would agree with you that most are common concerns. However, "torture" was not one of them and I would be interested to know what evidence you have that women are "tortured" in prison.
You have not, however, mentioned the single issue that deeply traumatised all women in the prison I visited and that affects women in most prisons. Nor another issue that causes all women considerable distress in prison. Funny that, you being the big expert on all things Women in Prison and all.
I'll leave you to thrash about wondering where your pit of ignorance is located.
As for men in women's prisons, there were men in the women's prison that I was involved with. Men who had murdered women. Men who had murdered other men. Also arsonists and child sex offenders. Other men were not dissimilar to men I encountered as patients when I worked in a long-stay psychiatric hospital, men who were delusional, bewildered and who, like the murderers, considered themselves to be lesbians.
Apart from the fact that they scared the shit out the women incarcerated with them, they took up an inordinate amount of staff time and IMB time.
IMB annual reports often record that the majority of incidents of various types are attributable to a small number of prisoners held in women's prisons. One reason is that some prisoners, male and female, have severe mental health problems.
Some women, females, are held there for the sole reason that there are no mental health beds available. That is, they have not committed any crime but a court has ruled that they need to be held in a place of safety - for their own safety. They are a minority of prisoners.
Some people, male and female, in women's prisons take cross-sex hormones, also have severe mental health problems and account for a high proportion of incidents of various types. They too are a minority of prisoners.
Some people, male and female, in women's prisons take cross-sex hormones and account for a high proportion of recorded incidents of a sexual nature. They too are a minority of prisoners.
Women's prisons do not get allocated extra staff to accommodate the extra burden created by a minority of prisoners so the impact is felt by the majority of prisoners, compromising their care and degrading their experience of prison.
I am extremely surprised that the organisation you work for appears to be unaware of the disproportionate impact on the safe functioning of women's prisons attributable to the presence of a small number of men and women who take cross-sex hormones.
How do you account for that?