Rules coming into force tomorrow will stop transgender women offenders who have committed violent or sexual crimes being locked up with female prisoners in England and Wales. The new rules mean any inmate with male genitalia will be barred from living alongside women convicts. The Government says it is “restoring common sense to prison safety”.
These new rules will apply regardless of whether an offender has a gender recognition certificate.
Exemptions will only be made in the “most exceptional cases” and will require ministerial sign-off.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: “Safety has to come first in our prisons and this new policy sets out a clear, common-sense approach to the housing of transgender prisoners.
“With these sensible new measures in place, transgender offenders who have committed sexual or violent crimes or retain male genitalia will not serve their sentence in a women’s prison, unless explicitly approved at the highest level.”
The Government says it has taken these new steps “to protect women”.
Under the new arrangements, transgender women prisoners who cannot be safely housed in a men’s prison can be “imprisoned in a specialist unit” in the women’s estate.
According to the Ministry of Justice, more than nine out of 10 transgender women are held in men’s prisons and “most have never requested a move to the women’s estate”. It says there is “no obligation to place a transgender prisoner according to their preference”, and where individuals are held is “based purely on risk”.
The safety of women prisoners has gone up the political agenda following outrage that a trans woman rapist in Scotland was initially sent to a women’s prison. Isla Bryson, 31, raped two women in 2016 and 2019 and was charged as Adam Graham but self-identified as a woman ahead of the trial.
The controversy rocked the SNP Government in Edinburgh, with Nicola Sturgeon announcing her intention to step down as First Minister shortly afterwards.
The Scottish Prison Service now has a policy that newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoners will at first be placed in jails according to their sex at birth.
Stonewall, which campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, said a “robust” framework was already in place so decisions about where prisoners are held are made on a case-by-case risk assessment basis.
A spokesperson said: “It is appropriate that the prison service individually assess all prisoners and carry out detailed risk assessments that are about the safety of both the prisoner and those that they will be in contact with. Indeed, this is already the policy across the HM Prison and Probation Service in England and Wales, and the Scottish Prison Service.
“From a prison population of 80,660 in England and Wales, the Ministry of Justice reported in its 2022 annual equalities report that there were just six prisoners who are trans women being held in women’s prisons. Of the 11 trans women held in Scottish prisons in 2022, six were held in men’s prisons and five were held in women’s prisons.”
Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, Steve Reed, said: “A Labour government will ensure that violent or sexual offenders who were born male and pose a danger to women are banned from women’s prisons. Our overriding priority is the protection of women.”
