Prison

In all of the UK’s constituent countries, rape is defined as penetration with a penis, ergo it can only be carried out by male persons. In spite of a wealth of evidence, the existence of trans identifying males who have used their penises to rape women and/or children is a fact that trans activists and allies appear to be in complete denial about.

Concerns about such people being in women’s prisons are, in my experience, angrily dismissed by trans activists who display a callous disregard for the feelings not only of their victims but also of the unfortunate women who are forced to share their living spaces with them.

An inevitable consequence of making it easier to change one’s gender is that more convicted rapists will end up in women’s prisons. This is not “equating transgender people to rapists”; it is certainly not saying all or most or a large number or even a significant minority of male-born trans are criminals of any sort. It is, however, saying that some are. It may only be a tiny percentage but it is surely reason enough to take women’s fears about having to share segregated spaces seriously.

News stories about crimes that don’t focus on imprisonment are on a separate page here.

 

Keep Prisons Single Sex

Official guidelines on the care of transgender prisoners state that a male who has a Gender Recognition Certificate meaning that he is legally a woman must be housed in the female estate, regardless of whether or not he has had any ‘reassignment’ surgery.  A male who identifies as a woman, but who does not have a GRC, can still apply to be housed in a women’s prison.

Visit the website here. Follow on Twitter here.

Prison allocation – how it is done

Update on changes to transgender prisoner policy framework Gov UK 25.01.23

Article by Legal Feminist 10.09.22

 

 

News stories, articles and blogs

Transgender prisoner Tiffany Scott’s death in custody ‘unexplained’ The Times 02.03.24

More than 70 per cent of transgender prisoners are in for sex offences or violent crimes The Telegraph 24.02.24

Women treated as tools to satisfy wishes of trans prisoners The Times 18.02.24

Female inmates’ views on sharing prison with trans convicts ‘kept secret’ by Scottish Prison Service The Telegraph 11.02.24

Scottish prison chiefs must scrap ‘indefensible’ plans to suppress data on trans inmates Scottish Daily Express 17.01.24

Scotland: Mother-of-four claims she pleaded guilty to crime she ‘didn’t commit’ because she was terrified of returning to prison after being made to shower next to trans inmates convicted of murder and sex attacks | Daily Mail Online Mail 07.01.24

Prison officers are being asked to use ‘gender neutral language’ and consider the needs of ‘breast feeding people’ under new Ministry of Justice framework Mail 17.12.23

Scotland: Trans inmates can visit women’s prisons to prepare them for outside The Times 11.12.23

Scotland: New prison rules on housing trans inmates The Times 05.12.23

Daughter’s fury as transgender paedophile father is quietly released from prison Mail 16.07.23

Trans prisoners moved out of women’s jails in wake of Isla Bryson scandal, MoJ reveals The Times 16.07.23

The lie that men can be women leads to rapists being put in women’s prisons Helen Joyce in the Mail 15.07.23

Trans prisoners moved out of women’s jails in wake of Isla Bryson scandal, MoJ reveals The Times 16.07.23

Jailed male sex offenders ‘faking trans identities’ to move to women’s prisons The Telegraph 10.07.23

Six in ten trans prisoners in Scotland switched gender in jail The Times 28.03.23

Female prison ban for transgender violent inmates comes into force The Times 26.02.23

Transgender prisoners convicted of violence to be banned from women’s jails The Telegraph 26.02.23

Four of five trans inmates in women’s prisons are murderers The Times 15.02.23

Prioritizing gender identity over sex in prisons endangers female prisoners Jo Phoenix 06.02.23

Transgender support group has influence at HM Prison and Probation Services The Sunday Times 05.02.23

SNP, Sturgeon and independence fall in poll after Isla Bryson trans prisoner row The Times 04.02.23

Trans prisoners will be treated differently, Sturgeon admits The Times 31.01.23

Violent trans prisoners blocked from women’s jails in Scotland pending ‘urgent review’ The Times 30.01.23

A Message to Those Recently Opining on a Risk to Women Prisoners Vanessa McCulloch 28.01.23

Nicola Sturgeon approves another trans prisoner’s move to women’s prison The Telegraph 28.01.23

Isla Bryson case: Trans rapist prison ban leaves governors open to legal action The Times 27.01.23

There’s a better way to treat trans prisoners Janice Turner in The Times 27.01.23

Revealed: Scotland has more transgender prisoners in women’s prisons than England and Wales combined as it emerges half of the inmates only began transitioning after they were convicted The Mail 25.01.23

The smirking rapist now sitting in a female prison proves our legal system has sacrificed vulnerable women at the shrine of trans rights Julie Bindel in The Mail 25.01.23

The Rorsach Test (about prison populations) Wings Over Scotland 10.01.23

The living nightmare faced by women in prison The Glinner Update 01.01.23

Four out of 10 transgender criminals in prison are guilty of sex crimes, new data shows Mail  01.12.22

Male criminals belong in men’s prisons Jo Bartosch in Spiked 01.12.22

Trans child rapist – who identifies as a woman – is being segregated in a male jail due to risk posed to female inmates were they housed in women’s prison Mail 30.10.22

Trans women prisoners with male genitalia should NOT be sent to female jails after high-profile sex scandals involving inmates, Justice Secretary says Mail 11.10.22

Half of Scottish trans prisoners changed gender after convictions The Times 05.10.22

Ministers to have veto on where trans prisoners serve sentences The Times 01.10.22

Judge sends serial sex abuser born a man to a women’s prison despite him not being legally recognised as a female Mail 08.09.22

Trans prisoners ‘will not be housed with other women’ The Telegraph 06.08.22

Custody unit could house trans women The Times 01.08.22

Trans plan for young offenders raises concerns for girls’ safety The Times 01.08.22

Transgender inmate convicted for murder caught having drunken sex in cell booze-up Mirror 28.05.22

Prison bosses to give quarterly updates on transgender populations The Times 26.04.22

Female prisoners are being endangered by trans rights Raquel Rosario Sanchez The Spectator 16.04.22

Trans killer now identifying as infant demands nappies and baby food in jail Daily Record 09.04.22

No Men in Women’s Prisons – protests in England 2022 Lily Maynard 17.03.22

Asking about male inmates in women’s jails isn’t transphobic 27.01.22

Are sex offenders exploiting trans-rights policies behind bars? James Kirkup in The Spectator 19.01.22

‘I was sexually assaulted by a transgender rapist in a women’s jail’: Female prisoner, 45, describes ordeal at the hands of sex predator, 56, who molested four inmates during three-month reign of terror  Mail 15.01.22

Criminology lecturer is probed over ‘transphobic’ Twitter posts following complaints about his comments that prisons should be single sex: Professor is THIRD university academic targeted by cancel culture mob in three months Mail 13.01.22

Prisons must be single-sex spaces by Joan Smith in The Critic 11.01.22

Female prisoners shouldn’t be used as a shield for trans women from male violence Jean Hatchett in the New Statesman 10.01.22

Scotland: Female prison staff ‘uneasy’ about intimate searches of trans inmates The Sunday Times 09.01.22

Scotland: Trans prisoners ‘switch gender again’ once freed from women’s units The Times 01.01.22

What Do We Stand For? Criminology, Politically Induced Ignorance and Gender Identity Politics Jo Phoenix 01.01.22

Transgender prison population rises by a fifth The Times 25.11.21

Lord Blencathra seeks to keep violent trans women out of female prisons The Times 17.11.21

Criminology professor is ‘hounded out’ of Open University job and likened to ‘racist uncle at Christmas dinner table’ for saying ‘male-bodied’ trans women should NOT be in female prisons Mail 04.11.21

Trans sex offenders are moved into women’s jails The Times 03.11.21

Women prisoners who call transgender inmates ‘he’ or ‘him’ face extra jail time The Telegraph 08.10.21

Prison for serious sex offenders to distribute pronoun badges during National Inclusion Week The Telegraph 26.09.21

‘I was sexually assaulted in a women’s prison… by a fellow inmate with male genitalia’: Read Amy’s story and decide – can it be right to put trans sex offenders in female jails? Julie Bindel in The Mail 23.07.21

Women come second, once again The Critic 23.07.21

The Problem with Prisons WEP 04.07.21

The court judgement that confirms women pay for trans rights James Kirkup in The Spectator 03.07.21

High Court rules transgender women CAN go into female prisons: Judges rule government’s policy is lawful despite claims from inmate it raised risk of sex attacks Mail 02.07.21

Prison bosses put transgender sex offenders into female prisons because they need “association with other women” FPFW 16.05.21

Trans prisoners’ needs ‘cannot come at a cost to the safety’ of female inmates, former prison governors warn The Telegraph 03.03.21

Keep men out of women’s prisons Jo Bartosch 30.10.20

Seven sex attacks in women’s jails by transgender convicts The Times 11.05.20

Transgender inmates have carried out seven sex attacks on women in jail: Despite the risks, male-born trans convicts are still allowed to move into women’s prisons Mail 09.05.20

Female prison officers have been raped by inmates who self-identify as trans women, ex-Tory minister Rory Stewart claims Mail 12.04.20

HMP Eastwood Park: Concern over segregated transgender women prisoners BBC 18.03.20

Sorry, prisoners: calling yourself a woman doesn’t make it so India Willoughby Sunday Times 15.03.20

Scots trans law is threat to women, says ex-head of prison The Times 19.01.20

Transgender woman to be sent to men’s prison after ‘campaign of burglaries’ Liverpool Echo 14.01.20

Transgender prison wing ‘failed its inmates’ The Times 04.01.20

Paedophile prisoner loses gender surgery bid The Times 21.12.19

Half of jails have at least one transgender prisoner, Government figures show Telegraph 28.11.19

Transgender paedophile sues NHS for refusing reassignment surgery while he serves prison sentence Telegraph 28.11.19

Spotted on Twitter 04.11.19  Should these transgender rapists, paedophiles, sexual offenders and violent criminals be allowed to self-ID their way into women’s prisons? A thread.

Female prisoner takes government to court after alleged assault by transgender inmate The Sunday Times 03.11.19

Concerns over housing trans inmates in women’s prisons STV 02.08.19

Specialist officers for transgender inmates The Times 29.07.19

One in 50 prisoners identifies as transgender amid concerns inmates are attempting to secure prison perks Telegraph 09.07.19

Transgender murderer, 23, is moved back to all-male jail after ‘romping with a naked female inmate weeks after being moved to women’s prison’ Mail 03.06.19

Trans women ‘put female inmates at risk’ The Times 14.05.19

Are they stupid? InsideTime 02.05.19

Isolating trans prisoners ‘is not an easy answer’ The Times 21.03.19

Letting criminals self-identify gender ‘putting women at risk’ The Times 14.03.19

Statement on transgender prisoners  Centre for Crime and Justice Studies 25.02.19

Prisons to get ‘transgender wings’ after complaints from female inmates Metro 10.02.19

Transgender murderer Paris Green to have reassignment surgery on NHS The Times 19.11.18

Outrage as transgender child groomer, Michelle Lewin, who is ‘legally female’ is put in women’s jail leaving inmates terrified Mail 18.09.18

Transgender prisoners Centre for Crime and Justice Studies 11.09.18

Is the BBC scared of the transgender debate? James Kirkup 20.7.18

How many transgender inmates are there? BBC News online 13.8.18 See directly above for James Kirkup’s criticisms of this article and below for more accurate figures. 

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Offender Equalities Annual Report 2017/18

Transgender killers split up by prison chiefs after groping antics at high security jail Daily Record 07.05.18

Governors fight putting trans inmates in women’s jails The Times 04.06.18

Governors of UK women’s prisons fear vulnerable inmates could be attacked by transgender prisoners who were convicted as men  Mail 02.06.18

Row as transgender prisoner living as woman wins jail’s Miss Fitness competition by ‘country mile’  Mirror 14.02.18

The Marie Dean story shows there’s no simple answer to how we treat transgender prisoners Sarah Ditum 29.01.18

‘Trans-imposters’ InsideTime 30.09.16

Female prison officers refuse to strip search transgender offender they insist is clearly a man Mirror 01.04.16

 

Prison news stories from other countries

Ireland: Barbie Kardashian’s behaviour ‘improved dramatically’ since move to men’s prison wing Irish Mirror 31.10.23

USA: Fury as trans woman who murdered three is sent to female prison after ‘hate crime’ New York Post 26.06.23

Canada: Female Prison Guard Diagnosed With PTSD After Being Forced To Monitor A Trans-Identified Male In A Women’s Prison Reduxx 27.12.22

USA: The transgender prison experiment UNCOVERED: Male-to-female inmates in women’s cellblocks drive rising numbers of rapes and abuse on the new frontline in America’s culture wars Mail 09.12.22

Portugal: Female prison guards balk at processing transgender inmate Portugal Resident 16.07.22

USA: Trans inmate who got two women pregnant is moved to men’s prison Metro 18.07.22

Toddler-Killer Quietly Moved to New York Women’s Prison Redux 07.05.22

USA: Transgender Inmate Convicted Of Raping Female Prisoner at Women’s Facility ReDuxx 26.04.22

Serial Baby Killer Released Into California Women’s Prison General Population Redux 28.02.22

New York Gov. Proposes Gender “Inclusive” Prison Policies Redux 22.01.22

USA: Trans-Identified Male Inmates Committing Sexual Assault in Women’s Jails, Female Ex-Inmate Claims 4w.pub 02.01.22

Male Serial Killer Housed At Washington Women’s Prison 4w.pub 02.01.22

WoLF sues California Department of Corrections to restore single-sex prisons WoLF 17.11.21

A ‘nightmare’ Toronto murder trial is over. What comes next highlights one of the most difficult questions facing Canada’s prisons Toronto Star 16.09.21

USA: Trans-Identified Sex Offender Becomes Prison Abolitionist Genevieve Gluck 13.09.21

USA: Video: Protest of Violent Male Rapists Housed in Female Prisons Sovereign Women Speak 09.09.21

Convicted Murderer of Two Babies Gets the Full California Treatment: A Taxpayer-Funded Sex Change Followed by Transfer to Women’s Prison Western Journal 10.04.21

Statement on California Women’s Prisons WoLF 08.04.21

California prisons grapple with hundreds of transgender inmates requesting new housing Los Angeles Times 05.04.21

Canadian women’s groups demanding removal of male inmates from women’s prisons 20.03.21

Canada: Trans jailbird accused of sexually assaulting female con Toronto Sun 19.11.20

Ireland: Prison officers couldn’t search trans inmate for concealed weapon gript.ie 20.10.20

Ireland: Prison officers demand guidelines on transgender inmates 18.10.20

Barbie Kardashian: The Full Story – Barbie Kardashian, a biological male who’s had no hormone treatment or surgery, and has sworn to kill and rape women, has been placed in a women’s prison by the Irish authoritiesGRIPT 29.09.20

Canada: As transgender rights improve, prisons struggle with tough decisions The Star 22.02.20

USA: Transgender inmate accused of rape Illinois Times 20.02.20

Canada: Convicted murderer arguing to be moved to women’s prison The Post Millennial 19.01.20

Canada: The alarm has been sounded, who’s going to respond? Heather Mason 05.12.19

Canada: Trans killers, baby rapists terrifying female inmates Toronto Sun 29.11.19

Sweden: Transgender-Identified Man Who Killed & Dismembered His Ex-Girlfriend Wins Transfer to Women’s Prison 14.11.19

Canada: Male-Bodied Rapists Are Being Imprisoned With Women. Why Do so Few People Care? April Halley 12.10.19

Ireland: Male-bodied transgender inmate housed with women Law Society Gazette 18.09.19

Video: The Truth About Women’s Prisons  Pulling The Trigger Podcast (Canada) 08.08.19

Transgender woman who hacked 7-Eleven customers with an axe is attacked in prison because inmates want her moved to a male-only jail Daily Mail Australia 30.07.19

Sex offender undergoing male to female transition being held in Dublin women’s jail Dublin Live 21.07.19

Transgender prisoner investigated for sexual assault behind bars Stuff NZ 10.05.19

Trans woman objects to contract requiring her to act female to stay in B.C. women’s prison The Star 26.04.19

Canada’s prison system overhauls transgender inmate policy CBC News 31.01.18

Transgender bathroom battle smolders in Fort Worth federal prison Star-Telegram 22.02.17

​South Carolina inmate convicted in killing seeks sex change CBS News 18.04.16

 

A majority prisoners who apply to transition are sex offenders

In his written submission to the 2015 Parliamentary Transgender Enquiry, Dr James Barrett, Chair of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists refers to:

the ever-increasing tide of referrals of patients in prison serving long or indeterminate sentences for serious sexual offences. These vastly outnumber the number of prisoners incarcerated for more ordinary, non-sexual, offences. It has been rather naïvely suggested that nobody would seek to pretend transsexual status in prison if this were not actually the case. There are, to those of us who actually interview the prisoners, in fact very many reasons why people might pretend this. These vary from the opportunity to have trips out of prison through to a desire for a transfer to the female estate (to the same prison as a co-defendant) through to the idea that a parole board will perceive somebody who is female as being less dangerous through to a [false] belief that hormone treatment will actually render one less dangerous through to wanting a special or protected status within the prison system and even (in one very well evidenced case that a highly concerned Prison Governor brought particularly to my attention) a plethora of prison intelligence information suggesting that the driving force was a desire to make subsequent sexual offending very much easier, females being generally perceived as low risk in this regard.

 

Gender Identity Specialists warn of “ever increasing tide” of Transwoman Sex Offenders GenderTrender

Up to half of trans inmates may be sex offenders The Times 19.11.17

 

Video: David Davies, MP, questions the President of the Prison Governors Association on impact of males in women prisons

Stephen Wood aka Karen White

This transgender madness is now a danger to women Express 14.10.18

TRANSGENDER prisoner Stephen Wood – jailed for life this week for rape and sexual assault on two women at a female prison – highlights the danger of allowing men to use gender self-identification as a means to pursue their perverted acts. Calling himself Karen White, the brutal sexual predator had not even begun the process of gender reassignment and was still legally a man.

 

The cautionary tale of Karen White James Kirkup 11.10.18

“Karen White is a rapist and child abuser who has committed several acts of sexual violence against vulnerable people. One of the women Karen White raped was pregnant. Karen White is now going to spend a long time in jail.”

 

Karen White: how ‘manipulative’ transgender inmate attacked again Guardian 11.10.18

“Transgender politics – like any politics – can be divisive. Yet in the case of Karen White, who is legally still a man but was put in a female-only prison, both sides of the transgender rights debate are united in the belief mistakes were made.”

 

Ex-girlfriend of rapist who was sent to a female jail for GBH after claiming to be a woman – then sexually assaulted the inmates – says his gender change is a sham Daily Mail 15.09.18

“Having entered the UK prison system as a transgender woman, the odds were stacked in Karen White’s favour from the start.

No matter that aside from donning a padded bra, wig, dress and heels, the 52-year-old was still, anatomically and legally, a male — not to mention a convicted paedophile on remand for GBH and burglary.”

 

Scottish prison service rejects call for ‘transgender wings’ in jails The Herald 15.09.18

“Scottish prison chiefs have rejected the idea of holding transgender inmates on separate wings, after concerns were raised that their policy was putting other prisoners at risk. Campaigners have claimed that the current policy, under which Scottish prisons are advised to house male-bodied transgender inmates in women’s prisons, is “open to abuse”.”

 

If MPs can’t debate a rapist in a woman’s jail, politics has failed James Kirkup 14.09.18

“The story of transgender policy in Britain today is a story of political failure, where many people fail to do their job and speak openly about matters of clear public interest. Writing about it this year, I’ve grown accustomed to that failure, though no less angry about it.”

 

Sexual assaults in women’s prison reignite debate over transgender inmates Guardian 09.09.09

“A leading prison reformer has said prisoners who have committed violent offences against women should not be able to transfer to women’s prisons if they have not legally changed their gender, after it emerged that a transgender inmate had sexually assaulted fellow prisoners after transferring to a women’s prison.”

 

Transgender person accused of rape is remanded into female prison and sexually assaults inmates within days  Telegraph 06.07.18

“The prison service has apologised after a transgender inmate, charged with raping a woman, sexually assaulted four fellow inmates just days after being remanded into an all female jail.

Convicted paedophile Karen White, who was born Stephen Wood, was undergoing gender reassignment, but had not undergone full surgery, when she was accused of repeatedly raping a woman in 2016.”

 

Trans rapists are a danger in women’s jails Janice Turner 08.09.18

“I’d love to meet those who signed off this decision. What would they say to the four women who, within days of her transfer to New Hall prison in West Yorkshire, White had sexually assaulted? Confining a rapist in a women’s prison, among vulnerable inmates including rape victims, is like locking a fox in a henhouse. Yet they merely followed government guidelines “that prisoners should generally be housed in the estate that matches their expressed gender”.”

 

Why was a transgender rapist put in a women’s prison? James Kirkup 07.09.18

“If you were deciding where to house a convicted sex offender accused of repeatedly raping a woman, where’s the last place on earth you would put that person? How about a building full of vulnerable women, many of whom had previously suffered sexual assault and abuse? A building locked and secured so that those women could not get out and could not get away from that convicted sex offender?”

 

Are female prisoners at risk from transgender inmates? James Kirkup 20.7.18

“We have women’s prisons for the same reason we have women’s toilets, women’s refuges, women’s changing rooms, women’s hostels – to keep women safe from those male-bodied people who might do them harm. To keep women safe from people with penises who might use those penises to do things to women that women do not want to happen.”

 

Martin Ponting

Josh Jackman of Pink News wrote a typically silly piece and managed to surpass even himself with the sheer insanity of his tweet about the rapist of two underage girls, Martin Ponting. Ponting received a life sentence for the rapes back in 1995. Some ten years or so into his sentence he wrote, “I have changed my name to that of a female to prove to the authorities and everyone concerned that I am very serious about my gender and that I do not feel right being a man.” He reportedly had £10,000 worth of surgery on the NHS and, under his new name of Jessica Winfield, he was transferred to a women’s prison early in 2017, to the horror of his victims, one of whom commented,

There are not enough words to describe him and the evil he has done. It is diabolical they have allowed him to have a sex change and diabolical that he could be freed this year. He may have changed physically but his brain is still the same.

A rapist in a women’s prison? Society has lost the plot Brendan O’Neill 11.09.18

“Let’s be clear: it is wrong and cruel to make female prisoners live with a rapist. Whatever their crimes, women prisoners have a right to expect the utmost safety. These women should not be made to share their living quarters with someone serving a life sentence for committing serious crimes against young women.”

 

No Males in Women’s Jails!

Women protest opposite HMP Downview on Saturday 30 March 2019 in response to news that ‘High-risk’ transgender inmates at Downview mix with women. For more about the situation in women’s prisons, see stories linked to below.

 

 

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