The transgender unit

evel of risk”.

This difference is noted to include the type of sexual offending and their anatomy/physiology. What they mean here of course but have not dared to say is that the difference between transwomen and women is their sex. Transwomen are not the same as ‘other women’ because they are male and have male bodies – male bodies with superior size and strength and a penis that can be used for rape.

But the ideal of happy mixing still remains, albeit involving considerable staff supervision:

“ACTION – Staffing levels to be sufficient to enable the levels of supervision required for women to access regime”.

Male-born transgender prisoners with a GRC must be considered “female for all purposes” and so the MOJ does not want to treat them any differently to the ‘other’ women. This means allowing them to experience as much of the ‘women’s regime’ as possible. In order to maximise trans prisoners’ access to communal areas such as the chapel, canteen, laundry, showers, telephones, gym and exercise classes they will need to be supervised by the guards. We’ve heard from female prisoners that this takes the form of 1:1 supervision, with guards following them around to make sure other prisoners are ‘safe’. This of course only extends to physical safety; the psychological welfare of women is not being addressed.

“ACTION – In order to ensure that the policy fosters good relationships between the high risk transgender women on the unit and the other women in HMP Downview, staff at HMP Downview will continue to include the women on E wing in the normal regime as much as possible”.

Public Sector Equality Duty requires the prison service to ‘foster good relations’ between groups with different protected characteristics. In this instance it means the prisoners who are trans (the high-risk male-born prisoners) and prisoners who are not trans (the women).

There is no acknowledgement that women might not actually want to mix with high-risk males, and that this enforced mixing may actually foster ‘bad’ relations. A high number of women in prison have suffered male violence and/or have a history of sexual abuse from males and may not wish to be alongside males with a history of violent or sexual offending against women.

Instead the policy promotes the idea that mixing will foster good relations. Is it right to expect women to have ‘good relations’ with violent males, some of whom are sex offenders?

As we've seen, some of these trans women are indeed serious sex offenders. Why would women possibly want to mix with them, considering the very real threat they pose? But the needs of women are simply brushed aside when it comes to the supposed needs of men claiming to be women.

But it's not over yet:

The MOJ’s transgender prison policy, including the housing of high-risk male-born prisoners on the female estate, is now the subject of a Judicial Review. Evidence was heard in the High Court on 2-3rd March 2021. Fair Play For Women submitted witness statements detailing our engagement with with MOJ and HMPPS over the course of the last 2 years. If the court decides that the policy does not adequately consider the needs and rights of women in prison the policy will be quashed. We now await the court ruling.