New Scottish trans prison rules 'even worse than before'
New Scottish transgender prison rules are “sexist” and will lead to vulnerable women being traumatised, MSPs have been warned.
Campaigners are calling on Holyrood politicians to block new guidelines, introduced in the wake of the Isla Bryson scandal, from coming into force, amid claims they are worse than the policy they replaced.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) plans to allow even trans criminals with a history of violence against women to be housed in female jails if it is deemed there is “compelling” evidence that they do not pose “an unacceptable risk of harm”.
Those seen as too dangerous to be placed in female jails permanently could still be offered chances to mingle with female inmates temporarily in a bid to “support their gender identity”.
The policy, set to come into force in February, is in stark contrast to the approach adopted south of the border, where there is a ban on trans women with male genitalia being held in women’s prisons.
Ahead of a meeting of Holyrood’s justice committee, campaign groups and academics have claimed the rules are rooted in sexism and misogyny because they place the interests of biological men over the safety and rights of women.
Concerns are ‘swiftly dismissed’
Lisa Mackenzie, of policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM), said: “The SPS has succeeded in producing guidelines for managing transgender prisoners which are more opaque than the original.
“The review process has the thinnest veneer of meaningful consultation and yet concerns about the impact on female prisoners and female prison officers are acknowledged, only to be swiftly dismissed as being less important than the demands of trans identified male prisoners.
“The SPS believes there is an acceptable level of harm that should be borne by female prisoners. This is nothing less than institutionalised misogyny.”
Under the previous SPS policy, based on the principle of gender self-identification and backed by the SNP, Isla Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, was sent to Scotland’s only women’s jail in 2023 after being convicted of two counts of rape.
Bryson was moved to a male jail following an outcry, with the scandal plaguing Nicola Sturgeon’s final weeks in office. Ms Sturgeon repeatedly refused to say whether she considered Bryson male or female. A tougher SPS policy came into force following the episode but it was only temporary.
MBM also said it had obtained evidence, in minutes released under Freedom of Information legislation, suggesting SNP ministers and their officials had been closely involved in shaping the rules.
The new SPS policy will see inmates housed in line with their biological sex until enough information has been obtained to come to an “individualised decision” over whether they can be safely placed in a jail that matches their gender identity.
However, even those deemed too dangerous to be housed permanently in a women’s jail should be offered “other ways of supporting their gender identity”.
Documents state this may involve “access to work parties, activities, or even programmes with others of their gender identity”.
Kate Coleman, director of the Keep Prisons Single Sex campaign group, hit out at the prospect of offering “day passes” for women’s jails to dangerous male offenders.
“This blatantly and unashamedly sees female prisoners as providing a service of ‘validation’ or as objects to be studied and emulated in order that these male prisoners might have the chance to ‘practice’ being women prior to release,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jo Phoenix, an academic based at the University of Reading, said the policy failed to take account of evidence that vulnerable women could be traumatised by the mere presence of male inmates.
Prof Phoenix, a criminologist, said: “There is emerging evidence, if anecdotal, that the presence of male bodies within the female prisons can have a retraumatising effect on female prisoners with long histories of violent victimisation at the hands of men.”
It a joint letter to opposition parties’ justice spokesmen at Holyrood, MBM, Keep Prison Single Sex and For Women Scotland said: “The policy is a backward step from the interim policy put in place in response to the public outcry over the Graham/Bryson case in January last year, reverting to a position closer to what went before and in several ways, we think, worse. We believe it is grounded in institutional sexism, treating the rights and needs of vulnerable female prisoners as less important than those of male ones.”
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “Our new policy supports the health, safety, and wellbeing of all people living and working in Scotland’s prisons, by taking an individualised approach to the admission, placement, and management of transgender people.
“We will carefully consider a range of factors, including offending history, with a particular focus on violence against women and girls, when assessing risk. No transgender women, with a history of violence against women and girls, who presents a risk to women, will be placed in the female estate.
“The policy has been developed by SPS following extensive engagement including input from expert in violence against women, various interviews with men and women in custody, those that are transgender and those who are not.”
