Under new rules
Transgender women convicted of violence will be barred from female prisons under new rules to be introduced on Monday.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is toughening its stance, meaning that not only transgender women convicted of sexual assaults but also those jailed for violence will no longer be able to be held in mainstream women’s prisons.
Violent offences will include murder, attempted murder, harming a child, assault with intent to cause serious harm or with injury, endangering life, and harassment. The new rules will also cover all transgender women with male genitalia and will apply regardless of whether transgender prisoners have a gender recognition certificate.
Because as women have said all along, the male genitalia and all that goes with them are reality while a gender recognition certificate is a certificate of…airy nothing.
The tougher rules south of the border follow a scandal when a transgender inmate sexually assaulted fellow prisoners after transferring to a women’s prison in 2018. Karen White, a transgender woman, was on remand for multiple rapes and other sexual offences against women when transferred to New Hall prison, near Wakefield.
It then emerged that, after transferring to the female prison, she was accused of four sexual assaults against other inmates between September and November last year, before being moved to a men’s prison.
So, concentrating very hard and thinking very deeply, officialdom slowly came to the conclusion that men who fantasize that they’re women and have a history of sexual assault might just possibly not be the best prison cellmates for women.
It’s good to see this, yet it is alarming to think they only arrived at this position after being slapped by the electorate, and hard. They were fully willing to compromise the safety of 50% of humans for the satiation of (according to Willoughby) 0.2%.
I look forward to the reactions from Certain Quarters. Will it be dominated by apoplexy or catastrophism? An equal blend? Fuck ’em either way.
“A step in the right direction,” as it were, but IMO it doesn’t count for much, because the direction things had been going was wrong and disastrous ab initio. The reasons they are giving for keeping some men out of women’s prisons are the same reasons to keep ALL men out of women’s prisons. It is no part of the women’s sentence to be subjected to the risks entailed in having any male prisoners, at all, as fellow inmates. It’s ridiculous. People used to know this stuff.
This is good news as the TWAW mantra has been successfully pushed back against with respect to male prisoners being sent to women’s prisons. (I know, it’s crazy it even came to this.) Sex is a material fact and does matter, and this isn’t the only issue where it does. Sport is one where sex matters, and so are women’s changing rooms, bathrooms, and locker rooms. Let the pushback continue!
Too little, too late, for the women who have already been terrorised, assaulted, and had punishments inflicted on them for daring to point out that these violent sexual offenders are men. I hope they get decent compensation, at the very least. This should never have been allowed to happen in the first place, so I hope they aren’t expecting a pat on the back for walking some of it back. Next step – remove ALL men from women’s prisons, including staff who have direct contact with female prisoners. It’s the least they can do (and, as Animal Crossing NPCs are fond of saying, they love doing the least that they can do).
The façade is crumbling – use the opportunity to ban mixed-sex facilities everywhere, unless single-sex facilities are available in the same places*, too. It is vital to point out that the majority of violent men, especially those guilty of sexual offences, are not in prison.
*I’m not entirely against mixed-sex facilities. One of the reasons I can’t go swimming is that I would need my husband to help me change, and that’s a problem for a lot of disabled people with an opposite-sex spouse or other as their carer.
It seems odd being grateful for some alleviation of a situation that shouldn’t have been permitted to happen in the first place, but there we are. It would be great if they would stop calling these men “women” of any kind. “Women with male genitalia.” FFS. That it has taken so long to start to get some men out of women’s prisons should be as much of a scandal as the Tavistock. Certainly worthy of an enquiry to find out who thought it was a good idea to put them into women’s prisons in the first place. Bring out all the dirty laundry, and all the skeletons in the closet. This should be a warning to all government departments and officials (hello Police Services!) who would dare endanger women and girls at the beest of a bunch of LARPing men.
Trans activists will scream and holler to get these “women” out of men’s prisons. TWAW is all or nothing; they’ll be forced to defend the indefensible, unless they pull a Sturgeon and declare “rapist” a third gender. Even that would be ceding ground to their opponents, which is something they’ll find very hard to do. With more of the public now aware what has happened and what’s ar stake, it will be much harder for TAs to hold this position on TiM prisoners, which was gained by stealth.