The SNP have been accused of a “shocking dereliction of duty” over a new policy relating to trans prisoners.
The policy could allow a trans woman, with male genitalia, into a female prison if they are assessed as low risk – even if they have committed sexual offences such as raping a male in the past.
Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the policy on the Management of Transgender People in Custody would support the rights of transgender people, as well as the welfare of other prisoners and staff.
But the Executive Director of feminist campaign group Sex Matters, dubbed the policy a “pathetic and dangerous attempt at damage control” from the SNP.
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She said: “The policy allows for violent males to continue to be placed in women’s prisons as long as their only conviction has been against men.
“This is a shocking dereliction of their duty of care and it is a statistical certainty that female prisoners are at risk from these men. The policy puts great weight on the mental distress of violent male prisoners who don’t want to be housed with men or referred to as men, with no consideration at all for the distress to female prisoners.
“There are 22 transgender individuals in Scottish prisons and the prison service says that number will rise over the next few years. While the Scottish Government says it will remain small compared to the total prison population it is large compared to the female prison population of less than 300 women.
“It’s nothing short of sociopathic for the state to knowingly put vulnerable women in danger. Another case like Isla Bryson is sure to happen under this policy. The only question is when.”
But campaigners have hit back at the uproar over trans women being placed in female prisons.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said cis women in prisons don’t have an issue with sharing the space.
She told Pink News: “I have yet to go to a prison where anybody has raised the treatment of trans women, or the experience of cis women in the estate dealing with trans women, as an issue.
“I don’t think the public understand just how few trans women are actually kept in the women’s estate – I mean, it is a handful of women.”
The prisons expert said the current conversation around prisons is “distorting what’s really taking place in prisons.”
She explained: “Most women in prison have been subjected to male abuse and have high levels of drug and alcohol dependency.
“Most women in prison have been subjected to male abuse and have high levels of drug and alcohol dependency.
“To then say the issue is putting trans women in prison with them – I think we need to be asking a more fundamental question which is, why the hell are we locking up all of these women who are so vulnerable and have been subjected to such abuse?”
But campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex also attacked the new policy, saying there is “no degree of risk a convicted rapist presents to women that is ever ‘acceptable’.”
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The group added: “The SPS seemingly trusts men to behave themselves provided the haven’t assaulted a woman. Whilst the MoJ policy represented a marked shift and a positive step that we can look to build on, the SPS policy is shameful.”
Teresa Medhurst, the boss of the Scottish Prison Service, said that violent offenders with male genitalia, who identify as female, could be sent to female prisons if they are risk assessed to have low or no risk to female prisoners.
Sources told the Scottish Daily Express that all of their offences will be looked at, including crimes against men.
The new policy is due to come into force in February 2024.
