"Opaque and overdue: the Scottish Prison Service trans prisoner policy review" @mbmpolicy /1
A niche headline, of little interest? No! This is a big deal for female Scottish prisoners *and* prison staff. Yet again #SexNotGender
https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/opaque-and-overdue-scottish-prison-service-trans-prisoner-policy-review

"In April 2012 the Scottish Government published Commission on Women Offenders, by Dame Elish Angiolini, setting out a series of practical recommendations to help improve the outcomes for women in the criminal justice system." 2/ #SexNotGender

"report observed much higher rates of serious mental health problems, compared to the general population, and that women offenders were, ‘often victims of severe and repeated physical and sexual abuse’." 3/ #SexNotGender

"In 2014 the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) introduced its Gender Identity & Gender Reassignment Policy, aimed at supporting a different group of vulnerable prisoners, also with specific needs... failed entirely to consider the impact on female prisoners or staff" 4/ #SexNotGender

"Developed in partnership with Scottish Trans Alliance & Stonewall, the policy circumvented single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act 2010 & established a de facto mixed-sex estate, by enabling male prisoners who identified as women to be accommodated in the female estate" 5/

"People in custody should be rubbed down and body searched in accordance with the social gender in which they are living, rather than according to their physical body…" 6/ #SexNotGender

So, we have a situation where a male prisoner can self ID as a woman (& there is some concern this happens at a higher rate than in the general public, perhaps because the female prison estate is seen as a cushier place to serve a sentence or because 7/ #SexNotGender

It can allow easier access to vulnerable women "victims" by predatory male prisoners). In addition, it places prison staff in the position of having to search prisoners of a different sex to them, which does not happen normally, and the recommendation is 8/ #SexNotGender

for staff training to help the prison staff get over that. So, a great policy then, ignoring the wishes and rights of female prisoners and placing prison staff in the difficult situation of female staff searching male prisoners who claim they are women. 9/ #SexNotGender

More alarming is the realisation that this approach, in the Scottish Prison Service, was to be the first step in the Scottish Trans Alliance (STA) plan to get this approach adopted by all public services (Police, NHS, schools...). Horrified yet? You should be!10/ #SexNotGender

"We strategized that by working intensively with Scottish Prison Service to support them to include trans women as women on a self-declaration basis within very challenging circumstances, we would be able to ensure that all other public services should be able to do likewise" 11/

Following pressure on this new policy & concerns about self ID, the Scottish Prison Service announced it would be reviewing the policy in 2019: "we will be particularly keen to consult is the female prison population, who have not been specifically consulted about this before 12/

There is an obvious interest and locus for those individuals" - you think??? You'd hope that the people impacted by a new policy might be consulted *before* it is implemented. But 2019 slipped, and (thankfully) so will 2020. 13/ #SexNotGender

Hopefully, the review will start in 2021. And will involve female prisoners & staff (as you can imagine women who self ID as men don't usually get put into male prisons as they will be v vulnerable, but it's not impossible). 14/ #SexNotGender

Next time you hear anyone claim the issue over women's rights & single-sex spaces is just about toilets, just remember in the last month we've had to fight to ensure female victims of crimes get to determine the sex of the medical examiner that carries out intimate exams 15/

And now we should see a review of how female prisoners are housed, & who with. In October @Worldrugby determined that it is not safe for women's teams to have male-bodied players playing within them (but many national rugby orgs are still ignoring this decision and 16/

are allowing larger, faster and stronger male-bodied players in women's teams, like England RFU). This isn't just about toilets 17/ #SexNotGender