UK Opens First Transgender Prison After Sex Attacks Soar in Women's Jails
Trans offenders will be kept in a new wing away from female inmates
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Britain is set to open its first prison wing specifically for transgenders following a growing number of sexual assault cases at women’s jails by male inmates who are ‘identifying’ as female, according to reports.
Among those to be housed at the new transgender unit are three offenders who were born male but legally changed their gender.
The men will be placed at the Downview prison in a building which was named after the Victorian-era feminist, Josephine Butler, according to The Times.
The offenders will be kept in a new wing away from female inmates, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The MOJ insists that the management of transgender prisoners is continuing, and there are “no final decisions have been made” whether its policies will extend to other prisons.
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The 320 women inmates ay Downview have reported “significant concern” over the plans to introduce male-bodied offenders to the facility, as almost 50 percent of the transgender population prison being sex offenders.
In November last year, a convicted pedophile, who claimed he was transgender when he was jailed for previous crimes, was sentenced to life in prison for raping two of his fellow inmates after he was sent to a women's prison.
52-year-old Stephen Terence Wood was jailed in the UK in 2001 for raping two boys, aged 9 and 12-years-old.
Terence, who was known as Karen White, assaulted multiple female inmates within weeks of being sent to a women’s prison.
Prison Governors Association chief Andrea Albutt said the success of the Transgender unit would be measured on how female inmates were protected.
Albutt said: “the number one priority” at Downview should be ensuring safeguards are in place “to make sure that a Karen White event doesn’t happen again.”
Another incident last included that of a sperate transgender inmate who was accused of sexually assaulting four female inmates after being transferred to a female prison.
The inmate did not have even have reassignment surgery.
Please Re-Tweet: My badge for the trans prison wing, "There are (trans) one cannot recognise by external signs. These are the most dangerous", (Goebbels (alteration in brackets)1943) the transphobes are also antisemitic so my faith marker seems appropriate.
— Diana James 👩❤️👩✡🏳🌈 (@dianalouisej) March 3, 2019
♀️👩❤️👩✡️ pic.twitter.com/Be6XfBr0bC
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The first attack took place within days of the transfer to New Hall jail in Wakefield, West Yorkshire according to reports.
The inmate, who was living as a woman for over two years, was caught 'visibly aroused' while assaulting at the high-security complex.
The victim of the assault, who became friends with the prisoner, claims she could see the prisoners 'erect penis' at the time of the assault.
But the move for a new prison has been “cautiously welcomed” by feminist campaign group Fair Play for Women, who previously highlighted the threat to women-only spaces such as jails and changing rooms regarding easy gender self-identification with no gender reassignment.
The news was opposed by Transgender activists on Twitter as one campaigner branded the prison wing an equality laws-breaching “ghetto."
Another compared the news prison move to yellow star badges issued to Jews by National Socialist German authorities during wartime.
Many Transgender activists claim the separate prisons ware “shocking” and “bigoted” claiming they send a message they are different from biological women.
One user said the separate jail “is just heartbreaking and awful regardless of what these women were accused of.”
