Scotland: Men posing as women deemed too dangerous for women's prisons allowed to mingle with female inmates

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is using female prisoners as test subjects for violent men posing as women.

According to an SPS policy recently published, violent male felons who claim to be women may be incarcerated in women’s prisons so they can have an easier time upon their release.

"Transgender people in custody should be provided the opportunity and supported to work towards being accommodated in an estate that aligns with their affirmed gender so that, on release to the community, they have had the opportunity to live with those who share their affirmed gender,” said the SPS, according to the Scottish Daily Express.

Earlier this year a serial rapist named Adam Graham, who later declared himself a woman and changed his name to Isla Bryson, was sentenced to eight years in prison and was placed in the women’s penitentiary. He was only moved to the men’s prison after widespread backlash. The case is said to have caused the resignation of then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was unable to decide if Graham was a man or woman.

After the scandal the SPS decided that violent male felons — even those who committed violence against women — could be housed with female inmates if there is "compelling evidence that they do not present an unacceptable risk of harm to those in the women's prison.” 

SPS Chief Executive Teresa Medhurst, who presided over the Graham affair, confirmed last week that a history of violence against women is not necessarily enough to bar a man from women’s prisons if he claims to be female. He must also be proven a current risk to women.

“In the case of Isla Bryson, can you say that a trans woman who is in the middle of transitioning and has committed a violent crime against women will not go into the female estate?” she was asked on BBC Radio Scotland.

“I can say that anyone who has a history of violence against women and is currently assessed as a risk to women will not go into the female estate,” she replied.

But even those who are considered so dangerous to women that they cannot be housed with females will still be permitted to visit women’s prisons and interact with the inmates.

"An individualised approach was also seen to offer flexibility to the management of transgender individuals in prison. While it may be necessary to accommodate transgender individuals in a prison which does not align with their affirmed gender, there may be other ways of supporting their gender identity, for example through access to work parties, activities, or even programmes with others of their gender identity,” the SPS report said.

"By participating in activities and programmes in that estate while remaining housed in the estate which aligns with their gender assigned at birth, where it is deemed safe to do so for the individual and for others."

The SPS is also taking steps to avoid another Adam Graham scandal by hiding data on male inmates in female prisons. Since January 2022 the prison authority has been publishing quarterly reports showing the number of men in women’s prisons. While the figures are broken down by prison, they do not include names.

Those figures will no longer be disclosed by the SPS, which claims “that doing so risks the possibility of identifying the individuals concerned, although it is not clear how the data could be used to identify any individual inmate,” reported The Times.