'No automatic right' for convicted trans woman to go to women's prison
Nicola Sturgeon insists there’s ‘no automatic right’ for convicted trans offenders to be sent to women’s prisons amid outrage at rapist Isla Bryson being held in an all-female jail
- ‘No automatic right’ for trans convict to go to women’s prison, says SNP leader
- Nicola Sturgeon insists transitioning does not guarantee place at all-female jail
- There is outrage over the case of rapist Isla Bryson, formerly Adam Graham
Nicola Sturgeon tonight insisted there is ‘no automatic right’ for a convicted trans woman to be held in a women’s prison amid outrage over the case of rapist Isla Bryson.
The former DJ, 31, is being held at Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling while she awaits sentencing for raping two women while she was a man.
She first appeared in court as Adam Graham in 2019 and was later named in court papers the following year – around the time she decided to transition – as Isla Annie Bryson.
Her placement at Cornton Vale has prompted fears over the safety of women prisoners and sparked angry accusations that a convicted rapist had ‘gamed the system’.
In an interview tonight, Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, declined to comment on the case directly.
But the SNP leader said that transitioning did not guarantee a transgender criminal a place in a women’s prison.
Nicola Sturgeon said that transitioning did not guarantee a transgender criminal a place in a women’s prison
Isla Bryson, 31, (right), who was born Adam Graham (left), was convicted of raping two women while a man
‘The fact of the matter is there is no automatic right for a trans woman convicted of an offense to go to a women’s prison,’ Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme said.
‘The Scottish Prison Service, which individually assesses all prisoners or potential prisoners, does detailed risk assessments that are about the safety of the individual prisoner [and] of those that will be around the individual prisoner.
‘This idea that because somebody who may have committed crimes as a man – let’s not lose sight of that although I’m not talking about the individual case – but then tries to change gender simply to avoid going to a man’s prison, there is no such automaticity around that.
‘This is about individual risk assessments.’
Ms Sturgeon also denied that the Scottish Parliament’s controversial gender identity reforms – which are being blocked by Westminster amid concerns at UK-wide legislative chaos – would alter the current situation.
‘The Gender Recognition Bill does not in any way change the system,’ she added.
It came as MailOnline found Bryson’s conviction meant the number of female transgender prisoners placed in women’s prisons in Scotland had likely surpassed England and Wales.
Bryson has joined transgender paedophile Katie Dolatowski at Cornton Vale women’s jail in Stirlingshire after being found guilty of two rapes at Glasgow High Court.
According to a recent report published by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), there were 11 trans women and five trans men in Scottish prisons at the end of June 2022.
Of the 11 trans women, six were held in men’s prisons and five were held in women’s prisons.
If the figures remain the same today, Bryson and Dolatowski would take that to seven trans women in women’s prisons – more than the six in England and Wales cited in a recent Ministry of Justice report.
Katie Dolatowski – a transgender paedophile born a man who managed to stay at Leeds Women’s Aid refuge for 71 days – is also held at Cornton Vale women’s jail
Of the five trans men in Scottish jails, who were born female, one was held in a men’s prison and four were held in women’s prisons last year.
Bryson, who was Adam Graham when carrying out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019, began transitioning after being charged by police.
New figures emerged today revealing eight other male and female trans criminals in Scotland did the same after being convicted or remanded in custody.
Recent analysis by the Policy Exchange think-tank has warned that ‘it is not inconceivable that a man with no trans identity would make a strategic decision to change legal sex in order to move prisons’ simply because they wanted to ‘get out of the harsh, and often dangerous, context of a male prison’.
Clydebank rapist Bryson is in the segregation unit at Cornton Vale for up to a month before being sentenced.
In 2019 transgender prisoner Paris Green, who was ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years in prison for murder, began her sentence at Cornton Vale but was moved after reports about having sex with female prisoners in the cells.
Green, who was born Peter Laing, was moved to the women’s wing at HMP Edinburgh while waiting for gender reassignment surgery.
Earlier this week serial rapist Jonathon Mallon, 40, reportedly declared that he now wants to be called Charlene and told inmates that he hopes to me moved into a Scottish women’s jail by Easter.
A murderer who changed gender in 2018 is said to be demanding to be treated as a baby by prison staff. Sophie Eastwood was called Daniel and was jailed for life in 2004 for strangling a cell-mate with shoelaces.
Eastwood, who has been living as a woman for five years, is at the all-male Polmont jail where she wants to identify as a baby, wear nappies and have meals blended like baby food.
In England and Wales, the Ministry of Justice said in its annual equalities report that there were just six prisoners who self-identify as transgender women being held in female prisons in 2022.
Sophie Eastwood was called Daniel and was jailed for life in 2004 for strangling a cell-mate with shoelaces. Eastwood, who has been living as a woman for five years, is at the all-male Polmont jail where she wants to identify as a baby, wear nappies and have meals blended like baby food
Clydebank rapist Bryson is in the segregation unit at Cornton Vale (pictured) for up to a month before being sentenced
This is despite Scotland having an estimated 290 women in prison compared to 3,216 females in prisons in England and Wales in 2022.
Bryson, 31, has been accused of gaming the system by changing gender from male to female after being charged with sex attacks on two women.
A Scottish Prison Service (SPS) report last summer said that there were 16 trans inmates in Scots prisons last summer – but eight began their transition while ‘being cared for in custody following their remand or conviction for their current offence’.
In response to a Freedom of Information request by the website Back into Society, the SPS disclosed that six trans prisoners have ‘current or previous’ convictions for sex offences.
Last year it emerged that the number of transgender prisoners in England and Wales surged by almost a fifth.
Official figures show 230 people with a gender identity different to their legal sex were behind bars at the end of March 2022, up from 197 a year earlier.
The majority were in male prisons, the Ministry of Justice data revealed, with 162 of them saying they were transgender women.
But six inmates in female prisons said they were transgender women, having been born male, up from just one in 2021.
Campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex said: ‘There is a marked increase in trans prisoners of male sex allocated to female estate.
‘This is concerning as the 2021 data indicated a marked trend away from allocating prisoners of male sex with no GRC to the female estate.’
However, the figures, revealed in the Offender Equalities Annual Report, could have changed since they were compiled in March, particularly as ministers last month pledged to reform the system in order to protect women.
Brandon Lewis, then-justice secretary, announced that ‘transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in the general women’s estate’, nor should ‘transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence’.
An updated policy framework is due to be published within months.
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