Justice Secretary signals policy reforms on transgender prisoners
Brandon Lewis has said the Government has ‘a duty of care to all those behind bars’.
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Your support makes all the difference.Transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in women’s jails, according to the Justice Secretary.
The reforms to policies on where to house inmates will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence, Brandon Lewis said.
It comes after he told delegates at the Conservative Party conference last week: “It cannot be right that transgender prisoners, when convicted of serious sexual offences or those who have not had reassignment surgery, are housed in a general women’s estate.
“This will end – we have a duty of care to all those behind bars. One case of a sex attack or an inappropriate relationship formed with a female prisoner by a transgender inmate is one too many and we’ve had too many in recent years.”
Last month Sussex Police were forced to apologise after Home Secretary Suella Braverman accused it of “playing identity politics and denying biology” around sexual offences committed by a transgender woman years before transitioning.
The force initially insisted it would not “tolerate any hateful comments” about gender identity “regardless of crimes committed”, but later said its response was “inconsistent with our usual style of engagement” and had been deleted.
Sally Ann Dixon, from Havant in Hampshire, was jailed for 20 years for 30 indecent assaults against five girls and two boys in the 1980s and 1990s when she was John Stephen Dixon.
According to press reports of the court case, Dixon is serving the sentence at Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey.
Some people on social media objected to the force referring to Dixon in the headline of its press release as a woman convicted of the crimes.
In a written statement to Parliament published on Tuesday, Mr Lewis said: “On 4 October I announced reforms to our policy for the allocation of transgender prisoners. Under the reforms, transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in the general women’s estate.
“This will not be a blanket rule; exemptions to these new rules will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
“This will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence.
“Further detail about these reforms will be announced when we publish our updated transgender prisoners policy framework before the end of the year.”
He also announced plans which could see thousands more burglars, robbers and other thieves being made to wear a GPS tag after being freed from jail.
The expansion of a Ministry of Justice scheme, being tested by 19 police forces in England and Wales, to include offenders serving shorter sentences could mean a further 2,000 will be monitored over the next three years, according to a separate written statement to MPs.
The policy will now apply to criminals who served sentences of 90 days or more and the changes will come into force on October 26.
Electronic monitoring will be a compulsory condition on the offender’s licence for the remainder of their sentence up to a maximum of 12 months, other than in exceptional circumstances, he said, adding: “Expanding the project to offenders serving shorter sentences will increase the number of offenders captured by the legislation by around 2,000 by March 2025.”