Scotland backs down and will no longer send trans prisoners to women's prisons

Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown announced the suspension of transfers of trans prisoners with a history of violence against women to women's prisons until further notice. Controversy was swirling regarding two trans convicts, a rapist and a pedophile, who were admitted to a women's prison. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon implemented the transfer policy, which has been carried out by the Scottish Prison Service. Several prominent figures, including J.K. Rowling disagreed, calling the policy "cruel and degrading punishment" for female inmates.

"I understand that the issue of any trans woman being convicted of violent and sexual offences is a highly emotive subject and that the public concern is understandable," Brown said, according to The Scotsman newspaper. This is the second about-face by the Scottish government, which Brown highlighted: "As the First Minister pointed out last week, we must not allow any suggestion to take root that trans women pose an inherent threat to women."

Sturgeon backtracks

The Scottish government initially stated that it would not intervene with the transfer of double rapist Adam Graham (a.k.a. Isla Bryson, what he calls himself after announcing that he identifies as a woman) to a women's prison. Graham committed the crimes while he still identified as a man. In fact, Graham did enter Cornton Vale, a women's prison, although he was kept in a segregated unit due to the threat posed to other inmates as well as the controversy of the situation. However, Sturgeon herself announced shortly afterwards that "it is my expectation that, before the 72-hour period that Douglas Ross has referred to expires, that prisoner will not be in Cornton Vale prison."

More controversy was caused by the case of Andrew Burns, who harassed a 13-year-old girl and applied for a transfer to a women's prison after changing his name to Tiffany Scott. According to The Daily Record, his application was finally approved after initially being rejected. However, Brown denied this in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, insisting that, as far as he is aware, none of the five trans women currently in women's prisons have a history of violence against women.

"Cruel and degrading punishment of women"

J. K. Rowling shared an article on Twitter describing the "cruel and degrading punishment" suffered by women serving time alongside trans inmates. In the story, an ex-convict narrated the quotidian terror she experienced in a women's prison which also held transgender people accused of domestic violence and murder. Female inmates were forced to share shower areas and cells with them.

"They dressed as men ... they sounded like men."

Amanda Benson, a mother of four who served time for assault, told the Daily Record of the "panic" these women feel at being forced to shower or share unsupervised cells with these men. In her case, neither of the two inmates with whom she shared time in prison, "appeared to be women. They dressed as men, they didn’t wear makeup, they were not so far as I know on any hormone drugs, they sounded like men."

Benson recalled being on "constant high alert, my nerves were frazzled with fear." She accused the Scottish judiciary of "serving up women to predators on a rainbow platter." She continued: "It is utterly outrageous, evil even, that we were put in a position of having to live in fear of being sexually attacked every day." A shocking example of this fear is that in the shower, only a thin curtain separated the women from these "violent men."

A trans rapist in women's prison

Benson's fear is far from exaggerated. She initially served her sentence in Cornton Vale, the same prison where Adam Graham was sent. Rowling commented on the situation, highlighting the different standards that the Sturgeon government held with respect to Graham and Katie Dolatowski, another trans prisoner who tried to rape a 10-year-old girl in a women's bathroom and who will continue serving his sentence in a women's prison.

Without going any further, Rowling's tweets sparked a significant response. Some applauded her, while others accused her, again, of being transphobic. The Harry Potter author replied to some users who criticized her for complaining when "nothing happened" or that everything was "her [Benson's] problem."