Just abit of information about stuff u might not really know, but is handy to know if (god forbid) it does happen to you or anyone you know...
This is how things regarding Trans people currently stand in the England & Wales prison system:
There is no current legislation or prison service policy regarding trans inmates. Gays And Lesbians In the Prison Service (GALIPS - it's a staff organisation, but they will also help LGBT inmates) are working with Agender and a few others to sort out a policy, all of the follwing info is from the draft policy and as I currently understand it at the moment Agender & GALIPS provide information on a case to case basis, that pretty much works something like this... (just bear in mind it's not set in stone tho)
1) Trans folk are entitled to counselling, hormones and pre/post op care. Surgery is also ok but will be affected by a long sentence/prisoner categorisation (A,B,C or D), due to the difficulties of living in role, the practical effects in a prison context & for Cat A/B (A = max security, B = High security) risk assessments. The decision to allow surgery and go for it is at a Dr's discretion & the NHS pay for it.
2) If someone comes into prison in mid transition, they are reffered to the specialist treating them (unless the prison dr has any strong concerns as to why they shouldn't be allowed to). Hormone treatment will continue pending the outcome of the specialist refferal and surgerys permitted if recommended by specialist.
3) If someone comes to prison applying for gender dysphoria treatment, the prison healthcare will inform the NHS of the request, seek guidance, maintain contact with them for liasons and the authority of referral to the Gender Dysphoria (GD) specialist. There will also be a forensic psychiatric assessment, the person carrying it out will then liase with the GD specialist and treat each applicant on a case to case basis.
4) If a trans person has a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), any protected information about their previous gender will be kept private (not in absolute secrecy) as people of an official capacity i.e. civil servants are covered by an exemption of section 22 of the GRA. With GRC a trans person will go to a prison of their true gender (only exception being MtF with a history of violent/sexual attacks against women).
5) Without a GRC a trans person will be placed in a prison of their birth gender. If there is doubt about their placement in prison, a decision will be made following a consideration of the case involving prison healthcare and representatives from relative places. During/post op prisoners preference of which type of prison (male/female) they would prefer to be in (the assumption being it would be one of their true gender) is also considered.
7) With regards to searches:
A person without a GRC regardless of which stage of transition they are in will be treated as their birth gender. So strip searches will be carried out by staff of the same birth gender (e.g. FtM = searched by females). For rub down searches FtM people will only be searched by female staff, whereas MtF people can be searched by staff of any gender... this is based on existing laws.
A person with a GRC, regardless of which stage of transition they are in will be strip searched by staff of their true gender, regardless of genitalia. For rub down searches MtF people will only be searched by female staff, whereas FtM people can be searched by staff of any gender.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Thank you for all that info I don't think many people who end up in prison intend to... so you never know.
The strip search rules are interesting... surely we should be able to expect that the gender of the staff doing the searching would be doing it right... overwhelmingly most victims of sexual assault are women, and perpetrators men so it kinda makes sense. But still, writing assumptions into the rules seems like it'd be redundant if that sort thing was as monitored as much as I assume it is.
About 98% of the prison population don't intend to end up in there. But there's the ones where they've simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time or have had some petty row with the local council/tv liscensing folk & ended up been sent down for anywhere between 7-28days.
Basically there's gender laws stating that male staff can only search other males, it's mostly to do with sexual assault, it stops females making false allegations against male staff which in turn prevents alot of suspensions & ruined careers over someone deliberatly lying to cause trouble. Similar goes for female staff regarding strip searching males, it also cuts down on alot of problems where theoretically the males could see it as a sexual advance by the female staff and respond by sexually assaulting them.
However, when a Trans person has got full legal recognition as their true gender, they have exactly the same rights and equal treatment as anyone else of that gender. So an FtM person would be legally seen & treated the same as any other male, in accordance with the gender laws & searching protocols. There's always 2 members of staff present at any strip search, the searcher & another one monitoring. It's as much for the inmates benefit as the staffs benefit.
__________________
Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
