Foreign Affairs

Transgender Sex Offenders and Violent Criminals Share Jail With Women In Scotland, Report Finds

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One dozen transgender prisoners convicted of violent or sexual crimes now reside in women’s jails in Scotland, The Times reported Wednesday.

Only one of the biologically male transgender prisoners completely transitioned, the remaining 11 self-identify as female, according to the Times.

“The evidence clearly indicates that where prisoners of the male sex, no matter how they identify, are held in women’s prisons, women in prison are negatively impacted,” said Dr. Kate Coleman, director of Keep Prisons Single Sex, according to the Times.

“It is always an issue to have trans women in with female prisoners and you have to think beyond the obvious which is physical or sexual threat,” according to Rhona Hotchkiss, former governor of Cornton Vale women’s prison, the Times reported. “The very fact of the presence of male-bodied prisoners among vulnerable women causes them distress and consternation.”

California was processing hundreds of requests in July from transgender women seeking to inhabit jails with biological women, as state law allows biological males to stay in women’s prisons. One California women’s prison housing transgender inmates stopped distributing condoms in July.