MBM statement on FWS v The Scottish Ministers Judicial Review of Scottish Prison Service transgender prisoner policy
We welcome today’s ruling in the Outer House of the Court of Session that the Scottish Prison Service policy on transgender prisoners is unlawful.
For over a decade the SPS has housed some of Scotland’s most violent men in the women’s prison estate. Taking its lead from activists who ‘strategised’ that securing ‘self-identification’ in prisons would pave the way for similar policies in schools, hospitals and other settings, the SPS decided to treat vulnerable female prisoners as collateral damage.
It should not have taken unpaid women campaigners years to restore centuries-old protections for female prisoners, and to suffer vilification and abuse for doing so.
That Scottish Ministers defended this sexist and regressive policy for so long, and even went to court to do so, leaves a permanent stain on the reputation of every individual politician involved.
Notes
- “We strategized that by working intensively with the Scottish Prison Service to support them to include trans women as women on a self-declaration basis within very challenging circumstances, we would be able to ensure that all other public services should be able to do likewise.”
James Morton, Former Scottish Trans Director in ‘Trans Britain’ (2018) ed. C. Burns
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