After the jail company denied calls for a survey to be made public, female prisoners’ opinions of transgender prisoners in Scotland will remain private.
After refusing to share their responses to a survey conducted as part of an evaluation of its contentious transgender prisoner management policy, critics accused the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) of stifling women’s voices.
When criminal Isla Bryson, formerly known as Adam Graham, was found guilty in February of last year and sent to Scotland’s only female prison, the plan was still being reviewed. After significant uproar, Bryson was afterward transferred to a male prison.
The survey’s findings were requested in accordance with Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. The SPS, however, refused to make them public, claiming that if they were, it might jeopardize the privacy of the women who participated.
Under certain circumstances, the updated scheme, which was finalized in December, also permits male-bodied individuals to be housed in female prisons if they identify as women.
The SPS has resisted adhering to the much stricter regulations on transgender prisoners that are in place in England, even after the Bryson disagreement.
SNP is exhibiting “pervasive secrecy.”
The government was “certainly entitled” to hear the opinions of female prisoners expected to share single-sex areas with male-bodied inmates, according to Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative shadow justice minister.
“Before this significant review is published, personal information or other sensitive information may be easily removed,” he said. The majority of women’s lack of response may also be explained by doing so.
“This appears to be yet another instance of the SNP’s widespread secrecy culture, which is being demonstrated more and more throughout the justice system in Scotland and the larger public sector.”
Theresa Medhurst, the SPS’s chief executive, testified earlier this year that women in prison were “very kind to and understanding of transgender individuals in our care.”
But, opponents of her policy contend that the mere presence of male-bodied inmates in the female estate had traumatized female prisoners, who have frequently experienced violence at the hands of men.
The refusal to release the information “smacked of a cover-up,” according to Kenny MacAskill, the original SNP justice minister who currently serves as an Alba Party MP.
“This is totally unacceptable,” he declared. “It is impossible to make an evaluation without taking into account all relevant arguments, especially the perspectives of the most affected female captives.”
“Although anonymity can and should be provided, the entirety of what people said may be made public.”
By arguing that disclosing the information would “significantly prejudice the efficient conduct of public affairs,” the SPS denied the FOI request.
The complete results of an SPS prisoner survey conducted every two years, on the other hand, “furnishes an important channel for the users’ voice to be heard,” according to its website.
“Our plan for the management of trans people in custody, including women in our care, was developed after extensive consultation,” according to an SPS spokesman.
According to the plan, no transgender woman who has a history of abusing women or girls and who poses an immediate threat to them will be housed in the female estate.
