Trans women in female jails in NSW debate: call to change law

NSW now houses three trans women in female jails, but there are calls to change the laws to protect vulnerable women.

NSW now has three transgender women housed in the state’s female prison population – with questions being raised about security for female sex assault and DV victims.

Corrective Services NSW revealed the figures after questions from MP Mark Latham about whether the biological men had been separated from women “traumatised” by male crimes of violence and sexual assault.

The issue has become controversial in the UK and in the US after rapes and pregnancies within jails – and now several Australian feminist groups are calling for the Sex Discrimination Act to be changed to protect female prisoners.

Mr Latham says the current policy is “lopsided” and cares more about the rights and protection of transgender women than other female prisoners, who may be traumatised by domestic violence and rape.

“It’s all about the interests of the transgender prisoner instead of consideration of how this is a relatively new and unusual practice and how the women in the prison might react and might be traumatised.”

Female prisoners - some feminist groups want male jails to build separate wings to house transwomen. Picture: Daniel Soekov for Human Rights Watch

Australian Women’s Forum chief executive Rachael Wong said single-sex prisons existed to “protect the dignity, safety and privacy of female inmates”.

“Placing trans identified males in women’s prisons unacceptably exposes female inmates to increased risks of harm,” she said.

One Nation MP Mark Latham has concerns about the safety of female inmates sharing quarters with transwomen. Picture: Richard Dobson

Coalition for Biological Reality founder Stassja Frei said sex segregation was necessary and said trans women were not the only males at risk of violence in men’s prisons — therefore the solution was separate wings in those jails “for all vulnerable men, inclusive of trans women” .

“A simple clause in the Sex Discrimination Act that allows for lawful discrimination in settings where girls and women are in a state of undress would solve many problems, including the prisons issue,” she said.

“We know that similar policies introduced overseas (housing transwomen in female jails) have resulted in unwanted pregnancies and sexual assault.”

Fair Go for Queensland Woman’s Steph Hughes, who has researched the issue, says UN conventions state different categories for prisoners in separate institutions should take into account sex, age and criminal record.

“It appears that accommodations are being made for the special interests of those who say they are transgender without consideration for the rights and needs of women, and this has resulted in negative outcomes for women, arguably most egregiously incarcerated women,” she said.

Asked what specific measures were in place to protect vulnerable women, a Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said that when deciding on the placement of transgender people in custody, they “take into consideration the person’s criminal history, behaviour in custody and the safety of both the transgender inmate and other inmates”.

“A transgender person may be refused placement in a correctional facility of their gender of identification if they’ve committed crimes of violence or sexual assault against women or children,” she said.

The official Inmate, Classification and Placement of Transgender and Intersex Inmates policy of Corrective Services states: “A person who self-identifies as transgender has the right to be housed in a NSW Correctional Centre appropriate to their gender of identification, unless it is determined through classification that the transgender person should more appropriately be assigned to a correctional centre of their biological gender.”