Rita Panahi: Safety of female inmates must rule over radical trans lobby

When a violent male who identifies as female is placed in a women’s jail, it’s time to stop trying to appease the trans lobby.

Corrections Victoria must prioritise the safety of female inmates instead of trying to appease the trans lobby.

The radical trans lobby continues to exercise disproportionate power in Australian institutions, both public and private, with little accountability.

Last week I was contacted by women distraught about a violent male who identifies as female being put in a women’s jail.

Inmates at Victoria’s biggest women’s prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre, put together a powerfully written petition after authorities ignored their pleas for help.

“We feel threatened, unsafe, distressed and traumatised with this current situation,” they wrote.

The trans inmate was moved into the women’s prison in July and though he is currently locked down for 23 hours a day, the women have been told he’ll ultimately be able to live, work and socialise with them.

The prisoners are keen to explain they are not concerned this offender is trans but that their objections are centred around the fact the inmate, who we have chosen not to name, has a “working penis as they are not on hormone therapy treatment” and that he “has been convicted and is currently serving a sentence for the violent sexual assault of a woman in Victoria. Historically (the inmate) has also served a term of incarceration in Europe for the sexual assault of a six-year-old female child”.

So here we have a sexual predator who has attacked women and children transferred to a women’s prison full of vulnerable women, many of whom have been victims of sexual assault and carry significant trauma.

The response from Corrections Victoria has been underwhelming to say the least. They have a Trans, Gender Diverse and Intersex Prisoner Reference Group in place but they are not forthcoming with information, telling the Herald Sun: “Corrections Victoria does not comment on individual prisoners or their placements.”

We have seen in the UK what can happen when sexual predators are placed in a women’s prison.

In the case of “Karen White” the offender sexually assaulted a number of female prisoners and is now serving life in a men’s prison. However, sanity is prevailing in the UK, not just with the decision to shut down the Tavistock clinic, but also with a new policy that will see trans prisoners banned from women’s jails.

Corrections Victoria must follow suit and prioritise the safety of female inmates instead of trying to appease the trans lobby.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist