🧵This news about Terry Mark Donai's request to be housed in a women's prison in NSW is buzzing on X today. But men in women's prisons is old news in NSW.
Today The Daily Telegraph reported that “All transgender inmates are housed in facilities corresponding to their sex assigned at birth.” archive.is/7chle
It is difficult to know how many men are in women’s prisons because this data is not recorded or published by the NSW government. Prisoners generally have a right to privacy and protection during their incarceration, so their location is not usually revealed to the public. The occasional high-profile case can see this information leak into the public sphere.
Evie Amati was sentenced to 9.5 years (later revised to 14 years) for an unprovoked axe attack in Sydney in 2018.
In 2019, News.com.au reported that Evie Amati had been fighting with fellow inmates who wanted him moved to a male prison (because he was in a female prison). web.archive.org/web/2025070912…
Way back in 1999-2000, murderer Noel Compton Hall / Maddison Hall was transferred to a women's prison for 8 months. He was charged (but not convicted) of raping several female inmates, allegedly impregnating a woman.
web.archive.org/web/2025070913…
A 2008 academic study on sexual behaviour in prisons noted a small number of males they interviewed in female prisons.
sph.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/…
An Australian Institute of Corrections report from 2000 reported that NSW has a policy of housing inmates "based on self identity".
web.archive.org/web/2020071702…
The same report compared the housing arrangements in practice ("NSW Prison Policy") versus the law in each state ("NSW Act"). NSW houses "pre-op" men in women's prisons.
A 2017 NSW Communities and Justice policy describes how transgender (including non-binary) inmates are to be treated:
* preferred name and pronouns
* access to opposite-sex clothing and shop items
* access to housing with the opposite sex (based on a risk and behaviour assessment)
web.archive.org/web/2024101606…
A 2019 NSW Communities and Justice policy states that “The term ‘transgender’ refers to all transgender persons, regardless of whether they have
undergone surgical intervention.” and “[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 there are safety concerns for them or their behaviour.
web.archive.org/web/2021080618…
Classification and housing assignment is a secret, administrative process.
Statistics are not published showing how many men are in women's prisons in NSW. Be assured, it has been happening since at least 1999.
Addendum: You'll notice that I use archive links where possible for the evidence in my posts.
It is because this happens:
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