Thread by @fairplaywomen

The high court has today ruled that the MOJ's transgender prison policy to house's high-risk male-born transgender prisoners in female prison is “capable of being operated lawfully" /1

fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/upl…

However, this judgment highlights serious inadequacies in the way the prison service counts transgender prisoners. This is something @fairplaywomen first highlighted back in 2017. Improvements will now be required. Prisoners with a GRC will now be counted for the first time. /2

The judgment also finally puts to bed the transactivist claim that "Trans rights and female rights are never in conflict".

The court was clear that the decision to house male prisoners who identify as women in female prisons DOES undermine the rights of female prisoners /3

The court confirmed that subjective concerns of women prisoners MUST BE BALANCED against the rights transgender women in the prison system.

@fairplaywomen thinks the MOJ gets the balance wrong and we will be continuing our work to hold them to account. /4

Here is the copy of the full court judgment. We will be analysing the contents and publishing a more detailed assessment later today /5 fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/upl…

IMPORTANT: The court recognised the potential for the trans prison policy to result in the mistreatment of female prisoners under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act (Inhumane or degrading treatment). The impact on women in prison MUST be considered in decision making /6

There is now an urgent need to undertake meaningful research on how the increasing number of transwomen in female prisons is impacting the women. This must now be the MOJ's priority /7