An international prisons watchdog has called for a policy of “self-ID” to allow transgender prisoners to be held in jails of their adopted gender.
The call flies in the face of practice in England and Wales, where the large majority of trans women prisoners are held in male jails – and all trans men in custody are held in female jails.
In its latest annual report, published in April, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) said it had seen “widely divergent” approaches to the placement of transgender prisoners across the territory it monitors.
It said: “The Committee considers that if a person self-identifies as transgender during the prison admission procedure, then this should be sufficient per se for the prison to treat the person as such in all decisions taken concerning that person, including placement decisions.”
Reflecting concerns that biologically-male prisoners cannot safely be housed in female jails, it added: “If, after an individualised risk assessment, there are exceptional security or other reasons to accommodate them elsewhere, those reasons should be clearly documented, and subject to regular review.”
Ministry of Justice figures show that in 2023 there were 225 legally-male transgender prisoners in England and Wales, of whom 220 were held in male jails. If all were held in female jails, as the CPT recommends, then each of the country’s 12 women’s prisons would receive an influx of between 15 and 20 prisoners who are legally and biologically male.
There were 41 legally-female trans men in English and Welsh prisons last year, all held in the women’s estate.
Alan Mitchell, President of the CPT, said in a foreword to the report: “The Committee is increasingly meeting transgender persons held in prisons. This is not surprising as prisons are a microcosm of society, often with amplified issues given the smaller, confined settings. Hence, the treatment of transgender persons in prisons mirrors broader societal attitudes toward persons who do not fall into historical understandings of gender. Debates as to how best to treat transgender persons in prisons are occurring across the Council of Europe region. The Committee aims to contribute to this discussion by setting out its thinking and its standards.”
The CPT’s annual report, which covers 2023, also highlights problems with overcrowding in many country’s prison systems, and raises concerns over the ill-treatment of migrants. Regarding the impact of climate change, it says that “in the face of ever more frequent heatwaves, specific measures must be taken to alleviate the high temperatures in prison cells”.
