Prisons
Updates, publications and other resources related to prisons. See also Where sex matters: crime.
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Housing men in women’s prisons is cruel and unlawful
In 2021, in the case of FDJ v Secretary of State for Justice, a female prisoner challenged the Ministry...
5th June 2026
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Legal opinion on prison policy in relation to trans-identifying male prisoners in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland
Ben Cooper KC and Myles Grandison explain how the April 2025 Supreme Court judgment has implications for criminal justice...
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Transgender Homicides in Britain, 2000–2025: Victims and Perpetrators
Michael Biggs and Ace North analyse all homicides involving transgender people in Britain from 2000 to 2025 and find...
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Gender diverse prisoners and sex-based patterns of offending
Jo Phoenix looks at evidence from a Correctional Services Canada study on the transgender and gender-diverse prisoner population in...
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A policy in search of evidence
Why we need to treat with caution claims about the specific harms of keeping trans-identifying men in male prisons
21st March 2023
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New MoJ transgender prisoner policy: Sex Matters’ response
Sex Matters welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s announcement that men who identify as women will no longer be housed...
6th March 2023
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Accommodation of transgender prisoners and Article 3 ECHR
Claire Methven O’Brien writes for Scottish Legal News on how attention has recently focused on policy and practice concerning...
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Rights and wrongs: how gender self-identification policy places women at risk in prison
Jo Phoenix, Professor of Criminology at the University of Reading, describes how the decision to include anatomical males who...
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Female inmates do not trust Nicola Sturgeon to decide who is sent to female prisons
Ex-Cornton Vale Prison inmate Amanda Benson talks to Times Radio.
“Putting a double rapist into a female prison, I... -
Minister defiant over trans rapist Isla Bryson
Mark McLaughlin for The Times
Maya Forstater is extensively quoted. The article was later revised.
The Scottish justice secretary has... -
Mass harassment in HM Prisons and Probation Service
As reported in The Telegraph today, HM Prisons and Probation Service’s Pride in Prison and Probation (PiPP) staff network...
20th November 2022
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DBS checks and identity verification: safeguarding loopholes created by changes of identity
An analysis by Keep Prisons Single Sex of the exceptional privacy rights given to those who change their gender...
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We can resolve the debate on trans prisoners with compassion and common sense
Former prison governor Ian Acheson writes for CapX that there is a blindingly simple way to both eliminate risk and...
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Excluding female offenders in policy and practice: how the Scottish prison service overlooks the sex-based needs of women in prison
Women’s prisons in Scotland are now effectively mixed-sex facilities. Keep Prisons Single Sex look at the implications.
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A woman’s place is not in prison
A transcript of Jo Phoenix's presentation at a panel discussion organised by Woman's Place UK and the Centre for...
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Women’s prisons and male transgender prisoners
The ruling handed down in FDJ v SSJ in the High Court of Justice last week is further proof...
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Were we unkind?
We have had this email about yesterday’s post on the prisons judicial review to which we think we should...
4th July 2021
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The law must protect women in prison
Today the High Court handed down a shocking and disappointing judgment, that the Ministry of Justice has not broken...
2nd July 2021
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Evidence and data on transwomens’ offending rates
Submitted to the Women and Equalities Select Committee by Professor Rosa Freedman, Professor Kathleen Stock, and Professor Alice Sullivan,...
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The transition from sex to gender in English prisons: human rights and queer theory
By Michael Biggs. This paper analyses how the prison system in England and Wales transitioned from sex to gender,...