Four out of five transgender inmates being held in Scotland’s only female prison are murderers, according to reports.
The violent inmates are said to include Sophie Eastwood, formerly known as Daniel Eastwood, who strangled his cellmate at a young offenders’ institution in Dumfries in 2004.
Eastwood’s sentence was later increased for an attack on a prison guard before deciding in 2018 to self-identify as a woman.
The killer is now said to identify as an infant and wants all meals “blended like baby food,” the newspaper reported.
Action Urged
It is the latest twist in the country’s trans prison row which has seen campaigners take to the streets.Last week, protesters gathered outside Holyrood to urge Scottish ministers against placing transgender criminals in female prisons.
Women’s rights campaigners with For Women Scotland joined with reform group Keep Prisons Safe and chanted “shame” at the decision to place prisoners who have self-identified as female in Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only all-female jail.
Speaking to The Epoch Times on Wednesday, Marion Calder, of For Women Scotland, said: “The honest truth is that the general public care little of people in prisons but they care even less about women in prison.
“Men could be in for any reason and people go, ah well. But a woman being in prison it’s almost like they deserve it.
“With little to no understanding that women in prison will be in for all manner of different reasons, but normally very, very different to why males are.
“Drugs, sex work, prostitution, all manner of things that can be combined, and normally a lot of shorter stays—six months rather than years.
“Eighty percent have had head injuries, [are] victims of domestic violence, and have really quite complicated backgrounds.
“And then you are moving a male into this place. And if you’re a violent male, like these individuals are, you can’t even get caught for half the crimes [like] domestic violence and other things.
“How do we know they aren’t capable of carrying out violence against women?”
Marion added: “The Special Rapporteur from the United Nations, a specialist in torture, made her statements a few weeks back.
“She was concerned that having males in a female estate is an aspect of torture, psychologically. “She raised concerns and she was absolutely right. This should never have happened.”
Echoing the campaigner’s comments, a spokesperson for the Scottish Feminist Network told The Epoch Times: “This sort of story puts even more pressure on Scottish Prison Services, the Minister for Justice, and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to do something now.”
In response to queries from The Epoch Times via email on Wednesday, an SPS spokesperson said it had a “proven track record” in safely managing “complex and challenging individuals.
“All trans men and trans women in our care are risk-assessed to ensure they are accommodated in a way which meets the rights and needs of the individual, as well as others in the establishment,” the spokesperson added.
“Where there are any concerns about any risks posed by an individual, either to themselves or others, we retain the ability to keep them separate from the mainstream population until an agreed management plan is in place.”
A Scottish government spokesman also told The Epoch Times that “management and accommodation of prisoners within the prison estate has been and will continue to be an operational matter for the Scottish Prison Service.”
Whitewash
On Feb. 9, the prison service reported (pdf) that double rapist Isla Bryson was not in contact with women while housed at HMP Cornton Vale.The 31-year-old was convicted in January of raping two women, one in Clydebank in 2016 and one in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019.
Bryson committed the offences while known as Adam Graham. The court heard the rapist made the decision to identify as a woman at the age of 29.
After his conviction, it was revealed that Bryson was initially housed in an all-female prison before being moved to the male estate following the outcry.
The key findings of an urgent review ordered by Justice Secretary Keith Brown found that Bryson, who spent a day-and-a-half in the all-female facility near Stirling, was housed in a segregation unit and orders from the prison governor meant there was no contact with other prisoners.
Bryson would be moved to the male estate after outcry from the public and politicians, but the prison service review found “at no time during this period were any women in SPS care at risk of harm as a consequence of the management of the individual.”
Key findings and recommendations resulting from the review were published on Thursday, but SPS chief executive Teresa Medhurst said she believed it “is not necessary” to publish the report due to the level of personal information it contains.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross later urged Nicola Sturgeon to publish the review of the Bryson case in full.
However, Sturgeon pledged only to release the “key findings.”
Recommendations made by the review include improved communication within the justice sector and the creation of a “shared justice process” for the admission of transgender people into prisons.
A pause on the movement of transgender prisoners with a history of violence against women into the female estate will continue until a wider review of the handling of transgender prisoners can be undertaken.
Scottish Tory community safety spokesman Russell Findlay described the publication as a “whitewash summary,” adding: “We still have no idea why a double rapist was sent into a women’s prison or what involvement SNP ministers had in his removal following the public backlash.
“Given the widespread concern and anger, this report should have been published and in full, not just some woolly summary.
“It is an affront to Bryson’s victims that the prison service is pandering to this rapist’s right as justification for their refusal to publish.
“This is typical of SNP secrecy and raises more questions than answers. It is clear that this shoddy stunt is part of the ongoing exercise in damage limitation for Nicola Sturgeon—not a sincere attempt to learn lessons.”
The Bryson case caused controversy amid a debate around self-ID and the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act, which was blocked by the UK government in January.
