Women in prison are some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society, yet their safety and welfare rarely garner public attention. When a woman is incarcerated, it is essential that the state takes seriously its responsibility to protect her from harm. And one of the best ways to do this is to ensure she is held in a single-sex prison.
Sex-segregated prisons have been a legal requirement since 1823, following tireless campaigning by reformer Elizabeth Fry. Her work exposed the exploitation and abuse faced by women when prisons housed both sexes together. Yet over two hundred years later, we again find ourselves in the situation where males are being held in the same prisons as women.
At HMP Downview in Banstead, a women’s prison in my constituency, biological males who identify as women are being held alongside women. Ministers insist this is safe. They insist these males are vulnerable. But the facts revealed by the Ministry of Justice’s own data tell a different story.
In 2024, of the 245 biological males in prison who identify as transgender, 151 were convicted of sexual offences, a striking 62%. That figure dwarfs the 17% sexual offence rate in the male prison population overall. From this overrepresentation of sexual offences, we can conclude that the transgender prison population poses a much higher risk to women.
And these particular women are extremely vulnerable. The Independent Monitoring Board found that over the past two years there has been a 90% increase in acutely mentally unwell women in HMP Downview, with prisoners facing extended delays in transfers to secure psychiatric settings.
It can be seen from media reporting that the males placed in women’s prisons are often highly dangerous offenders. Examples include John (Sally) Dixon, a paedophile who sexually assaulted seven children, and Joanna Rowland- Stuart who stabbed his partner to death with a samurai sword. And in Scotland, Isla Bryson, a double rapist, was remanded in a women’s prison too.
Earlier this year, the UK Supreme Court clarified that the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. Thus, single-sex provision in the case of prisons is lawful, provided it’s truly single-sex. Ministers still maintain that E Wing – a unit within the women’s prison estate designated for transgender-identifying male prisoners – is not “part of the general women’s estate,” but simple facts say otherwise. It is physically located within HMP Downview, run by the same Governor, funded from the same budget, staffed by the same prison officers and supported by the same health services. E Wing residents sleep separately, but by day they share work, education, health services, and communal areas with the women. They mix freely for most of the day.
Until recently, there was at least a safeguard: a strict one-to-one supervision requirement whenever E Wing prisoners entered shared spaces. But according to the Independent Monitoring Board’s most recent report, that protection has now been removed. E Wing prisoners are now supervised only to the same extent as women inmates despite the vastly different risk profiles.
We are asked to trust assurances that no recorded sexual assaults by male prisoners have occurred at HMP Downview (or any other women’s prison) in recent years. Yet Ministers consider it too costly to provide the data. In order to have confidence that these women are protected, the Government would be well advised to be transparent on the data.
Women in prison are already among the most marginalised people in society. Many have histories of domestic abuse, trauma, and sexual violence. To place them at daily risk – against the law, against common sense, and against the very principles Elizabeth Fry fought for – is indefensible.
It is time for the Government to act. Biological males must be removed from women’s prisons immediately. And Parliament must demand full transparency on incidents involving male prisoners within the women’s estate.
We managed to get this right 200 years ago. It is shameful that we are moving backwards on something so basic. Female prisoners deserve the same thing today that Elizabeth Fry demanded in 1823 – safety, dignity, and a prison system that protects them.
Female prisoners deserve safety, dignity, and a prison system that protects them
