Transexual prisoner wins right to move to women's prison
A transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape committed while she was a man has overturned a decision to refuse her a place in a female prison.
The 27-year-old prisoner, who cannot be identified, was described by her lawyer as ''a woman trapped inside a man's body''.
Deputy Judge David Elvin QC, sitting at London's High Court, quashed Justice Secretary Jack Straw's decision to continue detaining ''A'' in a male prison.
''I declare her continued detention in a male prison is in breach of her rights under Article 8 (right to private and family life) under the European Convention on Human Rights''.
The bit that gets me about this story is this claim by the MoJ: "The Department of Justice and the prison authorities argued that the prisoner would be no more likely to be accepted by inmates at a female prison and that, if moved, she would have to spend long periods in segregation at an extra cost of £80,000 per year". As it costs £40,000 per year for a prisoner on normal location, if the MoJ claim is true, why does it cost £120,000 for each prisoner on segregation?
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211213/Music-teacher-gave-terminally-ill-father-pistol-shoot-dead-busy-hospital-ward-jailed.html
ReplyDeleteJohn 'again I apologise for gate crashing your thread, however I feel very strongly about this. The judge has no idea when you have a family member who is terminal what lengths you will go to 'to help the person you love. Maybe to bring a gun into a hospital ward was not the brightest idea. I feel however a prison sentence is wrong for this son who helped his father 'the last thing he was able to do for him.
I am in favour of a more humane way to help those who are terminal and in pain. Not everyone can afford the expense of going to Switzerland to help a family member when we would not let our own dog suffer in this way.
IRONSIDE