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Friday, September 04, 2009

Transexual prisoner wins right to move to women's prison

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?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211213/Music-teacher-gave-terminally-ill-father-pistol-shoot-dead-busy-hospital-ward-jailed.html



John '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