A response to Zoe Williams

Stating the obvious to a woman who has no empathy

It’s beyond me why anyone is still defending the indefensible, but Zoe Williams is keen to give it a shot. Her Guardian column last week was on the subject of men in women’s prisons. It was the usual guff.

She starts by attacking those who think prisons should be single sex. Unless you can demonstrate an active engagement with all the other issues facing women in prison - like staffing levels, mental health and suicide rates - you’re obviously just anti-trans. Your objections can be discounted. Nice try, but I suspect the reverse will be true. Women who had not been aware of the plight of female prisoners across a range of issues have been made aware through this most egregious policy.

The piece runs through why it doesn’t matter that men are in women’s prisons. Which amounts to: there aren’t very many men are in women’s prisons; they’re all carefully vetted; men in the female estate don’t always rape women; and Bad Things Happen Anyway. It was pretty slim pickings, and none of this is a reason for putting a male convict anywhere other than with his fellow men.

The Graun invited readers to respond, and I very much hope a lot of people did so. It’s past time they stopped playing games with the lives of vulnerable women.

This is my response:

Zoe Williams’ piece “Why are trans rights in prison so rarely defended?” deserves an answer. Not because it raises important considerations, but because it so completely fails to address any of the concerns raised by those who believe prisons should be single-sex.

The elephant in the room is that women in prison are inherently vulnerable as a sex class to males who are placed in the female estate. That those males were responsible for seven sexual offences in women’s prisons between 2016 and 2020 is bad enough, even if they had each offended only once before being removed.

We don’t know for sure, though, that they were removed. Because that’s another strand that is unaddressed: this has been implemented in private with almost no public debate. In 2020 very few people were aware that ANY males were housed in the female prison estate, never mind six or more. I remember telling friends who thought I must be mistaken and that it obviously couldn’t be true. Because (almost) everyone understands that mixed-sex prisons are not safe for women.

But worst of all, Zoe Williams entirely ignores the impact on women who must share their spaces with men. Spaces that are necessarily confined. Those women find themselves forced into situations where they have no means to protect themselves, no place to escape to and no redress when the worst happens. As it did on at least seven occasions. Remember, they are locked up with men who are by definition criminals, often guilty of serious offences, but who have asked to be placed in a women’s prison.

Zoe Williams asks “Why are trans rights in prison so rarely defended?” I ask, why should any male have the right to be placed in the female estate, and why are women’s rights being completely ignored?