Female prison officers have been told they must carry out intimate body searches on transgender inmates who are biologically male under controversial new guidelines.
Teresa Medhurst, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), yesterday insisted she did not see the need for an ‘opt out’.
She was also unable to rule out a repeat of the Isla Bryson scandal which saw the double rapist housed in a female jail, instead insisting the new rules will make it ‘highly, highly unlikely’.
The prisons chief was speaking at Holyrood’s criminal justice committee ahead of the new policy on trans prisoners coming into effect on February 24.
Tory MSP Russell Findlay asked whether female staff could refuse to carry out intimate searches on ‘male-bodied’ inmates or face disciplinary action if they refused.
Rapist Isla Bryson was sent to a woman’s prison
Ms Medhurst replied: ‘Staff are not disciplined for any issues they raise in relation to searching.’ She added that a process allows staff to discuss any concerns with line managers.
Mr Findlay pressed her again and asked: ‘So there is an opt out?’
The prisons chief said: ‘It’s not… what I would say to you, Mr Findlay, is if there are concerns they are entitled to raise them and we will listen.
‘In 20 years of having transgender prisoners there has been nobody disciplined [for refusing a search].’
The Scottish Conservative justice spokesman also raised concerns that violent trans prisoners will be housed in female prisons if they are deemed not to pose a risk to other inmates.
The policy says an ‘individualised’ approach will be taken. Inmates will not be put in a female jail if it ‘gives rise to unacceptable risks’, with those convicted of murder, rape or sexual harassment not eligible except in ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Mr Findlay said: ‘I would be struggling to understand in what circumstances somebody who has been convicted of a sex offence would be deemed not to be a risk to women.’
Ms Medhurst said such a situation would be ‘highly, highly unlikely’.
She added: ‘A transgender woman who has committed an offence of violence against women or girls will not be considered unless there are exceptional circumstances. But those exceptional circumstances would have to be very exceptional.’
The policy review was ordered following the Bryson case last year.
Bryson was called Adam Graham and living as a man when he raped two women. After being jailed for eight years he was sent to a woman’s prison before a public outcry led to him being moved to a men’s jail.
The revised guidelines also require staff and inmates to use preferred pronouns on human rights grounds. Defending the move at the committee yesterday, Justice Secretary Angela Constance said ‘we endeavour to respect people’s identities’.
But Mr Findlay said: ‘This policy puts the rights of male-bodied trans prisoners above the welfare of vulnerable and voiceless women who have often suffered violence and trauma at the hands of men.
‘It is little more than a reheat of the previous policy which resulted in rapist Isla Bryson being sent to a woman’s prison.
‘The prison service was unable to confirm that its new policy could result in violent male-bodied criminals being sent into a women’s prison – and would not say whether female staff could refuse to intimately search male-bodied inmates.’
