By Martin Beckford Home Affairs Editor For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 22:10 GMT, 16 February 2019 | Updated: 22:10 GMT, 16 February 2019
View
comments
Almost one in 50 prisoners is transgender, according to a survey of inmates conducted by the official jail watchdog.
Inmates at notorious top security male prisons such as Belmarsh, Long Lartin and Wakefield said they identified as female or ‘non-binary’.
Transgender prisoners are allowed to choose whether they are kept in a male or female jail and can receive other perks, including showering alone. Critics fear that some inmates are falsely claiming to be transgender to win privileges.
The survey numbers are far higher than those published by the Government. Ministry of Justice statistics published last year found only 139 prisoners said they were transgender.
Karen White was born Stephen Wood, and had previously been jailed for rape but was transferred to New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire last year after changing his name and starting to wear wigs and women’s clothing
But extrapolated across the entire prison population, the new survey figures would suggest there are more than 1,400 transgender inmates.
It can also be revealed that special wings for transgender prisoners have been set up across the UK, while Ministers are still considering whether or not to make it official policy.
The MoJ is urgently rewriting the rulebook on how transgender prisoners should be treated as their numbers surge.
Karen White was born Stephen Wood, and had previously been jailed for rape but was transferred to New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire last year after changing his name and starting to wear wigs and women’s clothing.
While there on remand for a stabbing, White sexually assaulted two female inmates.
She was jailed for at least eight years after a judge branded her a highly manipulative predator.
It is under pressure to stop transgender criminals being able to move to female jails after the scandal last year when rapist Karen White – born a man, Stephen Wood – sexually assaulted two women behind bars.
A year ago, HM Inspectorate of Prisons quietly inserted questions about gender identity into the surveys it gives to inmates when it goes into jails in
