More than 60pc of Scotland’s trans prisoners began transitioning after being convicted

Mar 28, 2023 by Jill

by Daniel Sanderson, Telegraph:

More than 60 per cent of transgender prisoners behind bars in Scotland only began transitioning after they were locked up, it has emerged.

Data obtained under Freedom of Information laws state there were, at the start of last month, 19 transgender prisoners in custody, 12 of whom (63 per cent) are recorded as beginning their transition “after their date of admission”.

There were seven trans women – biological men identifying as female – being allowed to serve their sentences in the women’s estate, despite the public and political outcry this year over transgender double rapist Isla Bryson.

Bryson was initially sent to Cornton Vale women’s prison near Stirling to await sentencing after being convicted but was later moved to the male estate.

The 31-year-old only began transitioning from male to female in 2020 after being charged with raping two women. Bryson was known as Adam Graham at the time of the offences.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said in their response that “of those seven, less than five individuals in our care were recorded as beginning their transition after their date of conviction”.

The new revelations have sparked fresh condemnation of the SPS’s controversial transgender prisoner policy and fuelled claims that prisoners transitioning after being sent to prison are gaming the system for their own ends.

Read here (£)