A prisoner who rebelled against the presence of male prisoners in women's jails has told of her relief that the practice will finally be banned.
Jayney Sutherley made headlines after being hauled before a sheriff for misgendering Alexandria Stewart, a biological male formerly known as Alan Baker. The hairdresser was cleared after being accused of waging a four-year campaign of transphobic abuse against Stewart in Greenock Prison's female wing.
After campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) won a second crushing court victory, establishing beyond doubt that men should be held in male prisons, Sutherley said: "I cannot tell you how relieved I am because the presence of men in women's prisons has caused nothing but fear, intimidation and worse conditions for women."
She added: "It is shocking that Nicola Sturgeon and then John Swinney allowed themselves to listen to all the rubbish about trans rights being more important than women's rights. They created a huge mess and now they are being seen for the clueless people they are."
Judicial Review Victory
FWS claimed a huge victory for vulnerable women prisoners after a judge ruled in their favour in a judicial review. Lady Ross's decision obliterated the Scottish Government's claims that trans women had the human right to be held with women. The ruling also made clear the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is acting illegally by allowing men to be held with women.
Scotland carried on with the controversial prison policy despite a UK Supreme Court ruling last April – also brought by FWS – that defined "woman" in the Equality Act as referring to biological women.
Sutherley, 52, said the ruling was "common sense". She claimed most prisoners were furious that Stewart, with full male genitalia, was allowed to have a sexual relationship with tot killer Nyomi Fee in the prison.
She said: "During my time in HMP Greenock it would seem unreal what was happening. That couple were given preferential treatment, allowed to spend time in each other's cells and to be in showers together. If you said anything about it you would be at risk of being put on a rule, which could mean put in segregation, which happened to me at Greenock and at other prisons because of the case hanging over me."
She continued: "I then got dragged into court on the word of these two people for stuff I'd supposedly said. The sheriff said there was no way I could have misgendered Alex Stewart because he was a man. That was common sense as well as legally correct."
Sutherley also said it was impossible to be homophobic towards a couple who enjoyed a heterosexual relationship.
She said: "We were being told that this man and woman were in a gay relationship and that if we said otherwise we'd be for the high jump. It was nuts. And all this time we had the fear that this large man was living among us, which some of the girls took really badly."
Sutherley said she believed the ruling that has now been applied to jails will offer protection to women in wider society.
She said: "I hope this means women will be able to feel safety in private places instead of feeling their rights are not being respected."
Court Decision
In her decision published yesterday, Lady Ross wrote: "Insofar as the prisons guidance allows SPS to accommodate trans prisoners in prisons for the opposite biological sex, it is in conflict with the requirement that prison accommodation be provided separately for men and women. That constitutes a mis-statement of the law." She concluded that "in all the circumstances, the prisons guidance is unlawful."
Susan Smith of FWS said: "We are delighted to have won such a comprehensive victory in our judicial review on Scottish prison policy. All the arguments from the Scottish ministers were comprehensively rejected by the court, not least their claim that housing trans-identified male prisoners in the male estate would breach their convention rights. We should never have needed to take this case and we hope this will be the last time that we are forced to go to law to defend the rights of women."
The SPS said: "We are grateful to Lady Ross for her judgment, which we will carefully consider, at pace, along with the Scottish Government."
Earlier this year Stewart, 38, was charged with the sexual assault of a fellow inmate at HMP Greenock.
