08 Jan Are the deaths of transgender prisoners caused by a “system failure”?
Two transgender females dead within a month of each other. Both placed in male prisons. System failure or reflective of rising number of suicide in UK prisons?
Tara Hudson, a transgender women who has lived her entire adult life as a female, who has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery and hormone treatment, was placed in a male prison after a boxing day fight. Her distraught mother created a petition on change.org which reached 159,829 signatures, with a twitter campaign using the hashtag #Iseetara, forced Bristol magistrate to resentence her to a female prison. Only 13 days later on the 13th of November Vikki Thompson, 21, also a transgender women was found dead, after being sentenced to a male prison. Another transgender women Joanne Latham, 38, was found dead on the 27th of November after hanging herself, she was also in a male prison.
Gender in the eye of the law is defined by either your birth certificate or by a gender recognising certificate, which can be applied for after 2 years of living as your desired gender. You must be over 18 and been diagnosed with gender dysphonia.
Paris Lee’s is a journalist for the guardian and Vice magazine. In 2013 she topped the pink list, as the countries most influential transgender figure. She also spent 8 months in a male prison when she was 18. Paris said: While it’s wonderful that trans people can legally change their gender in the UK, not everyone can afford a GRC and the application process is lengthy and complicated.”
Elliott Pitcher, a transgender man said: “The gender recognition certificate isn’t easy to obtain. So when someone has one it should be taken seriously but at the same time it is just a piece of paper that is given to someone after other people have decided if that person is serious or not, if the person says they are male or female that alone needs to be taken seriously.”
Many transgender people don’t have a gender recognition certificate, as it can be a very long and tedious process to complete. Many also don’t feel the need to change their gender by law, as they feel comfortable without the government’s acceptance, of what they already know. Tara Hudson, Vikki Thompson and Joanne Latham all identified as women but had not applied to change their gender legally.
Elliot Pitcher, also spoke of what the emotional effect of being sent to the wrong prison could be: “A transgender person being in the wrong prison definitely has a very bad effect on them… Especially for trans women, being put in to male prisons where they are subject to more scrutiny, bullying, violence, and sexual assault”.
“If I were to go to prison and placed in a female prison, as I don’t have a gender recognition certificate, I would be devastated, scared, upset, angry and I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“I feel that any transgender prisoner has the right to be where they feel they belong, prisoners are still humans that have basic human rights.”
The Ministry of justice’s care and management of transsexual prisoners states when someone requests to be housed in the opposite gender prison to their legal gender, a conference is called to manage the matter. “The case conference will consider all relevant factors and make a recommendation to a relevant senior manager above establishment level who will make the final decision”.
It seems in Tara, Vikki, and Joanne’s case there was a failure to protect these women. However the suicide rate in prison is estimated to be around 15 times higher than the general population. Suicide amongst prisoners is a growing problem, 2014 marked a seven-year high for self-inflicted death amongst prisoners.
Figures realised by the Ministry of Justice suggest 85,977 prisoners are male, 3,935 prisoners are female, and estimated 80 transgender prisoners in the UK. According to Inquest, a charitable organisation focusing on death in custody, in 2015, 78 prisoners commit suicide. Of these 6 are identified as women. This concludes as 0.08% of men in prison commit suicide, 0.15% of women, and 2.5% of transgender people in UK prisons 2015.
The percentage of transgender inmates who have died of self-inflicted cause this year is disproportionally higher than male or female inmates. This is perhaps affected by the failure to house them in their acquired gender prison. Vikki Thompson told friends she would commit suicide if sent to a male prison, yet not enough was done to protect her. In a 2014 survey carried out by the health and social care information centre they found 46% of transgender people 26 and under had attempted to commit suicide against around 6% of 16-24 year old cis people. Prisons should treat transgender prisoner the same as any other prisoner however they may need a different type of suicide prevention services and care, starting with housing them in a suitable gendered institution.
In the world health organisations ‘Preventing suicide in jails and prisons’ they stated that suicide is the highest cause of death globally in prisons, meaning prison suicide prevention is a very important process to be upheld and carried out appropriately for each prisoner. On arrival to prison inmates should receive both a physical medical check and a mental health check to determine high suicide risk inmates.
The world health organisation states; “Researchers have identified a number of board factors that interact to place an individual at high risk of suicide including socio-cultural factors, psychiatric conditions, biology, genetics and social stress.”
“There is a strong association between inmate suicide and housing assignment. Specifically, an inmate placed in and unable to cope with administrative segregation or other similar specialized housing assignment may also be at increased risk of suicide”
Daniel Phelps, who works with youths in correction facility’s spoke of the procedures in place to protect venerable prisoners. “If you do flag a risk of self harm, prisoners are given enhanced monitoring up to cells in health wings that has “Perspex” doors so that they are kept under constant supervision.”
In these terms Vikki Thompson was failed by the court system placing her in a stressful and undesired housing assignment, which increases risk of suicide. However Joanne Latham unlike Vikki had not requested to be housed in a female unit. Not that she could have been moved due to the nature of her crime, attempted murder, along with her being seen as a venerable prisoner. There currently is no close supervision centre of this type for women in the UK.
Paris Lee’s told me about her time in a male prison: “Personally I think we need a complete overhaul of the prisons system – I was in for 8 months, I was 18 and eager to learn and all I got was an art therapy course. Imagine what society might look like if we invested in prisoners and really prepared them to be the best versions of themselves. Better education, better mental health services and educating prison staff who, like the rest of society, still have a long way to go when it comes to understand trans people properly.”
“I hadn’t transitioned when I went to prison – that doesn’t mean I wasn’t trans, or female inside, or however you want to put it, but I looked male on the outside. So I can only tell you how that felt. Horrible. Frightening. Lonely.”
“Mental health services in prison are even worse than those provided by the Government on the outside.”
Since 2010 more than £900 million pounds has been cut from the prison operating budget and over 7000 jobs. This has put a huge strain on prison guards and has a lead to huge under staffing problems. Although both Vikki and Joanne were being monitored every hour, with more staff it would have been possible to monitor them even closer.
What can be done to prevent further deaths of transgender inmates? Paris: “Stop putting trans women in men’s prison’s for a start, allocate more money for mental health services in prisons – Lord knows it would save the Prison Service and society at large a hell of a lot of money in the long run and educate prison staff about trans issues”.
Suicide is a tragic event, which is unique in every case. There is never a definitive answer as to why that person felt they had to end their own life. You cant possible say that being put in a male prison was the only factor leading to Vikki Thompsons death, however it was a complete failure of the prison services to house her in a male unit. Joanna Latham on the other had not asked to be moved, so its unclear to what extent being in a male prison affected her.
