My move to a women’s gaol happened nearly a decade ago.
But just this year, the NSW Government has quietly changed the prison regulations. That may force more trans women to suffer humiliations like mine in a male prison, and much, much worse.
The new regulation gives prison authorities broad powers to decide whether a prisoner is treated as a “male inmate” or a “female inmate” while in custody. In making that decision, they bear no responsibility to align the label they give you with your anatomy, your lived social reality, or your legal sex. What matters now are the ‘risks to the safety of the inmate or others’, the effect on the security and good order of the prisons, and any other factor the decision-maker considers relevant.
Crucially though, without having to worry about breaching the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), prison authorities can now place trans and gender-diverse people in prisons corresponding with the sex assigned to them at birth.