Speech to Keep Prisons Single Sex demonstration

Some say that campaigns to stop men being imprisoned in women’s prisons are a distraction from the main challenges of prison reform.

• Suicide, self-harm and violence
• Overcrowding and appalling living conditions
• The traumatic separation of children from their mothers
• The failure of prisons to rehabilitate

Given these big challenges, some argue, the imprisonment of a few men in women’s prisons is a minor issue. Irrelevant even.

They are wrong.

Without an objective definition of what women and men are, grounded in science, reason, and yes, common sense, you cannot run a coherent prison system.

You can’t solve the big challenges facing the prison system if you can’t get the basics right.

The consequences of this failure are clear.

Mens’ prisons remain, by default, male, single-sex institutions. Women who claim to be men remain in women’s prisons.

Women’s prisons, on the other hand, become, by default, mixed-sex institutions. A place for men claiming to be women.

What a mess.

It has long been a principle that female prisoners are housed separately from men; for good reason.

• To manage the risk of unplanned pregnancies
• To reduce the risk of male sexual exploitation of female prisoners
• To reduce stress and trauma among female prisoners, by not forcing them to share their spaces with male prisoners
• To promote the privacy and dignity of female prisoners

Housing male prisoners in women’s prisons undermines the whole rationale of women’s prisons.

It places the claims and demands of male prisoners before the needs and interests of female prisoners.

But then, female prisoners have always been treated as inconvenient add-ons in a system built around male prisoners.

Current policy on trans prisoners is just another example of this.

It is misgyny in action.

The good news is that we are winning the argument. Campaigning works. Collective action and solidarity work.

The bad news is that we still have some way to go, and victory is far from certain.

So we have to keep up the pression and be clear in our demands.

No male prisoners – not a single one – in women’s prisons.

But this demand is not also not enough.

Our prison system was created by men to contain and control violent, unruly and disruptive males.

Women are an after-thought in our prison system because it was not designed with them in mind.

Not should they even be there.

While we demand that no male prisoners should be in women’s prisons, we should also be clear about another demand.

No women in women’s prisons. They are not needed. We should close them all down.