Isla Bryson should not have been sent to a women’s jail, says the ex-governor of Cornton Vale.
Image source, SpindriftSending a transgender rapist to a women’s prison was an “unnecessary shambles”, its former governor said.
Rhona Hotchkiss, who ran Cornton Vale until 2017, said she would have refused to have Isla Bryson at the prison.
Bryson, 31, was remanded to the jail in Stirling after being convicted of raping two women before she changed gender. Bryson began transitioning from a man to a woman while awaiting trial.
She was moved to HMP Edinburgh men’s prison on Thursday.
It came after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that Bryson would not be allowed to serve her term at Cornton Vale.
She is due to be sentenced next month, but this has been the subject of heated debate, with safety concerns for female prisoners.
Bryson was initially held at Cornton Vale during a 72-hour segregated assessment period this week.
Ms Hotchkiss said the row over her detention was an “unnecessary shambles” that could have been avoided with specialist units for transgender inmates.
She told BBC Scotland: “I would have refused to have this person in Cornton Vale, I’m afraid. It just goes against all natural justice.
“I would have insisted there was no reason for this person to be assessed in Cornton Vale.
“It’s wrong to use segregation when it’s not strictly necessary and in my opinion that’s what has happened here.”
Isla Bryson committed the crimes in Clydebank and Glasgow in 2016 and 2019 while known as Adam Graham.
The case is believed to be the first time a trans woman has been convicted of raping women in Scotland.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said it considers the risks posed by and to the individual prisoner when deciding where they are sent.
But Ms Hotchkiss, a critic of the Scottish government’s gender reforms, suggested Bryson’s situation would become a “bigger problem” if the Gender Recognition Reform Bill was enacted.
‘Unbalancing rights’
The bill has been blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equality laws that apply across Scotland, England and Wales.
Ms Hotchkiss said: “If you can get a Gender Recognition Certificate within three months, lots of male prisoners will do it.”
She added: “We need third units for trans people and they should be in male prisons.”
Ms Hotchkiss said it was “simply not acceptable” to allow all trans prisoners to go to a jail matching their gender identity.
She told BBC Scotland: “It’s unbalancing rights. They are not considering the rights of women.
“They are only considering one side of this equation. It seems to me quite wrong.”
This video can not be played
To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown said on Wednesday that he trusted the SPS to decide on the correct venue for trans prisoners.
And Nicola Sturgeon said her government had given no “formal direction” to the prison service on where Bryson should be held.
She added: “This individual case is not about whether they are trans or not, in this individual case this is a person who’s been convicted of rape, so this individual is a rapist and a sex offender and that is what’s important.”
An SPS spokesman said decisions on where transgender prisoners were located were made “by a multi-disciplinary assessment of both risk and need”.
He added: “Such decisions seek to protect both the wellbeing and rights of the individual as well as the welfare and rights of others around them, including staff, in order to achieve an outcome that balances risks and promotes the safety of all.”