A woman in a male prison ‘nightmare’ on hunger strike
Marie Dean sends letter from HMP Preston following Ministry of Justice’s refusal to recognise her gender
A transgender woman has gone on hunger strike inside an all-male prison and says she is prepared to die over the government’s refusal to accept her chosen gender.
Marie Dean, 50, is being held at HMP Preston, Lancashire, where she is protesting over what she claims is a “nightmare” refusal of the Ministry of Justice to recognise she is a woman.
In a letter, dated 17 January and sent from inside the jail to friends, Dean describes feeling dehumanised and, making reference to Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who died in the Maze prison in 1981, said she would rather die than be denied her chosen gender. This follows the suicides of at least three trans women in all-male prisons during the past year.
Dean’s letter states: “I decided yesterday that I don’t want to be alive any more. I stopped eating and drinking and should die in about three, maybe four weeks. I think three [trans] girls have killed themselves now, but I think they did it too quickly. I remember Bobby Sands years ago, not eating and drinking until he died. His belief drove him to succeed.”
Dean has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) Her crimes included breaking into several homes.
Dean also claims prison officials “refused to give hair straighteners, epilator or any makeup”. Her letter surfaces after details emerged last month of how a group of four trans women prisoners at all-male HMP Doncaster agreed a suicide pact because of their alleged treatment inside. An inquest heard how one, Jenny Swift, was found hanged in her cell days after pulling out of the pact, while another told the coroner’s court that trans prisoners were “bullied by staff” at the prison, but “no-one was listening”. Friends and family have not heard from Dean since receiving the letter and are increasingly worried for her welfare.
A statement from friends, demanding that the MoJ respect the rights of trans people to prevent further tragedy, read: “We specifically request that Marie Dean has her identity as a woman immediately returned to her and that it is respected by all staff, to be given back her clothes and her makeup to allow her to maintain her dignity and for her to be moved into the female estate as quickly as possible. Leaving her in the male estate will subject her to yet more abuse, distress and transphobic behaviour.
“The truth is it appears that the Ministry of Justice are unwilling to give up judging for themselves what gender a person is regardless as to how long the person has lived in their chosen gender.
“In Marie Dean’s case, her harrowing ordeal has been both long and traumatising, she has now given up and wants to die and it’s not surprising.”
Last year the MoJ introduced guidelines for the treatment of trans prisoners, stating that individual dignity should be respected and all cases should be reviewed within three days of arrival in custody to determine where they would be best placed and that, unless a particular concession is a demonstrable risk to safety, it should be permitted.
Stripped naked and handed a blanket. That’s how the HMP Preston treated a Transgender woman. By Jez Owen, friend of Marie says
You will have
undoubtedly not escaped the news over the past few years of so many transgender
women committing suicide. We tend to
find out the news when sadly they have taken their life but this is the story
of Marie’s experience with the criminal justice system. It is likely to
continue and for her she can no longer cope and wishes to die. Having spent
eight years in the prison system she felt that her nightmare was finally over
after the parole board granted her release. Sadly her spike of hope was short
lived when she found herself forced to reside at no less than three different male
Ministry of Justice hostels.
When her requests
to move on were repeatedly ignored, told instead to move onto yet another
hostel her dream of moving forward with her life slowly started to disappear.
The staff at her first hostel in Peterborough were very supportive yet the
second hostel was in comparison a total nightmare. Not only was the hostel prevalent
with drug use it had no proper regime and residents were up at all hours
upsetting others who simply wanted to sleep. After a resident threatened to
stab Marie in the street she was moved for her own safety to yet another hostel
by the police.
Not long
after this move a knock came on her door, she was been recalled to prison. The
reason for this is still unclear but she hadn’t committed another offence and
she hadn’t harmed or threatened anyone. She hadn’t knowingly broken any of her
stringent licence conditions either so sadly back she went into the caldron of
hell, known as our failing prison system and as an over tariff IPP this is
particularly serious. Yet as soon as she
arrived back in Preston Prison she was hit with this horrible reality again.
Told to remove all her female clothes, when she refused to put on male clothing
she was put in a cell with nothing, after she pleaded with them they gave her a
blanket to cover herself, how can this treatment be justified?
It appears
that the Ministry Of Justice have a draconian attitude towards transwomen. In a
recent case against the MOJ regarding the treatment of another transgender
woman Tara Hudson, the lawyers representing the government department said “the
term Transwoman had no legal significance”.
The government appears to be denying the right to gender identity in
prisons and its argument runs counter to the ministry’s published policies on
trans prisoners and the 2016 women and qualities committee transgender inquiry.
By denying someone their identity you are exposing them to extreme harm because
you are denying them the right to be the person they know they are. It is no wonder then that so many transgender
women have ended their life within the male prison estate.
In Marie’s case she
has had the same transphobic and traumatising treatment both by the prison
service and by the probation service as they forced her to reside at Male
hostels and in one clear case exposed her to threats of significant harm. Even after serving eight years in prison, upon
recall she had her femininity forcibly removed from her again.
for this is
still unclear but she hadn’t committed another offence and she hadn’t harmed or
threatened anyone. She hadn’t knowingly broken any of her stringent licence conditions
either so sadly back she went into the caldron of hell, known as our failing
prison system and as an over tariff IPP this is particularly serious. Yet as soon as she arrived back in Preston
Prison she was hit with this horrible reality again. Told to remove all her
female clothes, when she refused to put on male clothing she was put in a cell
with nothing, after she pleaded with them they gave her a blanket to cover
herself, how can this treatment be justified?
It appears
that the Ministry Of Justice have a draconian attitude towards transwomen. In a
recent case against the MOJ regarding the treatment of another transgender
woman Tara Hudson, the lawyers representing the government department said “the
term Transwoman had no legal significance”.
The government appears to be denying the right to gender identity in
prisons and its argument runs counter to the ministry’s published policies on
trans prisoners and the 2016 women and qualities committee transgender inquiry.
By denying someone their identity you are exposing them to extreme harm because
you are denying them the right to be the person they know they are. It is no wonder then that so many transgender
women have ended their life within the male prison estate.
In Marie’s
case she has had the same transphobic and traumatising treatment both by the
prison service and by the probation service as they forced her to reside at
Male hostels and in one clear case exposed her to threats of significant harm. Even after serving eight years in prison, upon
recall she had her femininity forcibly removed from her again. The trauma of
all of this has now taken her to a point which she can nolonger cope. She
simply wants to die; the ordeal is too much she just wants the torture to
end.
Unless the
Justice system stops its abhorrent treatment of transwomen, I fear there will
be many more women like Marie who also come to the same decision.
It’s time the
MOJ sorted itself out and behaved in a way that reflects our modern society.
Picture of Marie Dean
Stop the inhumane and degrading treatment of transgender women within the justice system
We call upon the British Judicial system to immediately pull her Majesties Prison and Probation service in line with our society’s equalities law regarding the rights of transgender people.
We also specifically request that Ms Marie Dean has her identity as a woman immediately returned to her and that it is respected by all staff, to be given back her clothes and her makeup to allow her to maintain her dignity and to be moved into the female estate as quickly as possible.
Leaving her in the male estate will subject her to yet more abuse, distress and transphobic behaviour. We also call upon The Gender Clinic assessment board to stop discriminating against transgender women who are serving prison sentences , currently they are refusing them progression.
During the past year or so at least three transgender women have taken their lives due to the terrible treatment they receive during their incarceration in her majesties male prisons. The truth is it appears that the Ministry of Justice are unwilling to give up judging for themselves what gender a person is regardless as to how long the person has lived in their chosen gender.
In Marie Deans case her harrowing ordeal has been both long and traumatising, she has now given up and wants to die and it’s not surprising. She had served many years behind bars as a transgender woman, forced to reside in the male estate, exposed to physical and mental abuse whilst serving a sentence with no end date.
Finally light seemed to be at the end of the tunnel when she was granted release, two years over her six year tariff. Sadly her release wasn’t what she had hoped for because she was forced to reside at Ministry of Justice male hostels.
Marie had put in requests for move on properties but despite this her probation officer had refused, insisting she must continue to reside at Male hostels. In total she stayed in three separate hostels. In one Hostel she was exposed to a very toxic atmosphere where Spice was prevalent and going unchallenged and residence would stay up at all hours making excessive amounts of noise keeping her awake. She was moved to another hostel in Blackburn by the Police for her own safety after a resident repeatedly threatened to stab her in the street.
Sadly Marie didn’t get the opportunity to move forward with her life and was recalled to prison. She hadn’t committed another offence and she hadn’t hurt or threatened anyone. She has been accused of breaching her licence and as of yet we don’t know what part of this extremely tough licence she has allegedly broken. Marie had not knowingly broken any of her licence conditions but this is of little significance because she has now given up.
As an IPP sentenced prisoner once she is recalled she goes back to prison potentially indefinitely. This is the nature of the IPP sentence. It stays with you potentially for life. All she ever wanted to do was move forward with her life after working hard to identify the true cause of her offending. Now she has lost that and her identity. Returned to Preston Prison she was stripped of her femininity. Despite supposedly being protected by such abuse by the Prison instruction titled The Care and Management of Transgender Offenders, Preston Prison at least appears unwilling to respect her chosen gender. They seem to feel they are the ones who decide on what gender someone is and where they deem appropriate they have no hesitation forcibly removing someone’s identity.
Transgender people should not have their identity removed if they are unfortunate enough to enter our Justice system. Prison is a punishment that meaning the loss of liberty, it does not however mean that someone should have their identity stripped from them. This is in our opinion at the very least inhuman and degrading treatment. That’s sadly why so many Transgender women have ended their lives in the male prison estate. Things need to change and quickly before more of these vulnerable people die from the trauma of their ordeal. This may come to late for Marie but we are desperate to save her.
Ferguson
The mental damage inflicted on a trans woman put in the
men’s prison wing is flat out torture. Which I thought was illegal.
Marie Transgender inmate on hunger strike because she's being held in a male
prison says she ‘wants to die’
- Marie Dean, 50, has said she does not 'want to be alive anymore'
- She is being held at HMP Preston, a male prison in Lancashire
- The
transgender woman wrote to friends warning of her hunger strike
Read more........
Another transgender Woman in 2016. Tara Hudson was moved to a female prison. Thanks to a high -profile campaign led by one mother and friends along with activist 159,000 people signed her petition. Read the full story.
Rules on whether transgender prisoners go to male or female jails to be reviewed
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/08/rules-transgender-prisoners-male-female-jails-justice-review
Prisons getting even more dangerous
Violence & self-harm up, suicides....
Thursday’s (25 January 2018) Safety in Custody Statistics continue the trend from the last quarter with a welcome reduction in the number of suicides, particularly of women prisoners more than offset by yet another rise in the number of assaults and incidents of self-harm.
The latest figures cover deaths for the year to December 2017 and assaults and self harm for the year to September 2017.
Here are the main points:
Safety in Custody Statistics
The figures for self-harm, prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on staff assaults have all reached a record high.
Deaths
There were 70 apparent self-inflicted deaths, down 43% from 122 in the previous year. On a rate basis this is 0.8 instances per 1,000 prisoners. Within the female estate, there were 2 self-inflicted deaths at a rate of 0.5 per 1,000 prisoners, down from 12 incidents in the previous 12 months. There were 3 apparent homicides, the same as the previous year. Homicides in prison custody remain relatively rare, accounting for around 1% of all deaths over the last ten years. There were 184 deaths due to natural causes, a decrease of 10% from 204 in the previous year. Natural-cause deaths were at a rate of 2.1 per 1,000 prisoners.
Self Harm
The quarterly rate of incidents continued to increase in the three months to September 2017 to a record high of 11,904 incidents (up 10% on the previous quarter), 807 of which required hospital attendance, also the highest figure in the time series. The number of prisoners who self-harmed in the 12 months to September 2017 was 11,248 (a rate of 131 prisoners per 1,000), up 4% from the previous year. Those that self-harmed did so, on average, 3.8 times, although a small number of prolific self-harmers have a disproportionate impact on this figure. The majority of those who self-harm in prison do so only once a year.
Violence
In the 12 months to September 2017, there were 3,726 serious assaults, up 10% on the previous year, and the highest level in the time series. Of these, 2,961 (or 79%) were serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, up 11% on the previous year and also a record high. Over the same period, there were 787 serious assaults on staff, up 3% on the previous year. In the latest quarter, there were 999 serious assaults, up 4% on the three months to June 2017, and a new record high. Of these, 799 (or 80%) were serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults (up 4% to a new record high), and 211 were serious assaults on staff (up 3%
 |
The New ministerial team at the MOJ
The MOJ has tree new ministers out of the five following the January 2018 reshuffle what do we know about them?
On Monday I profiled the new Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor David Gauke. Today’s post looks at the rest of the new ministerial team.
Roles and responsibilities
As you can see, Rory Stewart is Minister of State replacing Dominic Raab. His roles and responsibilities are listed as:
- Prison operations, reform and industrial relations
- Probation services and reform industrial relations
- Sentencing (including out of court disposals)
- Public protections (including Parole Board, IPPs and Serious Further Offences)
- Foreign National Offenders
- Extremism
- Electronic Monitoring
-
Supporting SoS on departmental finances and transparency
Supporting SoS on departmental finances and transparency
Lucy Frazer’s role and responsibilities are listed as:
- Court services and reform (including Bills)
- Legal aid
- Legal support and fees
- Administrative justice and tribunals
- Criminal justice
- Family justice
- Supporting the Secretary of State on EU exit and international business
- Shadow Commons minister for Lord Keen portfolio (except for Civil Liabilities Bill)
- Parliamentary Minister (SIs)
Phillip Lee has remained at the MoJ and keeps his previous responsibilities:
- victims (including domestic abuse)
- female offenders
- youth justice
- offender health
- coroners, burials, inquests and inquiries
- Lammy Review
- Race Disparity Audit
- Devolved Administrations
- devolution (PCCs)
- human rights
- Lawfare
- mental capacity and Office of the Public Guardian
- transgender offenders
- veterans
Finally, Lord Keen of Elie remains MoJ spokesperson in the House of Lords. I have included the new ministers’ Twitter feeds in case you want to follow them.
Rory Stewart – Minister of State, responsible for prisons and probation
Roderick James Nugent “Rory” Stewart, (born 3 January 1973) is a British diplomat, politician, and writer. Stewart was a senior coalition official in Iraq in 2003–04. He is known for his book about this experience, The Prince of the Marshes (also published under the title Occupational Hazards), and for his 2002 walk across Afghanistan (one part of a larger walk across Asia), which served as the basis for another book, The Places in Between. In July 2008, he was appointed Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights at Harvard University.
Since May 2010, he has been the Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border; he is a former Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee and moved from being Minister of State at the Department for International Development and as Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The Parliament UK website lists his political interests as local democracy, rural affairs, broadband and foreign affairs. He led a review on the reasons why a number of British veterans become criminal offenders after returning to civilian life but stepped down before it was complete when he was appointed Chair of the Defence Committee. Many commentators were surprised that he was moved from a department where he had considerable expertise to one where he has none.
Lucy Frazer – Court Services
Lucy Frazer (born 17 May 1972) studied at Cambridge where she was President of the Cambridge Union. She worked as a barrister in commercial law, and went on to become a QC at the age of forty. She won the South East Cambridgeshire seat in the 2015 general election with 28,845 votes (48.5%), a margin of victory of 16,837. and was elected to sit on the Education Select Committee in the same year. She also sat on the Policing and Crime Bill Committee in 2016. Ms Frazer was also David Lidington’s (the previous Justice Secretary) Parliamentary Private Secretary and sat in on a number of his meetings which will make her perhaps the best prepared of the new ministerial team.
Phillip Lee – Victims, women offenders, youth and family justice
Phillip Lee is a qualified GP who was elected to parliament in 2010; he continues to work as a GP (for about 20-30 hours per month, see details on the theyworkforyou site), and he remains the sole Minister to remain in place at Petty France following this reshuffle.
Lord Keen – Advocate General for Scotland and MoJ spokeperson for the Lords
Richard Sanderson Keen has a long-standing involvement in the law having been an advocate (the equivalent of a barrister in England and Wales) in Scotland since 1980. He was chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party in 2014 and was ennobled in June 2015 when he became Advocate General for Scotland. He was the Lords spokesperson for the Home Office from April 2016 until moving to the MoJ later that year.
As an advocate he was involved in many high level cases representing Rangers Football Club and Andy Coulson among others. Lord Keen is not on Twitter.
Conclusion
Overall, the main problem facing the new MoJ team is the lack of continuity. In addition to frequent changes of Justice Secretary (5 postholders in the last three years), there is also a new Minister of State in Rory Stewart with little or no apparent knowledge of criminal justice and Sam Gyimah, the prisons and probation minister has moved on. Both David Gauke (solicitor) and Lucy Frazer (barrister and QC) are legally trained but had careers in commercial law.
Given the current parlous state of the prison and probation services, it’s a shame that a political reshuffle has delayed the momentum of reform and snuffed out again any chance of badly needed leadership in the justice arena.
A ray of light for pre-tariff parole applicants
The majority of reporting covering legal aid cuts centred on family law and advice deserts for welfare benefits and housing advice. Chris Grayling, now much loved by the middle class commuter, was able to go about his cost-saving removal of prisoners’ rights with little popular tabloid or broadsheet scrutiny. He removed the vital lifeline of independent specialist advice from a whole raft of men and women serving prison sentences; the administration of which was already directly suffering from austerity cuts.
Following the Grayling cuts Cat A prisoners, pre-tariff lifers and IPP prisoners were left with no challenge to often rushed and inaccurate risk assessments, reports that delayed their progression and took them up to their tariff while still in closed conditions.
The Ministry of Justice finally ‘saw the light’ and in January of this year acceded to the sterling work of the Howard League among others in the profession and withdrew challenges to last year’s mostly positive Administrative Court judgements on the validity of the prison law legal aid cuts.
There is much to do for those still suffering from lack of access to legal aid, but Cat A and pre-tariff clients should take some comfort from the fact that legally aided advice will soon be available to them to keep cases on track, obtain independent reports and provide specialist written reps and advocacy.
Pre-tariff clients and Cat A prisoners will now have a stronger voice and the forensic skills of the small band of prison solicitors to challenge the lethargic pace of progression towards release, and have a much improved chance of arguing for progression out of the closed prison estate before they reach tariff expiry.
However there is still a mountain to climb. The Parole Board oral hearing deferral rate still sits at 30% of listed cases. Requests granted for an oral hearing are in percentage terms at the lowest since 2014. Over 3,000 paper reviews were deferred or adjourned in 2016/17.
These numbers, covering all Parole cases, demonstrate the urgent need for those not covered by specialist advice to be developed and progressed to enable the Parole Board to make informed choices, reducing the likelihood of deferrals and delays
The statutory instrument needed to reinstate legal aid has been laid before Parliament. Realism always slows our optimism as lawyers await the exact wording of the reinstatement and the guidance that follows from the Legal Aid Agency. The reinstatement is however a victory for common sense and one that should give hope to clients worn down by the inefficiencies that are widespread in the prison estate, inefficiencies that prevent rehabilitation and progression.
Jules Purdon is a senior solicitor and advocate with Michael Purdon Solicitor a national specialist prison law practice.
https://insidetime.org/a-ray-of-light-for-pre-tariff-parole-applicants/
Comments
Katherine Gleeson
Prisons are a dangerous and there a disgrace with poor management and human rights abuses. Shifting and shuffling of justice
ministers "arguably that get worse not better. The new justice minister should be
seen to be acting and get Marie into a female prison. I’ve had enough of hearing
of failing institution. “We expect prison,s to make reasonable adjustments and
if that can’t even get a female in a female prison there is no hope.
how we “no
longer tolerate" its failure to deliver on standards and care.
I believe that the Prison Service
should introduce contractual obligations for every publicly run prison with
Governors facing dismissal if they fail to deliver. End this blame on the failings on lack of resources. "There is something amiss here which money
cannot cure. Is it wobbly management, unsure of its authority, moving too fast
round the circuit, leaving key jobs unfilled at critical times? The poor lady
what this amounts to institutional discrimination I am referring to unjust
and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual by organizations such as
government. Either because of prejudice or because of failure to take into
account the particular needs of different social identities. Im disgusted that
in 2020 we are still treating people inhumanely. I demand the government act urgently and end the inflicted mental torture.
Discrimination or harassment of transgender people violating the other person’s dignity or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It also extends to situations where a person is treated less favourably because they have rejected or submitted to the conduct. You may be being harassed on grounds of gender reassignment, if you are: humiliated, subjected to unwanted comments ignored and excluded. A lot of people put up with less favourable treatment or harassment, hoping that it will stop. But it usually won’t stop until someone takes action.
Media.
Guardian
By Russell Webster on Jan 30, 2018 05:35 am https://mail.aol.com/webmail-std/en-gb/basic# and
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