Jail attack inmate transgender
The inmate reportedly raped at a privately run men’s prison in South Auckland is transgender.
A family spokesperson confirmed to the Herald on Sunday the inmate was taking hormone pills to become a woman.
The transgender community says the inmate is not getting enough support after the incident which is alleged to have happened at the privately-run Wiri prison in South Auckland on Friday morning.
The inmate – described by family as having a “gentle disposition” – is being treated at a prison health unit.
The Transgender community have been poorly supported and marginalised throughout history and their rights have mostly been ignored. The news that a Transgender inmate has been raped at Serco isn’t just another failure of the private prison experiment, it is further evidence that prisoner rights come second to the rest of us and Transgender rights seem to always come last.
We can’t allow privatisation to be the excuse here, this Transgender inmate was double bunked. Corrections brought double bunking in to lower costs, they in turn banned smoking because second hand smoke might open them to being sued in the future. These cost cutting measures open prisoners to being abused by each other. Transgender prisoners have always been at greater risk in prisons, these measures make it even worse for them.
This highlights the importance of prisoners being able to communicate with their family and media and we must demand of our politicians far more use of sections 161 & 162 of the Corrections Act. This allows MP’s to enter prisons at any time to check on any inmates welfare, this is important as it allows an MP to work out what is happening before the prison can cover things up.
Unfortunately prisoner rights don’t seem to matter in NZ and Transgender prisoner rights seem to be even less respected. Personally I believe a prisoner should be housed in the prison they gender identify with, we seem very far away from that.
“Transgender prison gets attacked at Serco – who is to blame?” How about the prison that attacked them? If prison were to be housed by whatever gender they identify with then you would have a lot of male prisoners identifying as women so they could get housed in a women’s prison and potentially rape or have sex with female prisons.
The way you go on about Seco run prisons you would think that nothing bad ever happens at a state run prison. Mind you that’s the trouble with lefties, you have a nirvana complex when it comes to the ability of the state to run anything and if their is a problem with a state run institute it can be sorted out by chucking more tax payers money at it.
So how much harm do you think we should allow prisoners to endure before we say that profits should come second?
If the vulnerable inmate concerned was not in appropriate protected custody, as she should have been, given her specific transgender situation and considering the prison culture, then the company administrating the prison is to blame. In this case Serco, which has failed the prisoner badly in keeping her safe from harm.
Another instance of abuse of an inmate, arising from lack of suitable care, through privatization of a correctional facility.
No doubt it will come down to buck passing and pathetic excuses, avoiding the seriousness of the issue altogether.
It will be all Labour’s fault!
Disagree on transgender being housed with women. I’m totally and utterly in the Germaine Greer camp on transgender males. They’re not women, they’ll never be women, I don’t care if they consider lipstick application and the ability to totter in a pair of high-heels the state of womanhood, it’s not. As she states, the dumping of MTF transgender into women’s spaces is the consequence of male power brokers conception of womanhood as non-maleness. Garbage.
It’s insulting to have men dressing as women and trying to pretend they’re what you are, as if popping a few pills and having a shave makes you the same. Greer refers to the penetration of women’s spaces by “gender identified” men as another form of rape, and I’m with her on that entirely.
so we should just throw them to the wolves. would you be ok with a sixteen or seventeen year old bunking in with a pedophiles. and how much gender identity do I need. do I have to show my junk to everyone who asks to prove I’m a woman (although being Cis I pass quite well, if not up to porn standards)
Safety over sensibility Transgender people deserve as much safety as anyone else in society
Germaine Greer also said we should all suck our tampons so much like I do with the pope I’ll take her words under advisement and ignore the nonsense
Janice you really should move to the mid west in the usa, you have no idea of whats constitutes trans however as a potential contributor to the gene pool yourself God forbid, I hope you never produce a trans or intersex child, Germain Greer was an obnoxious shock jock in her hey day she was more hairy than most men and in my opinion was only a role model for the more mentally disturbed.
I know I don’t see MTF transgender as women, don’t believe I should have to accept them into female spaces just because it makes you unhappy with me if I don’t, and I’m also aware I’m no more mentally disturbed than the average person. We all have preferences and points of view, I’ve stated mine, you’ve stated yours, which seems to just be based on personal attack and little else. Saving it up for a while? Oh, well.
Jacquie are you being a bit harsh?
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Janice your “gender identitifed men” is a really clumsy description. do you mean men who identified as men, M-F transgender,F-M transgender, males under 12, males under 5
(both of the previous groups have been forcibly excluded from women’s spaces in the past)
gender is not a euphemism for female
Gabrielle. You are right. “Gender Identified” is a clumsy description. And you are also right that “gender” is not a euphemism for “female”. You have asked me what I meant by “gender identified” in the comment that I wrote. I will explain what I meant. I meant MTF transgender. Do I also mean teenage boys under the age of 18 who are yet to start “transitioning”? I think in general you have to be a bit gentler with the young and cut them more slack and allow them more leeway.
I’m sorry if my comment offends you, but I personally do not see men who’ve undergone hormonal treatment or surgery to attempt to change from men into women, as women. I just don’t. I never will. I think there should be specific provision for them in prisons and in places like swimming pool changing rooms if they are not safe or comfortable in the male versions of those places.
I don’t see that the moral onus of acceptance should lye with women, myself, that’s just my perspective. The fact that it’s well articulated by as good and independant a thinker as I believe Germaine Greer is, just gives me a sense of personal relief I suppose, lest the only argument of any validity be acceptance, with no room to articulate what a woman might think about female impersonators. So I suppose I referred to Greer because I consider her opinion to have clout in what is a sensitive issue in which perhaps someone is always going to be left out.
Transgender people can be bullies too, you know. Not just victims.
women aren’t immune either to being bullies , one of the things my mother said made her withdraw from feminist politics (back in the 70’s) was the lack of interest in women as mothers. in some workshops she couldn’t bring her sons (who are the ones I am refering to, at 35 and 39 they still identify as male) I hope I have enough respect for those who have gone before but some of what they said is definitely of its time. in 20 years time my sensibility will probably be considered ridiculous but I prefer unisex fully private toilet facilities with enough space for a wheelchair transfer
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