Transgender women held in female jails are being moved to male prisons under new retrospective ban following Isla Bryson scandal

Less than five transgender women are being held in female prisons as a result of changes to the Ministry of Justice's transgender prisoner policy, it has been revealed.

It comes after the then Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, changed the law in October last year to reform the policy on the allocation of transgender prisoners. 

Under the new policy, transgender women who are sentenced to custody and have male genitalia or have been convicted of a sexual offence, would be banned from serving their sentence in a women's prison. 

Exemptions would be considered by Ministers, but only in the most exceptional cases.

It came after Isla Bryson, named Adam Graham until 2020, was convicted of raping two women prior to her transition.

Bryson was initially sent to an all-female prison in Scotland following conviction, but was subsequently removed to a male wing of a prison after the case sparked an uproar. 

Now, it has been revealed that the number of transgender women in female jails has fallen to between zero and five, according to The Telegraph.

This excludes those prisoners with a gender recognition certificate.

The Ministry of Justice will not be more specific to prevent running the risk of identifying individuals. 

Around 10 transgender women have been moved out of female prisons after they were believed to have been considered potential security risks, The Telegraph revealed. 

There were more than a dozen transgender women held in female prisons last year, but this has dropped since the policy was introduced.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Justice, published in the Offender Equalities Annual Report of 2021-2022, 168 prisoners identified as transgender female. 

A total of 42 identified as transgender male, 13 as non-binary and 11 prisoners were known to have a gender recognition certificate.

 A thorough assessment of individuals is carried out before any move is considered. 

This includes both the risk to the prisoners themselves and any risk posed to others. 

Transgender women who cannot be held in either a male or female estate can be held in a specialised unit.