Ex-prison governor says there are ‘no women’s prisons in Scotland’

A former prison governor warned there were “no women’s prisons in Scotland” due to a policy which will be subject to a judicial review next month.

Rhona Hotchkiss, a former governor of now-closed HMP Cornton Vale, which was Scotland’s national prison for women, retired in 2019.

She is now on the board of directors at Beira’s Place, a women’s refuge founded by JK Rowling, along with the author, and co-founder of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith.

Ms Hotchkiss criticised the Scottish Prison Services’ (SPS) transgender policy ahead of a hearing at the Court of Session next month, brought by For Women Scotland, in an interview with the Sunday Mail.

She said it was a “misnomer” to say that there were “any women’s prisons in Scotland”, and that if the policy was to continue then the jails should be renamed a “mixed unit”, the newspaper reported.

The current SPS rules, which are subject to a legal challenge next month, state that “when staff have enough information to reach a decision that a trans individual can be safely accommodated will they be placed in an establishment which matches their affirmed gender”.

Ms Hotchkiss said: “If the prison service doesn’t get these biological males out of women’s prisons they cannot call these women’s prisons.

“The ruling was quite clear that the Equality Act sex means biological sex.

“Therefore if you have a women’s prison, it has to be all people who are biologically women.

“It’s now a misnomer to say we have any women’s prisons in Scotland, we don’t…These are men, no matter how they identify, they shouldn’t be in women’s prisons unless they are going to stop calling it a women’s prison and start calling it a mixed unit.”

In 2023, plans to send convicted transgender rapist Isla Bryson to a women’s prison caused outrage and a policy was reviewed in 2024.

Legal documents released by For Women Scotland ahead of the judicial review stated: “The Scottish Prison Service’s current 2024 policy on the housing of transgender prisoners is unlawful, because it is predicated on the basic error in law that at least some male prisoners…might lawfully (consistently with the Equality Act 2010) be assigned to serve their sentences within the women’s prison estate.”

It added: “The inability of women prisoners to object to decisions of the SPS to choose to place within the women-only designated prison estate biological males who claim the wholly unverifiable/unfalsifiable protected characteristic of gender reassignment compounds the humiliating lack of agency which these women have within the avowedly women-only estate in prison.

“In giving these women no choice but to be incarcerated in the same accommodation as biological males, SPS has caused…what many incarcerated women will undoubtedly experience as violation of their remaining dignity as women in prison, and as creating for imprisoned women – an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive environment.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As the First Minister has made clear, the judgment of the Supreme Court is accepted by the Scottish Government.

“What we are doing – as any responsible government must – is ensuring our policies comply with all our legal obligations including, of course, the Scotland Act and European Convention on Human Rights.

“Every key area of government which is or may be affected by the Supreme Court judgment is carrying out assessments across legislation, guidance and policies – and in some areas changes have already been made.

“The Prisons Guidance has not been changed, and it can be taken from that the Scottish Government has concluded it does not need to be changed in light of the Supreme Court judgment.

“For Women Scotland has brought proceedings challenging that conclusion, as they are entitled to do.

“The matter is now before the court.

“The Scottish Government has to make difficult decisions which balance the interests and rights of individuals, often in complex situations, and this is one such situation.”

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are committed to upholding the rights, safety and wellbeing of all people living and working in our establishments.

“Along with Scottish Government, we have fully accepted the Supreme Court judgment and have engaged in detailed work around this.

“As this matter is subject to live proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment further.”