Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) has barred “transgender” inmates from being housed in prisons for the opposite sex, citing concerns for the safety of female prisoners.
On October 13, NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro of the Country Liberal Party announced that her government would no longer house men claiming to be women in women’s prisons, making the NT “the first Australian jurisdiction to enact such a policy,” reported the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
According to LifeSiteNews:
“There should be no men in women’s prisons, full stop,” Finocchiaro told The Australian. “I can tell you now, here in the Northern Territory there are no blokes in women’s jails and we’re not having that here, not on my watch.”
“If you’re born a bloke, you go into a men’s prison. At the end of the day, this is really about women’s safety. It’s about women’s dignity,” she continued.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that “under the previous NT Corrections Department policy, gender-diverse inmates were housed in separate accommodation[s] where possible, or, if capacity allowed, with the gender they self-identified as.”
Finocchiaro put it more bluntly: “The former Labor government let crime spiral out of control, yet still found the time to adopt a woke transgender prisoner policy where self-declaration was enough.”
The change of policy was spurred by letters from the conservative think tank Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) to the prime minister and the leaders of every state and territory. WFA asked leaders to stop the practice of housing male inmates in women’s prisons “under the guise of gender identity.”
Males in Females’ Jails
Recent incidents involving “trans women” in Australia’s female prisons also contributed to Finocchiaro’s decision.
Last month, for instance, a man convicted of sexually abusing his five-year-old daughter — and sending videos of the abuse to an American pedophile — got himself sent to a women’s prison in the state of Victoria after “discovering” he was female.
That story spurred a female former prisoner in South Australia (SA) to reveal that she had been “violently sexually assaulted” by her cellmate, described by Women Speak Tasmania as “South Australia’s most notorious transgender prisoner: former drug trafficker, brothel owner and would-be hitman now known as Krista Richards.”
Finocchiaro said that, after receiving WFA’s letter, she ordered a strengthening of the NT’s transgender-inmate policy, including a “proper classification process” for prisoners.
WFA CEO Rachael Wong, naturally, applauded Finocchiaro’s move. “NT Chief Minister @LiaFinocchiaro showing the rest of Australia’s leaders how it’s done!” she posted on X.
Safety Cursed
Just as naturally, Australian media published “news” reports condemning Finocchiaro’s action as anti-trans.
AAP, for example, headlined its story “Trans jail ban sparks outrage amid inmate safety debate.” The “inmate safety” with which the news service was concerned, however, was that of “trans women” forced to live with other men.
Wrote AAP:
Alastair Lawrie, policy and advocacy director at the Justice and Equity Centre, said the NT government’s decision to place trans women in men’s prisons was discriminatory and wrong.
“Prisoners should be housed in correctional facilities that match their gender identity,” he told AAP on [October 15].
“Trans women are women and should be in women’s prisons. Trans men are men and should be in men’s prisons.”
Similarly, ABC titled its piece “LGBTQIA+ groups ‘horrified’ by NT leader’s comments about not detaining transgender women in female prisons.” It also included a trigger warning and repeatedly referred to inmates as “assigned” male or female “at birth.”
Both outlets cited activist groups’ claims that putting “trans women” in men’s prisons would endanger them.
AAP:
Justice Not Jails said trans women housed in male prisons experienced disproportionately high rates of sexual assault and physical violence, plus verbal abuse from prison guards.
Vital Collective, representing the sistergirl, brotherboy [“sistergirl” and brotherboy” are Aboriginal terms for transgenders] and LGBTIQAP+ community, said Ms. Finocchiaro had mislabeled trans women as men.
“The chief minister implies that sistergirls and transwomen are somehow inherently more violent,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
ABC:
The Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council said it opposed any policy changes regarding the safety of intersex people, transgender women and sistergirls in custody.
“These groups experience the highest rates of violence in custody, and reducing existing protections would increase that risk,” a spokesperson said.
The Forgotten Woman
NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam also got into the act, issuing a lengthy press release expressing “serious concerns” about Finocchiaro’s “alarmist” remarks. Yogaratnam asserted:
Public statements suggesting that trans women are a safety threat to others in custody are transmisogynistic and contrary to the evidence. National and international data show that trans women are at a far higher risk of sexual assault, harassment and self-harm when housed in men’s units.
Absent from all these expressions of outrage, of course, was any concern for the safety of actual women forced to share cells with fake women, many of them violent criminals. As the NT Department of Corrections told ABC:
As our correctional centers are designed to accommodate only men or women, the placement of trans, gender diverse or intersex prisoners must consider the risks, safety and welfare of the prisoner and of other prisoners. [Emphasis added.]
“Women,” Finocchiaro declared, “need to be protected, both in and outside of jail.”
Finocchiaro gets it — and her example may just lead to similar reforms elsewhere. According to AAP, “The Australian Christian Lobby … called on the SA government to also ban ‘biological men’ from women’s prisons.”
