Ex-governor: ‘Stop housing men in Scotland’s prisons for women’

All men who identify as women should be immediately removed from women’s jails in Scotland, a former prison governor has said.

Rhona Hotchkiss highlighted the case of Alan Baker — now known as Alexandra Stewart — who is housed on the women’s wing at HMP Greenock. Although he did not have a history of violence against women, he has now been charged with sexual assault against a female inmate.

Since February 2024, in accordance with Scottish Prison Service (SPS) guidance, men who hold a Gender Recognition Certificate have been eligible for admission or transfer to a women’s prison if they do not have a record of “violence against a female”.

Safeguarding failure

Hotchkiss, Governor of Cornton Vale in Stirling until 2017, said: “Stewart had not committed crimes of violence against women so he’d be ‘eligible’ under SPS policy, to be in the female estate.

“He was regarded by some staff as a good example of why a blanket ban on trans males in the women’s estate would be unnecessary and cruel. That reasoning and the exceptions built into the SPS policy should be deleted today.”

The SPS responded: “We are committed to upholding the rights, safety and well-being of all people living and working in our establishments. It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment further.”

Legal challenge

For Women Scotland (FWS) is currently challenging the Scottish Government’s approach to housing prisoners who identify as members of the opposite sex.

Representing the gender-critical campaign group, Aidan O’Neill KC told the Court of Session in February that the current policy is rooted in an “ideological position”, which runs counter to the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex.

He defended FWS’s legal position as “entirely straightforward”, stating that Ministers “are statutorily obliged to provide women-only prison accommodation, which is separate and distinct from that provided for male prisoners”.

Last April, the UK’s highest court ruled in favour of FWS’s challenge to Scottish Government guidance that allowed men to take women-only positions on company boards. Justices said that the terms ‘woman’, ‘man’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.