On Nov. 13, 21-year-old Vicky Thompson hung herself in her jail cell. Thompson, a transgender woman from Keighley, West Yorkshire, U.K., had been placed in an all-male prison despite a request from her solicitor according to the BBC. During her trial, Thompson’s solicitor told the judge that she was “essentially a woman” having lived as a woman since her early adolescence. The solicitor requested that Thompson be placed in a woman’s prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The request, however, was ignored, and Thompson was incarcerated at Armley, Leeds, an all-male jail.
Before her incarceration, Thompson also apparently told friends that she would kill herself if she were placed in an all-male jail. While the U.K. does have laws in place that allow transgender people to be incarcerated in facilities that are aligned with their gender identities, the law also stipulates that in order for their gender identities to be considered in the placement decision their birth certificates must match. While the law allows for the acquisition of new birth certificates following transition, Thompson did not have a birth certificate that reflected her identity as a female, and thus was incarcerated as a male. Thompson’s boyfriend, Robert Steele, had remained in contact with her during her incarceration. Steele told the BBC that other inmates were harassing Thompson for expressing her gender identity.
Problems with protecting the rights, health, and safety of transgender people are not only found in the U.K., however. The United States has a terrible track record for not protecting its population of transgender individuals. One in six transgender people will be incarcerated at some point in their lives in the U.S. That number increases among transgender people of color, with 47% of African-American transgender people having been incarcerated at some point in their lives. 39.9% of transgender inmates in state and federal prisons and 26.8% of transgender inmates in local jails report not just harassment but actual, physical sexual assaults according to Bureau of Justice Statistics.
In a case much like Thompson’s here in the United States, transgender woman Ashley Diamond was denied placement in a woman’s prison. Despite being arrested for burglary, Diamond was placed in a high-security, all-male prison at the beginning of her sentence in 2012. In the years since the beginning of her incarceration, Diamond has faced multiple sexual assaults and verbal and physical harassment for her gender identity. Diamond has also been denied access to her hormone therapy treatment. Ashley Diamond has attempted suicide several times.
Diamond is now suing for her rights. Recently, she was given access to a hormone patch in response to a lawsuit. Diamond is continuing her acts of advocacy for justice for herself. Hopefully, the situation faced by both of these women can bring about change for the trans community as a whole. These stories have many rallying for prison reform. Alex Kaye, a representative of SafeT (a U.K. organization that represents transgender people) told the BBC that he hopes that Thompson’s death would bring about change in the laws regarding the placement of transgender people after their sentencing: "Any woman would not be happy to be in a male prison regardless of any gender identity history.”
