People Against Prisons Aotearoa

Abolitionist Demand 33: Allow for the immediate placement of all trans prisoners in a prison of their choosing.

This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

As the policy for the housing of trans people in New Zealand prisons currently stands, trans people are housed in prisons according to the sex recorded on their birth certificate.^[1] However, many trans people never get the sex on their birth certificate changed because of the cost and time required to do so.^[2] That means that most trans people in New Zealand’s prisons get placed automatically in a prison that corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth.

With the 2013 changes to the policy surrounding the housing of trans prisoners,^[3] people can now apply to be moved to a prison that matches their gender, if such a prison exists.^[4] However, this process is long, complicated, and can take months to be processed.^[5] According to the Department of Corrections, all trans prisoners in New Zealand prisons that the Department is aware of are trans women and more than half of them remain in men’s prisons.^[6] In part, this is because of the difficulty and length of time it takes to go through the application. Other trans women are not eligible to be moved because they have been convicted of a sexual offence against a person of their gender, a disqualifying factor under the regulations.^[7] Finally, some trans women, for whatever reasons, would simply prefer to stay in the prison they are in.

No Pride in Prisons’ demand is therefore in response to each of these reasons for the majority of incarcerated trans women being held in men’s prisons. We demand that trans prisoners are immediately, on induction, placed in a prison of their choosing. Incarcerated trans people must be given the freedom to decide where they are placed and be given the opportunity to change that decision if necessary. This flexibility is necessary in order to recognise that not all trans women want to be in women’s prisons or trans men in men’s prisons.

^[1] Department of Corrections, “M.03.05 Transgender and Intersex Prisoner,” Department of Corrections, 4 August 2016. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/policy_and_legislation/Prison-Operations-Manual/Movement/M.03-Specified-gender-and-age-movements/M.03-4.html.

^[2]Human Rights Commission, To Be Who I Am: Report of the Inquiry into Discrimination Experienced by Transgender People, (Wellington: Human Rights Commission, 2007), 66.

^[3]Corrections Amendment Regulations (No 2) 2013 reg 65B.

^[4] There are no prisons in New Zealand that house people who are non-binary, and it would therefore be impossible to place a non-binary person within a prison that matches their gender identity. However, No Pride in Prisons would absolutely oppose the construction of any prison solely for non-binary or trans people.

^[5] Joel Maxwell, “Corrections Fast-tracks Approval to Shift Trans Woman Prisoner from Rimutaka,” Stuff, 27 August 2015. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/71510201/corrections-fasttracks-approval-to-shift-trans-woman-prisoner-from-rimutaka.

^[6] Jeremy Lightfoot, “C73361 S Buchanan,” FYI.org.nz, 23 October 2015. https://fyi.org.nz/request/2867/response/10098/attach/html/3/C73361%20S%20Buchanan.pdf.html.

^[7] Department of Corrections, “M.03.05 Transgender and Intersex Prisoner,” Department of Corrections, 4 August 2016. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/policy_and_legislation/Prison-Operations-Manual/Movement/M.03-Specified-gender-and-age-movements/M.03-4.html.