Campaigners have gathered outside Holyrood to protest against transgender criminals in female prisons. Women's rights campaigners with For Women Scotland joined with reform group Keep Prisons Safe and chanted "shame" at the decision to place prisoners who have self-identified as female in Cornton Vale, Scotland's only all-female jail.
The group said urgent questions must be answered on how the Scottish Prison Service, which assesses transgender allocation based on "risk", deemed the placements suitable. Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton told the crowd that the case of double rapist Isla Bryson, who was a man known as Adam Graham at the time of the offences, exposed "major flaws" in current policy.
The rally, attended by SNP MSPs Michelle Thomson, Ash Regan and Kenneth Gibson and a handful of Conservative politicians, followed public outcry after Bryson was housed in segregation at Cornton Vale before being moved to the men's estate to await sentencing.
