Italy to open a prison dedicated to trans inmates

The BBC reported today that Italy has made plans to open a prison dedicated solely to housing trans identified inmates. The former medium security women’s prison will house up to 30 people, even though approximately 60 transgendered people are interred in other Italian prisons total, which may mean that more transgendered prisons will be opened across Italy in the future.

The main reasons for creating separate prisons are obviously security issues and also different healthcare and facility needs for trans-identified people, something that isn’t just the case in Italy. It seems pretty obvious that trans people face some pretty harrowing security issues in close quarters, so this move seems like a step in the right direction – but I can see how separating trans people from the rest of the prison population could lead to further isolation, segregation and make them easier targets by all being in one place. Is this move indicative for the rest of western prisons? Only time will tell.

Reed the whole article here.