The Irish Penal Reform Trust is an independent NGO that works to improve the Irish penal system through advocacy, lobbying, reports, studies, and public awareness campaigns. Its many valuable achievements include improvements in regard to overcrowding, education and training, and the housing of young...

Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2023 New Bill aims to amend the GRA 2015 and stop males being housed in Irish women’s prisons The Bill was drafted by Laoise de Brún BL and introduced to the Dáil by Peadar Tóibín TD and has been signed by Carol Nolan TD already The Gender Recognition (Amendment).

In his latest article for The Countess, prison consultant Gearóid Ó Loingsigh reviews a report published recently by the Inspector of Prisons announcing plans to develop a national policy for the “safe” custody of trans identified males. Ireland’s self ID laws put the Irish Prison Service’s policies in conflict with the UN Standard Minimum Rules...

In his latest article for The Countess, Gearóid Ó Loingsigh examines the OIP’s (Office of the Inspectorate of Prisons) latest report into conditions in Limerick Prison. He questions whether the report has been thorough enough in addressing the particular needs of women with regard to issues such as access to children, mental health care, and...

The danger of trans-identified male prisoners being housed in women’s prisons has been highlighted recently in the UK, with the Judicial Review Case brought by a female prisoner who claims she was sexually assaulted in Downview Prison by a trans-identified male prisoner with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

The recent decision taken in California to place men and women in the same wings of prisons as a response to the violence meted out to trans prisoners is a nascent issue in Colombia, but sooner or later it will get here. So it is incumbent upon us to analyse it in time.