Trans inmates at Downview prison in Surrey sleep and shower apart from other female prisoners

Transgender prisoners judged too high-risk for women’s jails and held at a new trans prison unit are allowed to mix with female inmates, despite promises that they would be kept separate.

Inmates at Britain’s first trans prison wing at Downview, near Sutton, Surrey, who are understood to include sex offenders, join biological women for activities including fitness sessions, library and chapel visits, the Ministry of Justice confirmed. They are supervised by prison officers but the arrangement worries staff and biologically female prisoners. The vast majority of biologically female prisoners at Downview are low-risk and non-violent.

Downview operates a “very open regime, with women on free-flow most of the time”, according to the latest report of its independent monitoring board.

At least one trans prisoner has