Promoting the incarceration of males in women’s prisons
In 2020 ABC produced a content campaign in support of placing males in female prisons. This included an adult comic strip, a first-person narrative, a podcast, several news articles and brief mentions on BTN (a news spot for children). The subject of these stories is Mara, an intact male who is repeatedly violent in prison. ABC states that Mara is incarcerated for being transgender.
This is not true: Mara is incarcerated for domestic abuse.
The risks to women prisoners are not discussed. No women are interviewed or given space across the campaign. Only a transgender prison advocate is asked for comment.
Links: Cartoon, Background briefing, first article, another article 3 July 2020
ABC ignored the risk to women
Women in prison are vulnerable. The ABC advocates for males to be placed in women’s prisons.
The ABC does not consider the female prisoners who would be locked in with intact males. ABC does not consider that predatory males could identify as women in order to gain access to victims.
In California, a number of trans-identifying males have been transferred to the female estate because they identified as women. Prison authorities are handing out condoms with the expectation that women will be raped.
The ABC has not reported this development.