A UK-based prisoner was shifted to the women’s cell after undergoing a sex change operation. Jessica Winfield, formerly known as Martin Ponting, was convicted of rape and was serving a life sentence at a top security prison.
She had been complaining of being treated badly for being a male transsexual. She even wrote to the prisoner’s newspaper, saying that she has changed her name and that she is serious about her gender and does not feel right being a man.
However, one of Ponting’s victims is not happy. There are not enough words to describe him and the evil he has done, she told The Sun. "He may have changed physically but his brain is still the same."
"He may have changed physically but his brain is still the same."
Winfield had the surgery behind bars, and the surgery cost 10,000 pounds. Many charities and organisations for victims have spoken out about the hypocrisy of the National Health Services for funding the operation, when victims are still struggling to make ends meet.
Transgenders in the UK won the right to survey in 1999, and the first prisoner was transferred to the prison aligning with their sex a decade later.
In India, transgender prisoners often face harassment and abuse. The status of transgenders in Indian prisons is still murky, with only Kerala and Karnataka having separate blocks for them.
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