£168,000 gender surgery bill for 12 inmates in one jail

TAXPAYERS face a bill of more than £168,000 as a dozen prisoners in just one sex offenders’ jail plan to have gender surgery.

The inmates are already allowed to wear women’s clothing, including underwear, and make- up from mail order catalogues.

They are held at HMP Littlehey, a men’s prison where shamed pervert celebrity agent Max Clifford was held before his death.

All the prisoners are on a special course known as the ‘Transgender Pathway’ which leads to full gender reassignment surgery.

Offenders on the scheme must pass a series of barriers, including psychological tests to prove they are genuinely seeking a new life as a woman.

They are quizzed about their motivation to seek gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

The procedure, which costs upwards of £14,000, is available on the NHS and funded by taxpayers. The figures highlight the rising number of inmates seeking gender reassignment surgery. The latest figures show there were 125 transgender prisoners in England and Wales at the end of March 2017, up from 70 a year earlier. At least four have died in custody.

Littlehey, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, houses up to 1,200 criminals.

Staff have previously received complaints from transgender inmates about delays in getting female clothing, cosmetics and toiletries. A temporary ‘pop-up shop’ was created where they can browse Avon and Very catalogues and place orders.

A report by the Independent Monitoring Board said: ‘The board is very disappointed that there remains an outstanding issue with the Avon catalogue and therefore, in contrast with other prisons, this group of prisoners has not had access to appropriate catalogue and canteen orders to enable them to live in their chosen gender.’

Earlier this year it emerged that transgender inmates can dictate how they are searched and addressed by prison officers among a series of extraordinary privileges.

They have also aroused jealousy from other inmates because of the greater freedom they enjoy in how they dress. They can also shower and wash clothes in private.

Prison authorities have been forced to issue new rules following a rapid rise in the number of transgender inmates and concern about their treatment.

Male prisoners who undergo surgery behind bars are later transferred to women’s prisons.

In Scotland, a prisoner serving a life sentence for a brutal murder is to have an operation costing the taxpayer £20,000.

Paris Green, 26, was born Peter Laing but has identified as female since 2011. She was jailed for life in 2013 for killing Robert Shankland.

She is to receive full gender reassignment surgery after a row over claims she was having sex with female inmates in her cell.

Transferred to women’s prisons