A transgender woman is now fearing for her life after being sent to an all-male prison. 

Make-up artist Tara Hudson, who has lived as a female for all of her adult life, has been jailed for 12 weeks after admitting to an assault from last year. However, despite having undergone six years of gender reconstruction surgery, she is being forced to serve her sentence in a Category-B all-male prison.

“There’s nothing male about her, nobody would know the difference,” her mother, Jackie Brooklyn, told the Bath Chronicle. “She looks like a woman. I just feel the men are going to go after her.”

Tara has been sent to the all-male HMP Bristol because she is still not “legally” seen as female. Prison authorities claim that to actually register her as a woman – which she very clearly is – they would require a Gender Recognition Certificate: a formal and costly document that serves as “proof” of a person's gender transition.

“It’s totally outrageous,” her mother added. “I don’t think she will cope well at all. It’s going to be humiliating. I just want to get my daughter into a safe, female environment where she belongs and will continue to fight the decision.”

600 men are currently incarcerated at HMP Bristol – and recent reports have claimed that the prison's violence has “risen sharply” and that not enough is being done to “protect some vulnerable prisoners.” For a women, this is obviously an extremely uncomfortably and highly dangerous environment to be in.

“We know that trans women placed in prisons with male inmates are put at a heightened risk of physical and sexual abuse and that’s a real concern,” said Leda Avgousti, Amnesty International’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advisor. “Trans inmates must absolutely not be placed with detainees where violence is a high probability.”

Change has started up a petition to allow Tara to serve her sentence at a female prison, which has already picked up nearly 25,000 signatures. You can sign up here.