Debate contribution: Prisoners: Biological Sex
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 13 January 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Prisoners: Biological Sex
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4738099
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for acknowledging that this is a sensitive issue, because it is the first time that it has been acknowledged in the course of the questioning. Instead of trying to divide people, to other people and to further diminish and marginalise people, it is our job in the Prison Service to treat every person who arrives in our care with dignity and respect and to ensure their and every other prisoner's safety. Managing risk is what the Prison Service does, and I commend our prison officers for the excellent work that they have undertaken in that regard not just now, when it is in the headlines, but long before it appeared in the headlines and became part of the ludicrous culture war that some people are indulging in today. We ensure that every prisoner, irrespective of how they identify, their gender identity, their sexual orientation, their race, their religion, their colour or their creed, is treated with dignity and that any risk that they pose to the remainder of the prison population is properly handled on the basis of a proper risk assessment and an evidence base. That is how it should be done. It is how it is done for every prisoner. Let us be clear: prisons are, by their very nature, places where dangerous people are held. If we did not do those risk assessments based on the needs and individual risks posed by prisoners, we would have far more serious incidents in our prisons than we do at the moment. Therefore, it is important that we hold to that objective, look at each prisoner individually and ensure that other prisoners do not pose a risk to them and, crucially, that they are not a risk to other prisoners in how they are housed.
299 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.17 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.80).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.82).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.10 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.04 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.04 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.19 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.15 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.80 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.17 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.17 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.82 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.98 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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