The news of Latham follows the death of transgender inmate Vikki Thompson, 21, who died last month at an all-male prison in Leeds.
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Vicky Thompson, another transgender prisoner, also in a male prison, was found dead at HMP Leeds on 13 November after telling her partner she wanted to be transferred to a women’s jail.
She was found hanging by a prison officer at HMP Woodhill on 27 November and pronounced dead two hours later.
Calls for such reform initially swelled following the case of Tara Hudson, 26, who in October was given a 12-week custodial sentence and sent to a male prison in Bristol – despite having lived as a woman her entire adult life.
Joanne Latham was discovered hanged behind a barricaded door at the all-male prison on Friday morning.
‘As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’.
Then in July 2011, when being held at Rampton secure psychiatric hospital in north Nottinghamshire and still living as a man, she tried to kill another patient by stabbing him in the neck.
Her solicitor Mohammed Hussain had advised the judge she was “essentially a woman” and asked for her to be sent to New Hall women’s prison, near Wakefield.
They attempted to resuscitate her, but she was pronounced dead at 6.20am.
A spokesman for the coroner’s service said a post-mortem examination had yet to be carried out. He said a policy review into transgender inmates was underway and confirmed that both the figures relating to trans prisoners would be collated for the first time, along with experiential accounts.
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Prison rules state convicts should be placed according to their gender “as recognised by United Kingdom law” – that usually means as stated on their birth certificate.
