Men's or women's section? Accommodating trans people poses challenges for prisons. This is also shown by a current case from Traunstein. It remains to be seen where the defendant would be better off in prison, said the presiding judge at the regional court there after he sentenced an ex-policewoman and trans woman to three years and three months in prison for raping a teenager.
According to her lawyer Peter Dürr, the 55-year-old spent the first part of her pre-trial detention in the women's ward of the Bamberg prison, and the second - to his incomprehension - in the men's ward of the Munich-Stadelheim prison. “And that despite the fact that there were no problems in Bamberg.”
This is a completely different case than, for example, that of neo-Nazi Marla Svenja Liebich. Although Liebich is officially considered a woman, the prison in Chemnitz decided that she should be sent to a men's prison. In 2025 it became known that Liebich had had the gender entry changed from male to female, which critics considered a provocation. While still a man, Liebich was sentenced to prison in 2023 for, among other things, sedition.
Dürr emphasized that his client was not about provocation. She changed her gender many years ago and underwent a very complicated procedure.
The case of the ex-federal police officer is not only making national headlines because of the seriousness of the crime and because a woman who was supposed to stand up for law and order broke both in a brutal way - it also draws attention to the question of how prisons in Germany deal with people who have had their gender changed, with trans or binary people.
Because this is not regulated uniformly. “The decision as to which form of accommodation appears to be most suitable, taking into account the respective special features, is made by the prison on a case-by-case basis,” says the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. “The affected person is involved and the medical, psychological and social education services are involved.”
A change in civil status, i.e. a change in first name or gender, is taken into account “as well as numerous other factors, such as the sense of gender affiliation and gender reassignment measures that have already been carried out”.
As the State Association of Bavarian Correctional Officers emphasizes, “the personality and needs of the prisoners affected, the achievement of the prison goal as well as the security or order of the institution, including the needs of the other prisoners, must be taken into account.”
For the German Society for Trans* and Inter*sex (dgti) this doesn’t go far enough. She has long been calling for basic regulations for the treatment of trans and non-binary people in prisons. From society's perspective, these should make it binding that accommodation should be made possible according to their expressed gender and that non-binary people can be accommodated if they wish.
However, according to spokeswoman Jenny Wilken, society believes it makes sense for “sexual offenders to initially begin their detention in facilities based on their gender at birth, because there are established security and protection concepts here.”
How many cases are there?
According to a spokesman, the ministry does not know how many such cases there are in Bavaria. There is “no data available on this”.
“Based on the legal framework, transsexual and intersexual people as well as people with the marital status “diverse” or without a marital status entry are regularly housed in solitary confinement rooms,” says the ministry. “The people affected are usually given the opportunity to shower in the absence of other prisoners.”
In the case of the confessed and convicted policewoman, the Traunstein regional court also spoke of a particular sensitivity to detention. The judge said in his verdict that she was exposed to severe hostility in the Stadelheim men's prison. However, he could “imagine that things aren’t much different in the women’s department.” It remains to be seen where she would be better off. In any case: “You won’t have an easy time ahead of you.”
