Italy builds first transgender prison

ROME, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Italy is nearing completion of a prison cell block intended exclusively for use by transgender prisoners beginning in March, officials said.

Formerly a low-security facility for women, the cell block at the Pozzale penitentiary will house about 30 inmates currently in a Florence prison, ANSA news agency reported Wednesday.

Regina Satariano, a leader of Italy's national transgender movement called it a "brilliant idea."

"(It) will not be a ghetto but an opportunity for these people and motivate them to follow programs aimed at integrating them into society once they have served their sentences," she said. "Things could not continue the way they were before, with transgenders being kept in permanent isolation.

"Women inmates don't want them and, to avoid problems, transgenders are kept away from male prisoners. Thus special areas have been created in prisons, amounting to isolated confinement," Satariano said.

There are about 60 transgender inmates in Italian prisons, officials said. Most are incarcerated for prostitution or drug-related convictions.