Over the years, you’ve probably heard transgender activists and their allies argue in some form that their bodies are a prison preventing them from becoming their true self. Apparently, more and more governments seem to think that because transgender inmates are already imprisoned by their own flesh and blood, where they’re incarcerated doesn’t matter all too much.

A dozen transgender prisoners that have been convicted of sexual or violent crimes are being held in women’s prisons in Scotland, the Timesreported last week. Of the 12 biologically male inmates, only one had undergone surgery and other treatments to present as the opposite gender. The other 11 merely self identify as female.

The decision to send the biologically male inmates into women’s prisons was made without any attempt to assess the impact their presence may have on female inmates, many of whom are previous victims of sexual and physical abuse.

Some advocates and experts told the Times that the scholarship surrounding these issues shows that no matter how you slice it, placing biological males in women’s prisons adversely affects the female inmates. “The evidence clearly indicates that where prisoners of the male sex, no matter how they identify, are held in women’s prisons, women in prison are negatively impacted,” Dr. Kate Coleman, director of Keep Prisons Single Sex, told the Times.

“It is always an issue to have trans women in with female prisoners and you have to think beyond the obvious which is physical or sexual threat,” said Rhona Hotchkiss, the former governor of Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling, Scotland, according to the Times. “The very fact of the presence of male-bodied prisoners among vulnerable women causes them distress and consternation.”