UPDATED: 3:10 p.m. GMT, with Prison Service comment
LONDON -- A second transgender woman has been found dead at a male prison in England within the space of a few weeks.
A guard found Joanne Latham, 38, dead in her cell at Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes on Friday. She was serving life sentences for attempted murders.
Last month, 21-year-old Vicky Thompson was found dead at Armley prison in Leeds. She had told friends she would kill herself if she was sent to a men's prison. An investigation was launched into her death. The Prison Service told Mashable they had no further comment on the investigation.
Latham had changed her name over the summer, and was previously known as Edward Adam Brown or Edward Latham. She was given a life sentence in 2001 under the name Edward Latham, for trying to murder her flatmate by lacing a drink with mercury. She was given two additional life sentences in 2007 and 2011 for trying to kill another prisoner and another patient at a psychiatric hospital.
Latham was being held in the close supervision centre (CSC) unit of the prison. The unit holds about 60 prisoners, usually those who have committed serious offences and then offended again while in prison and are considered too dangerous for the regular prison population.
The Guardian reported that Latham had not asked for a transfer to a women's prison, but she wouldn't have been eligible for one as there aren't any women's CSC units.
GLBT rights groups expressed sadness online over Latham's death:
#JoanneLatham's death is extremely saddening. We must see reform to ensure trans prisoners are supported and not put at risk— Stonewall (@stonewalluk) December 1, 2015
Trans prisoner found dead - HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes - another unecessary tragedy https://t.co/ozsMQaBjBO— Stephen Whittle (@stephenwhittle) December 1, 2015
The Prison Service said in a statement:
"HMP Woodhill prisoner Joanne Latham (DOB 31/01/1977) was found unresponsive on the morning of Friday 27 November. Staff and paramedics attempted resuscitation but she was pronounced dead at 6:20 a.m. As with all deaths in custody there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman."
A review of the policies on transgender prisoners in under way and guidance will be implemented, prisons minister Andrew Selous told MPs on Nov. 20. The government has also committed to providing the numbers of transgender prisoners for the first time.
After the death of Vicky Thompson, Baroness Barker told the House of Lords that placing transgender women in male prisons was dangerous.
"Prisoners should be housed in the estate of their acquired gender in the first instance, and only moved to the other estate following a thorough investigation that has ruled out all other safe alternatives," she said.