Sarah Jane Baker

Sarah Jane Baker (born 1969) is a British transgender rights activist, author and artist. She created the Trans Prisoner Alliance to support trans people in prison, and was the UK's longest-serving transgender prisoner at the time of her release. Baker grew up in Camberwell, South London, in a poor family, where her father had numerous partners; she was one of 14 children. In March 1989, Baker's father asked his children to trace their stepmother who had left home. Baker, aged 20, her 18 year old brother, and two teenage male associates went to the stepmother's family residence in Thornton Heath, South London, where they found her brother. They broke in, armed with knives, kidnapped the step uncle in a stolen van, and tortured him until he was released by police after almost 24 hours. an alleged child rapist who Baker said had bullied her, attacking her three times previously. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted murder Baker's fellow fugitive was recaptured less than two weeks later, but Baker herself remained at large for about 100 days before being caught.

In September 2009, now in HM Prison Elmley in Kent, Baker wrote an article in Inside Time in which she said she loved prison. She called herself a "professional prisoner", and said that she had so much freedom from responsibility that she never wanted to be freed or paroled.

Another pen pal who befriended Baker in prison tracked down Baker's mother, who then visited Baker in prison regularly until her death in June 2013.

Baker's second book, Transgender Behind Prison Walls, in March 2017, writing as Sarah Baker, drew even more notice. It was written with the help of Baker's pen pal Pam Stockwell, who also wrote the foreword. A review called it a supportive guide written with a generous kindness and well thought out suggestions.

Baker also contributed a chapter on the bureaucracy of gender transition in prison to Prison: A Survival Guide, in 2019 by Carl Cattermole. A collection of poems and short stories that Baker wrote during her incarceration was independently published as Borstal to Bedlam: Poetry & Prose from the Gutter to the Grave in mid 2023, in support of her during her re-incarceration and prosecution at that time.

Gender transition Baker began her formal gender transition soon after publishing her first book in 2013, asking to be called Sarah. It was incorrectly reported in some newspapers that she had gender-affirming surgery paid for by the National Health Service at taxpayer expense.

In July 2019, Baker was the longest serving of approximately 140 "out", or publicly revealed, transgender prisoners in England and Wales. Baker wrote "if constant bullying, comments, sexual harassment and isolation are your idea of a soft option then I'd suggest you haven't really thought things through."

After release Baker was released on parole from prison in September 2019. Initially she lived in a bedsit, supporting herself by street performance on her violin and selling posters of her embroidery online. In 2022 her art appeared in an article in Architectural Review.

By 2020, Baker set up an advocacy group called The Transprisoner Alliance to deliver support like letters and cosmetics to transgender prisoners. In January 2023, Baker criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's blocking of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. She led a protest at the inaugural event of gender critical feminist and philosopher Kathleen Stock's The Lesbian Project.

Re-imprisonment At 8 July 2023 London Trans+ Pride Parade, Baker gave a speech to the crowd where she said "if you see a TERF, punch them in the fucking face", a statement that was videotaped and widely distributed. Baker's speech was reported to Metropolitan Police, who initially stated that the call to violence was hypothetical, but after investigating arrested her on 12 July for incitement to violence. According to the terms of her parole, she was recalled to prison pending her trial,

Supporters, led by Baker's partner, launched a "Free Sarah Jane Baker" campaign online in July, and protested outside Westminster Magistrates Court in August. On 31 August 2023, she was found not guilty by magistrate Tan Ikram, after she said that she was just trying to get on the front page of the Daily Mail, and wished she could take her words back. As of 21 October 2023, she was still imprisoned, now at HM Prison Isle of Wight, and continued to be supported by protesters from the Free Sarah Jane Baker campaign.

According to the Free Sarah Jane Baker campaign, as of November 2023, Baker's oestrogen treatment has been stopped and she has instead been offered testosterone, which the campaign says "amounts to a medical detransition". The healthcare practice providing services to the prison said this was a "temporary measure while the healthcare team fulfils their duty of care to ensure that the benefits of any drugs we prescribe outweigh any risks".

As of May 2024, Baker was released from HM Prison Isle of Wight, following a probation hearing in March 2024.