Barcelona Women's prison has, for some weeks, held a number of trans women who have not yet legally changed their gender.
A new instruction to prison authorities, signed this Friday, formally allows trans inmates to request a transfer of prison or module based on their gender, without first having to transition medically or legally.
Wad-Ras prison, to the north east of the city, is the first to have taken three prisoners who were assigned male at birth. According to the Catalan justice department, this new directive better respects their rights, as they had previously been held in men's units, but somewhat isolated.