Tara Hudson, 26, was born Aaron but lived as a female all her adult life and has had gender reconstruction surgery.
But when she was jailed for 12 weeks over an assault, magistrates sent her to a category B male prison because she is still classed as male on her passport.
Prison authorities this morning said they would now review the case.
Earlier reports suggested that she would be moved, but the Prison Service later confirmed that this was not the case saying they were going to review the case.
Her mother, Jackie Brooklyn, called the magistrates’ original decision ‘outrageous’ and feared for the safety of her ‘gorgeous’ daughter.
‘There’s nothing male about her, nobody would know the difference,’ she said.
Ms Brooklyn said she thought her daughter would be given an electronic tag and made to undergo an alcohol awareness course when she pleaded guilty to the 2014 assault.
She wasn’t expecting that Tara would have to serve her time at HMP Bristol, where 600 men are incarcerated.
A prison watchdog previously said HMP Bristol had an ‘unsafe if not dangerous’ atmosphere and ‘violence, confrontation and tension’ stemming from drug problems in the prison.
‘It is longstanding policy to place offenders according to their legally recognised gender,’ said a spokesperson from the Prison Service.
Amnesty International said trans women placed in prison with men faced a ‘heightened risk of physical and sexual abuse’.
‘We know that trans women placed in prisons with male inmates are put at a heightened risk of physical and sexual abuse and that’s a real concern,’ said Leda Avgousti, Amnesty’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advisor.
‘Trans inmates must absolutely not be placed with detainees where violence is a high probability.’
