Sex-change surgery for prison inmate granted by judge

[Shana A]

Sex-change surgery for prison inmate granted by judge
By NBC News staff and wire services, NBC News

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/04/13660348-sex-change-surgery-for-prison-inmate-granted-by-judge#comments

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday ordered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to provide sex-change surgery to a transgender inmate serving life in prison for murder.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in the case of Michelle Kosilek, who was born as a man but has received hormone treatments and lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Robert Kosilek was convicted of murder in the killing of his wife in 1990.

According to The Associated Press, Wolf is the first federal judge to order prison officials to provide the surgery for a transgender inmate.

In his ruling Tuesday, Wolf found that surgery is the "only adequate treatment" for Kosilek's "serious medical need."

[Devlyn]

I live in Massachusetts, I'm paying for this. I have the answer, though. Let one of the prison medical school student wannabes do the surgery.

[Snowpaw]

Awesome :/ I don't mean to sound petty either but this is completely screwed up. Nice to know we have to bust our humps but if you murder someone or end up in prison you get a free ride on everyone else.

[dumb bunny]

I have issues with any prisoner getting more than hormones and therapy for transsexualism on government money. Its not fair to people who work their butts off in life and still can't afford it, but what taxes they pay in help to provide that to someone who killed another person. Its just not right.

[Elsa]

wooow... I am speechless - and here I am struggling to earn enough for even HRT/laser...

I just don't want to say anything else...

[MeghanAndrews]

This is just sick. So sick. No words for it even. Nice message to transpeople in the US.

[AndrewL]

While it's easy to get frustrated when someone else is given something that you've been striving for I'm trying to look at it from the opposite side. What a great victory for her, the chance to be herself and possibly be housed with people of her appropriate gender. This is also a victory for us. If it is cruel and unusual to deny sex affirmation surgery in prison, then we have a great deal of leverage for arguing medical necessity to insurance companies. While I would prefer the law-abiding have access first, I see any access as a step forward.

For what it's worth my bachelor's degree is in criminal justice and I know our system has a lot of flaws. Unjust arrest and incarceration are one of my greatest fears, especially since in my home state you cannot legally transition. I read about cases like CeCe and wonder what would happen if I was attacked and killed my assailant? What could I do as a young transman if housed is a female prison with bunk beds and corrections officers who controlled my life and refused to use my proper pronouns?

Jealousy is an dangerous thing. It is more productive if we work together to build on this victory by pressuring insurance companies with this latest evidence that forcing us to live as who we are not is improper treatment.   

[Sarah Louise]

I disagree with the judge, a convict in my opinion has lost their right to surgery.

I think this is gross injustice and misuse of taxpayer funds.

[Devlyn]

A prisoner should be able to get SRS, just not on taxpayer money. Pay for your own.

[Joelene9]

A prisoner should be able to get SRS, just not on taxpayer money. Pay for your own.

Yeah, I have to scrounge up the money as my druggist had to scrounge around the system for my pills! Sheesh!
  Joelene

[dalebert]

I'm one of the most hardcore libertarians you'll ever meet. I would abolish prisons altogether (Check out http://blackandpink.org). But meanwhile, what are they supposed to do? When you imprison someone, you take on the responsibility for their care. This person can't go get a job and start saving up for surgery. Meanwhile there's a woman in a jail for men and cases of rape and abuse of trans people are absolutely rampant.

I tend to agree that taxpayers shouldn't pay for the medical care of others, but what's a reasonable solution for this? Special prisons for trans people? I sure don't want to pay for more prisons!

[Sephirah]

A prisoner should be able to get SRS, just not on taxpayer money. Pay for your own.

Hmm

According to the judge's ruling, the Supreme Court has explained, sort of, why this is necessary.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/z_Personal/Huus/transgender.pdf

It may seem strange that in the United States citizens do not generally have a constitutional right to adequate medical care, but the Eighth Amendment promises prisoners such care. The Supreme Court recently explained the reason for this distinction:

To incarcerate, society takes from prisoners the means to provide for their own needs. Prisoners are dependent on the State for food, clothing, and necessary medical care. A prison's failure to provide sustenance for inmates may actually produce torture or a lingering death. Just as a prisoner may starve if not fed, he or she may suffer and die if not provided adequate medical care. A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including adequate medical care, is incompatible with the concept of human dignity and has no place in civilized society.

They do have a point.

From what I can gather, it's exactly the sort of acknowledgement of GID as a debilitating and potentially life-threatening condition, in need of medical treatment, that a lot of people have been fighting for, which has led to this case. I'm inclined to agree with AndrewL on this. If the assertion is that GID is something to accepted as a legitimate medical condition, and SRS is a necessary means of treatment, then that should apply to everyone. As unfair as it seems, the Eighth Amendment states that inmates should have access to adequate medical care, and bringing GID into a category of something needing that medical care may perhaps be a step towards a greater acceptance, and treatments being made more widely accessible for those of us who aren't incarcerated.

I understand totally the emotional reaction to this story. But if the state takes away the capability of a person to provide for themselves, especially with regard to their medical needs, then it does have a certain responsibility to provide for those medical needs. Inmates are still people. Perhaps at some point capable of rehabilitation and learning from their mistakes. The moment we start treating them as less than that is, in my view, the moment we forgo a part of our own humanity. Yes, they may have shown scant regard to humanity with their crimes, but two wrongs don't make a right.

[Devlyn]

You're probably right. But I think someone in this position is taking away their own ability to provide for themselves, not having the state take it from them.  Hugs, Devlyn

[dalebert]

It seems most people agree that medical care has to be provided to prisoners just like food. It would be ridiculous to lock someone in a cage and deny them all the essential needs.

So... what seems to make this contentious is whether it's considered necessary or whether it's elective surgery. Those who say it shouldn't be provided are seeing it as elective surgery. Here's the thing though. There is a woman in a man's prison. Men and women are kept segregated in prisons and a big reason for that is to protect the women from rape. That's a completely unacceptable abuse of her rights. If it takes this surgery for them to finally acknowledge her as a woman and house her accordingly, then it's far from elective.

The only other alternative I can think of is special housing for trans people. That's going to be expensive for sure.

This made me go on to wonder about trans men in prison. I know a lot of them aren't going to have genital surgery and many don't even want it if they could afford it or have the state pay for it. (I wouldn't personally in their shoes) But I imagine the most appropriate place for them is a men's prison. On the other hand, I can see them being potentially subject to a lot of abuse as well.

It's really sad. Ultimately it makes me further question the whole idea of putting people in cages like animals and even the broader notion of punitive punishment as a way of dealing with crime in our societies. As long as they're there, I just wish they would go to greater effort to protect prisoners from the aggression of other prisoners, something they fail at spectacularly.

[~RoadToTrista~]

If she's getting the surgery, then she should be getting crappy, cheap surgery, which is what I expect she'll be getting.

[Snowpaw]

Meanwhile countless transsexuals outside of prisons are struggling to afford their surgery among other things.... No just no. I hate to be that petty person but until we get a free way to get surgery she should just tough it out the way the rest of us do. We all have to wait until we can afford it, some of us have to way many years. What the hell makes her case so special that she cannot wait until they try to pass a thing to cover it under obama's health care bill? She murdered someone. She get's free surgery and meds. We didn't, we have to bust our asses to get it. Screw that. This is just so incredibly unfair to the rest of us who aren't sociopaths.

[dalebert]

What the hell makes her case so special that she cannot wait until they try to pass a thing to cover it under obama's health care bill?

Are you locked up with violent men?

[Ave]

Are you locked up with violent men?

I feel like the law allows for extenuating circumstances.

For example, if you brutally murder your wife, it might just not be for the best for public taxpayers to fund your SRS.

[dalebert]

I just don't feel like people are addressing the reality of the situation.

There's a woman locked up with men. Where do you think she should be? I realize she's already a woman and they should put her in a woman's prison as she is, but if you think this decision was controversial and inflammatory, just imagine the sparks that would fly if the judge decided to do that.

For those who aren't willing to pay for her surgery, what alternative do you suggest for addressing this obvious problem? For instance, are you willing to pay a lot more to fight the lawsuits almost certain to result in spades for putting her in a woman's prison as-is? Are you willing to pay a lot more in the long run for a special segregated prison for trans people? Do you have a less expensive suggestion? If I hear a good suggestion, it might change my mind.

[Snowpaw]

Are you locked up with violent men?

No because I am not a sociopath who killed my partner. Yes the legal "slave prisons" are far from what we need and I understand what you are pointing out, however murdering someone and asking for us to pay for your surgery while we cannot is blatantly unfair. If we have to wait sometimes years to save up, she should do the same.

Also what prison should she be in? Females solitary would probably be safest.. She will probably be in the same boat regardless of what she has down there sadly. Female prisons can be just as violent and brutal towards people who are different. Prisons are not a place for transgendered. I guess the moral is don't murder someone. :/


(fyi I fully believe prisons need a full on change, this prison for profit's bs is so screwed up that one day we may find ourselves there for something as small as smoking a joint. Things need to change and I completely agree on that.)
Edit: cause I seemed kinda bishy and I really ain't today