Should State Pay for Convict's Sex Change?

Nov. 27, 2009— -- A Massachusetts inmate recently lost a bid for state-funded electrolysis treatments. But the prisoner, who has changed names from Robert to Michelle Kosilek, is still pursuing his case to have the state of Massachusetts pay for a sex-change operation in order to complete a gender transformation that started almost 20 years ago.

That puts Kosilek squarely in the middle of a debate over just what kind of medical care prisoners are entitled to, especially in an era of strained state budgets.

When Cheryl Kosilek's strangled body was found dumped in the back seat of a car in 1990, focus immediately turned to her husband Robert. Robert Kosilek had fled the state but was arrested in upstate New York and eventually returned to face charges in his wife's murder.

By the time Kosilek entered the courtroom for his trial, his hair was shoulder length. He dressed as a woman and his name was Michelle.

After he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, Kosilek sued the state to get it to pay for hormone treatments, electrolysis and a sex-change operation. Kosilek's attorneys argued that he suffered from gender identity disorder, and to deny him treatment would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" and violate the Eighth Amendment.

Kosilek won numerous lawsuits, and for several years received hormone injections and electrolysis treatments paid for by the state. Those treatments ended last October.

Kosilek is not the only transgender inmate to request or receive such care. Eight transgender inmates in Wisconsin also took their requests for medical treatments related to gender disorder to court. And a Colorado inmate asked the state to provide him with a gender identity specialist, hoping it would lead to sex-change surgery.

The situation is so vexing to prison administrators that, as recently as a month ago, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care drafted a position statement titled "Transgender Health Care in Correctional Settings."

It reads in part: "When determined to be medically necessary for a particular inmate, hormone therapy should be initiated and sex reassignment surgery considered on a case-by-case basis."

But at what cost?

Electrolysis treatments run about $500 each. A sex-change operation can cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000. Add the cost of regular hormone shots and treatment for transgender inmates adds up.