by Joseph Veca

Created on: June 20, 2008

Since when do murderers, much less the rest of prison population gets special rights and privileges on our dime. Much less a surgery that most insurance companies reject as "elective". Of all of the insanities US courts have perpetrated on the US taxpayers, that U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender identity disorder is totally out of order. Not to mention the insane costs of experts on both sides as well as an expert for the judge to help the judge make sense of it all. According to an Associated Press review of the case, including figures obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews, found that the correction department and its outside health care provider have spent more than $52,000 on experts to testify about an operation that would cost about $20,000.

According to an Advocate.com article on the subject "The correction department has spent about $33,000 on two experts it retained to evaluate Kosilek. Both Cynthia Osborne, a Baltimore psychotherapist, and Chester Schmidt, a psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins University, said Kosilek does not need the surgery. Schmidt's fee alone was $350 per hour."

Complicating the issue even further, according to an Associated Press article, there are security concerns, and some additional costs involved as well if the courts rule in Kosilek's favor. You have the $20,000 cost of the surgery, but then there are the costs of the round the clock guards at the hospital that are going to be needed to keep Kosilek from escaping. Then after the sex change, does Kosilek stay in the men's prison or is Kosilek to be sent to a women's prison? From what I have read to date, there are concerns about Kosilek being received unfavorably at either a men's or women's prison, thusly forcing Kosilek into a possibility of life time in solitary, just to keep him from getting killed by inmates of either sex

While this case currently applies to the Massachusetts taxpayers only, it is the precedent it will set in the future similar cases that will affect the rest of us taxpayers. Transgender inmates across the nation are awaiting the outcome of this case; one can imagine how quickly others will pursue a free Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) if Kosilek's GRS is granted.

It is hard to imagine a day when part of my paycheck provides elective surgery to sexually confused convicts yet denies the rest of us the ability, due to increased taxes, to afford even basic health care for ourselves. Then again, I shouldn't be really surprised. Prisoners have free health care, cable TV, food, work out rooms, college educations, etc. on our dime, why not add GRS to the list.

Gender Identity Disorder is a mental illness that needs to be acknowledged and treated; however, once you have been convicted of a crime and are in prison. You forfeit your right to elective treatments like electrolysis and GRS. This should be a non-issue, if you are convicted of a crime, after all, as Senator Scott Brown puts it, "When you go to prison, you lose some rights. You also lose your rights to get a sex change operation."

Learn more about this author, Joseph Veca.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.