A federal judge says it could be cruel and unusual punishment to deprive a convicted killer from getting a sex change, and taxpayers must pick up the tab for medical treatment leading to the procedure.
Mark Brooks, who believes he’s a “girl inside” and calls himself Jessica Lewis, and is suing the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, N.Y., for $500,000 to finance a gender transfer.
His suit dates back to 2000 when authorities reportedly ignored numerous requests for treatment such as hormone therapy, electrolysis, breast implants, vocal-chord modulation and “genital reassignment,” reports the Albany Times Union.
Brooks scored a victory this week when U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn ruled the suit could proceed and that prison administrators allow him to consult with physicians about his gender-identity disorder.
Also known as gender dysphoria and transsexualism, GID is a recognized psychiatric disorder in the medical and psychiatric realm.
“Prison officials are … obliged to determine whether plaintiff has a serious medical need and, if so, to provide him with at least some treatment,” Judge Kahn wrote in a 19-page decision, according to the New York Law Journal.
Kahn says decisions about treatment need to be made by medical professionals, not prison administrators, and cited the Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment which he said can include “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.”
Ironically, if a prisoner started gender reassignment before incarceration, the state would pay the costs. But it denies it to those diagnosed after a sentence commences.
Kahn called that a “puzzling distinction.”
“Surely inmates with diabetes, schizophrenia or any other serious medical need are not denied treatment simply because their conditions were not diagnosed before incarceration,” he wrote.
Brooks, 34, was convicted in 1990 for a murder in upstate New York and is serving a sentence of 50 years to life.
Reports say he was aware of his feminine identity as a youngster but didn’t seek any treatment until reading about his condition once incarcerated.
An appeal of the ruling is reportedly under consideration.
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