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United States News Title: Transgender inmates changing sex on the public's dime It's no secret that taxpayers foot the bill to house and feed inmates but lesser known is that the public pays for their sex changes as well. Two hundred inmates in federal custody and some in states' custody as well are in the process of switching sexes. Among the federal inmates undergoing a sex reassignment is Shaun Chapman, 29, from Philadelphia, who is serving time behind bars for mailing a death threat to a former president and charged with sending threatening letters to two more people including a federal prosecutor in Harrisburg. A judge asked Chapman at a hearing in late July the routine question of whether he used drugs or alcohol in the last 24 hours. Chapman told U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann he was wearing an estrogen patch because he is beginning the process to become a female. Meanwhile, in California, it became the first state in the nation to agree to pay for a male inmate to have a sex change operation to become female as a result of a settlement of a federal court case announced on Friday. Shiloh Quine entered the California prison system in 1980 as Rodney. Quine, who is serving a life sentence without parole for first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery, wanted the surgery. Prison officials denied it, saying it was not medically necessary, according to the Los Angeles Times. An agreement to settle her federal lawsuit seeking the surgery came with a statement from the state. It indicated that medical doctors and mental health clinicians reviewed her case and agreed she suffered from gender dysphoria that can only be treated by physically conforming her body to her psychological gender. Paving the way for that state's agreement to pay for Quine's sex change surgery was a separate court case won by another inmate, Michelle Norsworthy, who was born as Jeffrey. Norsworthy won a federal court order for surgery to reshape her genitals, but was paroled before an appellate panel heard the state's challenge to that decision. Pennsylvania also has some inmates who are receiving taxpayer-funded hormones for the purpose of changing their sex in its state prisons, said state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan Bensinger. She could not say how many, citing the patient privacy law. Hormone patches are one of a number of treatment options available to federal inmates, said U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Ed Reed. As is the case in Pennsylvania state prisons, each federal case is reviewed individually by medical staff which determine the most cost-efficient treatment. Reed said some inmates have started the transitioning process while they still were on the street. At one time, it was the policy of the Bureau of Prisons to maintain the status of inmates when they start their sentence but that is no longer the case, he said. Chapman is awaiting sentencing after he admitted to sending a Feb. 27 letter threatening to kill Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod in Harrisburg and Cheryl Kennedy, his probation officer in Williamsport. That was not the first Chapman has faced federal charges for making death threats. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to sending a letter from the Camp Hill state prison threatening to kill President Bush. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Willie Green (#0)
Wonder how many taxpayer dollars are expended on each of these?
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Interesting.
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