State Ordered to Pay for Inmate's Sex Change
KAYE: Welcome back, 36 minutes past the hour. In Massachusetts a federal judge has ordered sex reassignment surgery for a transsexual prison inmate ruling it is the only adequate treatment for the inmate's gender identity disorder. Michelle Kosalic once known as Robert is serving a life sentence without parole for murdering his wife in 1990. Advocates praise the ruling as legitimate treatment of identity disorder. But critics, including Senator Scott Brown, called it an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars. CNN legal contributor Paul Callan joins me now to talk about this; Paul -- what a strange case here certainly. Is this transsexual surgery an abuse do you think of taxpayer dollars or legitimate medical treatment.</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well a great question. You know this case makes people crazy. I was discussing it in office with my attorneys who work for me and even attorneys really argue about this. Is it a waste of taxpayer money? Well, both senate candidates in Massachusetts say it is. And I think most people think it's outrageous. I mean, frankly this surgery costs about $20,000. This particular inmate, who is in prison for murder, life without parole, murdering his ex-wife -- his wife; she came into the emergency room once with a fork in her head that he had put there. And they said it was an accident. They sent her home. She was subsequently murdered. The federal judge has said under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, that it would be cruel and unusual punishment for him not to get gender reassignment surgery, in other words, to be transformed from a male into a female. This judge says the Eighth Amendment gives him that right. Now ironically citizens at home, who don't go to jail, don't have the right to get this paid for by taxpayers.</s>KAYE: Yes certainly not.</s>CALLAN: But apparently a prisoner in Massachusetts does.</s>KAYE: But this is the first decision in which a court has actually ordered a prison to provide this sex reassignment surgery as necessary medical treatment. What are the chances, do you think, it could be overturned?</s>CALLAN: Well, I think that it probably will be overturned. This is a decision by a district court judge in Massachusetts. Now, he's a federal judge and so this does have national precedent but only in a limited way. Other courts will look at it they are not bound by it. It'll now go up to the Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge makes a compelling argument in his decision. He writes over a 100 page decision. And the biggest thing going for it being affirmed, approved by the Appellate Court, is that unfortunately the Department of Corrections in Massachusetts didn't contest it in any strong way. I mean, they said, listen, our big problem with it is a security problem. If we have to move him to a woman's prison or we have to put him in a special wing of a man's prison that's going to create security problems and expense for us. But they don't contest that medically he needs the surgery. He claims that -- or his lawyers claim that he tried to commit suicide twice.</s>KAYE: Right.</s>CALLAN: He tried to castrate himself in prison. And that the only cure for his problem which is his desire to become a woman is the surgery.</s>KAYE: But I mean, you bring up an interesting point. Because if he has to be transferred, if he becomes a woman and then he has to be transferred to an all-woman's prison, you know this is a guy who was convicted of killing his wife, as we discussed. Doesn't that put those female prisoners possibly in danger?</s>CALLAN: Well, you know that's the ultimate irony of the case, Randi. Here he -- you're right. He's in prison for killing a woman, for abusing a woman over a lengthy period of time. And now what are we going to do, let's put him in a women's prison. Ironically though, he might be more in danger in a woman's prison than the women. Because think about the women in women's prisons. You've got to be a pretty -- have committed a pretty violent crime to go to prison if you're a woman, a lot of them are gang members. And actually -- he might be more in danger from them than they from him. But -- that's the ultimate result of this case. And which is why as I said at the beginning, it makes people crazy. People are saying, you can't be serious that the state of Massachusetts is going to pay for gender reassignment? They are going to turn a man into a woman and then transfer him to a woman's prison? This actually is a federal court decision that is going forward in Massachusetts.</s>KAYE: When so many states are struggling around -- around the country in this economy, you think that's where our tax dollars are going, it is pretty amazing. Paul Callan, nice to see you. Thank you.</s>CALLAN: Always nice being with us -- Randi.</s>BLACKWELL: Well, as the anniversary of September 11th approaches we're taking a closer look at a special fund. It benefits the men and women who helped New York clean up in the aftermath of the attacks.