I can fully understand why the great unwashed would be all “I don’t want my tax dollars going on this”.
But my understanding is that US prisoners have rights to full and proper medical treatment, and there is no doubt that both sex changes and methadone for addiction are legit treatment.
It is fairly recent that they either were permitted in the UK - what happened (warning: super simplified) to allow them is that the human rights act was brought into law and judges said that prisoners had to be given proper treatment because of human rights.
But my understanding is that the reason (in some states) that US prisoners get proper healthcare is because a right for that has been found in your written constitution. So why not a right to these things as well?
What if I’m in prison, and I’m one of those people who won’t feel right unless my left leg is amputated below the knee? Should that be covered as well?
A sex change is an elective surgery. Prisoners don’t get free elective surgery.
Methadone is a method of treatment for heroin addictions. So is going ‘cold turkey’. Preventing a prisoner from getting heroin while in prison is a method of treatment.
I don’t think cold turkey is actually a medically-accepted treatment for heroin addiction: Heroin is physiologically addictive, meaning that if you go cold-turkey, you’ll go through withdrawal. And I think that in the case of opiates specifically, withdrawal can be bad enough to be actively dangerous, not just unpleasant.
Not going to participate in the thread beyond this for obvious reasons, but any reputable psychologist involved in the treatment of transsexuality will tell you it’s by no means elective.
Studies reporting everything between 31% and 50% suicide rates among transsexuals should also give you an idea of how not elective it is.
Yeah but not getting it isn’t going to cause physical pain and/or death. It may not be elective but I think it would definitely fall under cosmetic surgery. As such, I can only imagine what would happen if prisons started allowing prisoners no cost sex change operation? I’m not saying that tons of people who couldn’t afford it on their own will suddenly go out robbing banks, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to think it might happen on a smaller scale.
Methadone programs do exist in some US prisons. The NY Times had an article last week about one jail that was ending their methadone program. In Albuquerque, the warden says that it’s too expensive and doesn’t work at reducing recidivism. The article notes that some disagree with that conclusion, including the folks at New York’s Rikers Island, which has a sizable methadone program.
There are plenty of psychologists who do not necessarily support surgical modification as a treatment for transsexuals. Gender realignment surgery isn’t even mainstream enough to be covered by medical insurance yet. The medical issue is not “settled” by any means.
Too late to edit my last post, but I also wanted to clear up this misconception:
you cannot just hand a surgeon a wad of cash and have sexual reassignment surgery. NO reputable surgeon will do it. None. We’re subjected to YEARS of supervision by psychologists whose job is to determine if a client really, genuinely NEEDS surgery. If in their opinion you don’t, they won’t authorise it - and every surgeon will demand a letter from two shrinks confirming your diagnosis and that surgery is necessary and indicated as the only effective treatment. The process is long, humiliating and emotionally exhausting, but we go through it because we need to. So this isn’t something anyone can just do lightly - or electively.
They’re not reputable. Among reputable, respectable psychologists the issue has been settled for a long time. And this is the kind of idiocy that made me want to keep out of this thread, so with that, I’m unsubscribing and won’t be reading any more.
This is the literature by the reputable people btw. WPATH, formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association publishes what is known as the “standards of care” which psychologists, surgeons, endocrinologists involved in transsexual treatment all follow.
Okay, now I’m done. I don’t particularly care to read what a bunch of blind men think about how we should be treating the elephant.
I think I used the wrong term above. Where I said gender realignment surgery, I meant gender reassignment surgery. I don’t think gender realignment is actually a thing.
Okay, so after that post I decided to start looking deeper into this issue, and I have to say I’m pretty humbled. Gender reassignment surgery is indeed covered by insurance, and lawsuits have successfully challenged a provider’s right to refuse to cover them. The medical necessity of the surgeries does seem to be “settled,” after just a brief bit of looking.
I apologize for my ignorance. I’m still not sure what I think about prisons offering the surgery, though. It seems like most surgeons won’t do them because of liability issues. Should we expect the government to accept that liability? On the other hand, should a transsexual prisoner be allowed to sue because they didn’t receive this necessary treatment? It’s a bigger mess of an issue than I originally assumed.
Last time I checked, prisons in the US were legally required to maintain whatever current treatment a transsexual is getting. If they are on hormones, the prison must continue to provide hormones. This can of course lead, for example, to a pre op mtf convict who looks perfectly female but still has a penis, is legally classified as male and is kept with male inmates.
I doubt very much that there are “plenty”. I further doubt that these shrinks are seen as reputable or even capable by their peers. They are on the same level as psychologists who insist that gays can be cured.
What exactly do you mean by therapy? Psychological counseling is required for any trans patient. You can’t just go to a doctor and say ‘I want SRS’ and get it. You can’t even just go to a doctor and say ‘I want hormone replacement therapy’ and get it. You need some forms from your therapist.
As for a cite, I’ll look if you really want one but I’ve NEVER come across any cite saying that some alternate therapy was useful. I’ve seen plenty of cites showing how the suicide rate is vastly lower in transsexuals who have transitioned.