Corrections commissioner opposes sex-change surgery for inmate

May 9, 2008 02:23 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

The new commissioner of the state's prison system says he strongly opposes allowing a convicted killer to have a state-funded sex-change operation, saying it would create "insurmountable" safety and security problems.

A month after telling reporters that he would reexamine the federal lawsuit by Michelle Kosilek seeking the operation, Harold Clarke, director of the Department of Correction, has adopted a position similar to that of his predecessor, Kathleen Dennehy.

In papers filed in federal court Wednesday, Clarke said Kosilek would pose an escape risk if the inmate underwent surgery out of state. He also said the inmate could not be placed, after surgery, at MCI-Framingham, the state's prison for women, because Kosilek would likely threaten female inmates and be assaulted by them.

"I do not question the sincerity of Michelle Kosilek's belief that sex reassignment surgery may reduce any anxiety caused by a gender identity disorder," Clarke wrote in a three-page memorandum. "However, based on my review of the designated trial testimony and my many years of experience as a corrections professional, I believe that the safety and security concerns presented by the prospect of undertaking sex reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek are insurmountable."

The prisoner born as Robert Kosilek strangled his wife, Cheryl, in Mansfield in 1990 and fled to New York State. He legally changed his name to Michelle in 1993 and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk. Kosilek is serving a life sentence.

Joseph L. Sulman, one of the lawyers representing Kosilek at no charge, said today he was disappointed in Clarke's position but looked forward to questioning the commissioner in court Monday.

US Chief District Judge Mark L. Wolf asked Clarke to testify in the latest chapter of Kosilek's legal campaign for a sex change.

In 2002, Wolf ruled that prison officials had failed to adequately treat Kosilek's gender identity disorder, but he stopped short of ordering the state to permit the surgery. Wolf found that the department had not violated Kosilek's Eighth Amendment rights prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment because the prisoner did not prove that the correction commissioner had shown "deliberate indifference" to Kosilek's medical needs.

Kosilek, 58, sued again in 2005, saying the hormone treatments, laser hair removal, and psychotherapy she has received since Wolf's 2002 ruling were insufficient to address her anxiety and depression.

For the past year, Wolf has been weighing whether to order the state to allow the surgery. Medical specialists who have testified for Kosilek, as well as several doctors hired by the prison system's health provider, have said they believe surgery is medically necessary for Kosilek, who has twice attempted suicide in prison. Other specialists hired by the department have disputed that assessment.