U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf ruled that prison inmate Michelle Kosilek, who is serving life in prison for murdering his ex-wife in 1990, would be permitted to have the sex reassignment surgery on the tax payers. His attorney argued Kosilek is suffering from a mental illness, referred to as gender- identity disorder. Wolf ruled denying the surgery would violate Kosilek's Eighth Amendment Rights by denying him adequate care for his mental illness, gender identity disorder.
Kosilek strangled his wife Cheryl and dumped her body in a car at the Emerald Square Mall, north of Attelborough Massachusetts and then fled to New York state before being arrested. Kosilek was convicted of First Degree Murder in 1993 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Judge Mark Wolf feels the tax payers owe Kosilek a $20,000 surgery as treatment for his disorder. Now any person who is not in prison and who is working and contributing to society who also has the gender identity disorder and wishes to have the surgery can not have the surgery unless they have the money to pay for it. Sex reassignment surgery is considered an elective surgery according the insurance companies. The usual treatment is hormone therapy. Before Judge Mark Wolf decides he wants to waste the tax dollars of working citizens to make history, he needs to start with the people who are not in prison who wish to have the surgery and can not afford to pay for it.
In my opinion, prisons are just given way too much in prison. Kosilek had no regard or sympathy for his wife as he choked the life right out her and dumped her body like it was trash. Prisons should only have the absolute basics in prison. Cable television, computers and internet access which is a huge mistake, because they give the prisons access to the outside world which defeats the purpose of them being in prison and now a judge says they should be allowed to have sex reassignment surgery as treatment when honest hard working individuals doesn't have that right because they don't have the money to pay for it. Judge Mark Wolf that is bullshit!! How about giving that $20,000 to the poor hungry children in America who are starving? Well jeez whiz, that would actually make too much sense. Wolf should be yanked off the bench and stripped of his rope and gavel for that ignorant ruling.
The reason I am disturbed by this ruling is because there are so many people who need help, losing their homes, starving, children without adequate food and clothing or shelter and are working so hard just to keep their head of the water and this judge wants all of us to pay for a $20,000 surgery for a prisoner who is serving life in prison for murder, who will never travel outside the prison walls to ever be a productive contributing member of society to attempt to repay his debt he has forced upon the citizens of the United States.
Does a prisoner really need cable or internet access while they are in prison? Now a person on the outside can not have cable or internet if they don't have the money to pay for it. There are children who go to school that need computers and the internet, but don't have it because their parents can not afford cable or internet. It drives me ballistic to hear prisons have more rights than us on the outside working and being a productive member of society.
Yes educate prisoners, but do it by giving them a books, make them learn the old way, teaching them their Three R's if need be. Treat them for their illnesses and give them therapy for their disorders. But, do not give them rights the average person on the outside doesn't have, then tell us we have to pay for it.
Here is a few questions for you, Judge Mark Wolf. Where do you plan on putting Kosilek after he has the surgery? Legally, he would have to stay with the males. His gender at birth was a male. He lived as a male the majority of his adult life. Are you going to force the women who are prison to live with a man who killed his wife? What about the psychological damage that may be caused to women in the prison who may have had similar experiences in the past, but survived? Wouldn't that be considered causing undo psychological harm to another human being and Judge Mark Wolf and Kosilek should be held to the same laws as everyone else. What if he decides to strangle another woman? On the other hand, if you put him back in with the men, he will just be used as everyone's toy, if he already isn't. So, here is the really big question "How is that ruling in the best interest of him, the tax payers or even other people in prison. No matter how Judge Wolf tries to justify his ruling, he can't. His ruling was made with very little common sense or research. Continuing with psychotherapy and hormone therapy would have been the appropriate ruling in the best interest of Kosilek and everyone involved or burdened by the judge's ruling.
