Mike at Interested-Participant notes that (click on the link and scroll up) inmate Mark Brooks wants the state to pay for his sex-change operation. I don't know if Mark Brooks's gender identity disorder is real. I do know that the treatment for such a disorder should be to treat the mental condition. Convince him he is male, he has been male and he will always be male. Give him extra male hormones if it will make him feel male. Do not turn him into a woman. There is nothing wrong with his male body requiring surgery to alter healthy tissue. The problem is in his mind, so fix his mind.
There are other mental disorders where the patient wants a healthy limb lopped off. I've heard of one case where a surgeon removed a leg. This didn't help, so the patient asked for the second leg to be removed. Luckily the surgeon refused. As a class I think these disorders are called dysmorphobia. Again, skip the surgery, fix the mind.
As regards the end of his post, prison rape is an intolerable horror which needs immediate effective attention. Mark Brooks should not get special treatment. He also should not get raped.
