OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Mark Allen Campbell, 49, who is imprisoned for raping his own daughter is constitutionally entitled to get a sex change on the taxpayer’s dime, ruled U.S. District Judge James Peterson, according to The Daily Wire.
Mark Allen Campbell was sentenced to 34 years in jail after pleading guilty to first-degree sexual assault against his daughter.
Campbell now identifies himself as a transgender woman and prefers the name Nicole Rose Campbell.
Judge Peterson said, “The rights of transgender persons and sex reassignment surgery remain politically controversial, even outside the prison context.”
“And some members of the public are outraged at any effort to improve the health and well being of inmates.”
“But the true public interest lies in alleviating needless suffering by those who are dependent on the government for their care.”
“I decline to impose any further prerequisites on Campbell’s sex reassignment surgery; she has waited long enough.”
Campbell first requested a sex change operation in 2013.
The request was denied.
Campbell has been receiving female hormones and transgender counseling thanks to taxpayer money and continues to dress like a woman.
Campbell felt he was undergoing cruel and unusual punishment by not being allowed to undergo a sex change because his Eighth Amendment rights were being violated due to the Department of Corrections officials being “indifferent” to his “medical needs.”
“The Eighth Amendment requires prison healthcare professionals to exercise medical judgment when making decisions about an inmate’s treatment. And they cannot completely deny the care of a serious medical condition,” Judge Diane Sykes said.
“But cases recognizing those broad principles could not have warned these defendants that treating an inmate’s gender dysphoria with hormone therapy and deferring consideration of sex-reassignment surgery violates the Constitution.”
From The Daily Wire:
Campbell will be the first in Wisconsin to undergo such a procedure while in state custody.
A 2-1 decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DOC officials were immune to damages in the lawsuit because they could not have anticipated that denying Campbell a sex change would have violated his rights.
As The Post Millennial reported:
The dissenting judge, Diane Wood insisted that the DOC was deliberately indifferent to Campbell’s condition which could lead to self-castration, if in Campbell’s dismay at not having surgery provided Campbell would undertake to remove her penis with her own hand. Campbell’s lawyer agreed, stating that while the DOC medical director was respectful towards Campbell in allowing her to live as a woman, they refused to change their policy to accommodate her request.
