Mass. prison head opposes sex-change surgery for killer
BOSTON -- The commissioner of the state's prison system says allowing a convicted killer to get a sex-change operation would pose "insurmountable" safety and security problems.
Department of Correction Commissioner Harold Clarke outlined his opposition in court papers filed this week in response to a lawsuit filed by inmate Michelle Kosilek.
Clarke said allowing the surgery could make Kosilek a target for assault by other inmates.
Clarke had said he would re-examine the case last month. In court papers, he cites many of the same concerns cited by former DOC Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy.
Robert Kosilek was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife in 1990. Kosilek legally changed her name to Michelle in 1993 and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
