Stop offending and then you can change

Stuff reports:

A transgender prisoner with a taste for arson is taking legal action against the Corrections Department to get access to hormone treatment.

Brendon Forrest, who identifies as a woman, has taken a case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal after being denied expensive medical treatment in prison.

After a policy change last year, transgender inmates can request a transfer to a different prison matching the sex they identify with, instead of that on their birth certificate.

Factors to be considered include any risk the prisoner may pose to the safety of other prisoners, and vice-versa.

Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar described the situation as “nuttiness”.

“If he wants to sort himself out, or find out what gender he is that’s fine, but let it be on the outside. It shouldn’t be on the taxpayer. That’s what happens with these bush lawyers, they play merry hell with the system.”

I agree.

Forrest has a record of arson, threatening and setting a car alight with a person in it. If he stops committing crimes, then he’ll be out of prison and free to pursue treatment he desires.