BOSTON (AP) | Massachusetts prisons officials have for the first time moved a transgender inmate from a men’s prison to a women’s prison.
Court filings show that the 54-year-old inmate, who has lived as a woman and received hormone therapy for decades, was transferred in September from MCI-Norfolk to the state women’s prison in Framingham.
The prisoner’s lawyer, Jennifer Levi, tells The Boston Globe that she thinks it’s the first time a transgender inmate anywhere in the U.S. has been moved to a facility that corresponds to her gender identity.
The Department of Correction declined to comment on the case’s specifics, but said it acted in accordance with a new Massachusetts law designed to protect transgender inmates’ rights.
The inmate, whose name wasn’t disclosed, is serving a three- to four-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense.
