Medical procedures on transgender inmates cost Washington state $500,000 over four years

Transgender treatments for inmates have cost Washington state $592,577 since 2020, according to reporter Jason Rantz after analyzing Department of Corrections (DOC) documents. Some of the costs were covered by Medicaid and others by the state.

Four years ago, the activist organization Disability Rights Washington reached a settlement with the DOC after filing a lawsuit to make some prisoners eligible for transgender surgeries and hormone treatments. Rantz explained that, since then, 44 prisoners in nine correctional facilities received treatments paid for by taxpayers.

The conservative commentator also argued that access to medical procedures does not depend on the sentence is or how much time the inmate has left to serve, which is why eight prisoners were released after undergoing the treatments.

The information comes as the relocation of prisoners based on their self-identified gender became a topic of national debate, fueled by episodes such as that of a California inmate who identified as a woman, who was transferred to a men's prison after being accused of rape.

In another high-profile case, this one in Washington, Bryan Kim was relocated to a men's prison after he was found having sex with a female inmate at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (the institution that housed the most transgender people according to the documents analyzed by Rantz, with 12). Kim, incarcerated for murdering his parents, was set to receive transgender surgery after his relocation, The National Review reported. It is not known at this time whether the treatment was carried out.

Transgender treatments: A topic in the 2024 presidential election

The use of public money to cover transgender treatments became one of the flashpoints of the campaign, with Republicans noting that Kamala Harris supported the measure.

In a video of shared by Trump's campaign team, the vice president can be seen bragging that she had ensured that "they changed the policy in the state of California so that every transgender inmate in the prision system would have access to the medical care that they desired and need. ... I believe it was the first [such policy] in the country."

Catholic Vote also took aim at Harris for promoting "thousands" of surgeries on minors, paid for with taxpayer money.