Sources tell The Tennessee Star that 89 prisoners currently incarcerated in the Tennessee Dept of Corrections are receiving gender hormone therapy.
The program apparently began as an unpublicized policy under the Haslam administration. The policy was not available on any public website nor did it follow the normal course of action to become a regulation, which would have required public hearings.
Sources tell The Star State Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) and State Representative John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) plan on Friday to introduce an amendment to a current bill to stop this program from being used for additional prisoners going forward.
According to a copy of the amendment obtained by The Star, the proposed legislation explicitly forbids state funds:
– To administer hormone replacement therapy to state inmates incarcerated in a state penitentiary, county jail, or workhouse
– For sex reassignment surgery for state inmates incarcerated in a state penitentiary, county jail, or workhouse
However, it does provide for continuing hormone therapy for those state inmates currently receiving it.
The measure also allows, in certain circumstances, the administration of psychotropic medication to state inmates incarcerated in a state penitentiary, county jail, or workhouse “if deemed necessary by trained medical personnel.”
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Michael Patrick Leahy is the founder and CEO of the Star News Network, which includes The Tennessee Star. Follow Leahy on X at @michaelpleahy.
