In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon is seeking to transfer Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison so she can receive gender treatment.
NBC reports “The request was the first ever made by a transgender military inmate and set up a dilemma for the Defense Department: How to treat a soldier for a diagnosed disorder without violating long-standing military policy.”
Convicted last year for sending classified documents to Wikileaks, Manning has formally requested hormone therapy and to be able to live as a woman. However, transgenders are not allowed to serve in the U.S. military and neither are their any provision for such treatment.
Manning has been diagnosed multiple times as having with gender dysphoria, the sense of being a woman in a man’s body, and privately, some military officials have noted tat as Manning cannot be discharged from military service while serving his 35-year sentence, the denial of treatment for a diagnosed disorder could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
The Guardian reports that according to two Pentagon officials, “Last month the defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, gave the army approval to try to work out a transfer plan with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which does provide such treatment.”
The army has a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Prisons for use of several hundred beds and has sent an average of 15 to 20 prisoners a year to civilian prisons. But the circumstances are different in Manning’s case. The army normally transfers some prisoners to federal prisons after all military appeals have been exhausted and discharge from military service has been executed. Cases of national security interest are not normally approved for transfer from military custody to the federal prison system.
According to Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said: “No decision to transfer Private Manning to a civilian detention facility has been made, and any such decision will, of course, properly balance the soldier’s medical needs with our obligation to ensure she remains behind bars.”
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