Transgendered Virginia Prisoner Wins Appeal

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By PlanetOut.com Network

Published: 06/10/2003

A transgendered inmate won a major victory in her battle with the Virginia Department of Corrections when a federal appellate court reinstated her cruel and unusual punishment lawsuit late last month.
Ophelia Azriel De'lonta has been serving time for robbery in various state prisons since 1983.
In 1993, court records show, she began hormone treatment at the Greensville Correctional Center. But two years later, she was transferred to a facility in Mecklenburg County, where the treatments were abruptly stopped. Authorities instituted a policy at that time, stating, '...neither medical nor surgical interventions related to gender or sex change will be provided to inmates in the management of [gender identity disorder] cases.'
De'lonta subsequently suffered from nausea, itching and depression, and began compulsively mutilating her body and her genitals. She begged for medical help, specifically the resumption of estrogen and the aid of a gender specialist.
In 1999, acting as her own lawyer, she filed suit against the state prison system, and lost. Senior District Court Judge James Turk ruled that De'lonta's complaint did not state a claim under the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Instead, the judge ruled, the matter was a simple dispute over medical treatment.
De'lonta appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. In a unanimous opinion issued May 27, the three-judge panel reversed the District Court and sent the case back to trial on its merits.
The Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, wrote the panel, is triggered by 'the deprivation of [a] basic human need' that is 'sufficiently serious,' and that could or does result in serious harm to the prisoner. Prison authorities are deemed liable if they show deliberate indifference to such a situation. As such, the panel ruled that De'lonta's complaint could not be summarily dismissed as a matter of law, but must be evaluated by a trial court.
The panel took no position regarding De'lonta's treatment or any of the facts in the case.

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