(SNews) – Taxpayers in California have been rolling out the red carpet for prison inmates by splashing out on expensive cosmetic surgeries, that were once exclusive to Hollywood elites, for criminals.
Since 2017, the state has blown $4 million in tax dollars on transgender treatments such as sex changes, cosmetic surgery, and more for prisoners.
California residents even paid for death row prisoners to have expensive transgender surgeries.
The extravagant spending was exposed in a report from the Washington Free Beacon.
The outlet reported that since California became the first state to offer to pay for sex changes for prisoners, millions of dollars have been spent on surgeries and procedures for 157 inmates.
Four of those inmates were on death row, according to documents obtained by the Free Beacon.
Between 2017 and July 2023, the state spent $2.5 million on vaginoplasties for 35 male prisoners.
“Vaginoplasty is surgery to create a vagina,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“It involves removing the penis, testicles, and scrotum.
“Vaginoplasty involves rearranging tissue in the genital area to create a vaginal canal.”
The surgery doesn’t turn a man into a woman, however, as this is scientifically impossible.
Another 11 male prisoners got breast implants, costing taxpayers more than $180,000.
Two men in the prison system got what were described as “facial feminization surgeries,” totaling $184,141.
Laser hair removal was also given to 69 male inmates, costing $224,000.
40 female prisoners, meanwhile, had their breasts surgically removed, costing more than $1 million.
The estimated total of all procedures comes to just under $4.1 million.
The totals included four death row inmates who received sex-change surgeries.
The costs should be increasing for the coming fiscal year as well.
Budget records show another $2.187 million slated for the 2023-24 “Integrated Gender Affirming Healthcare Program.”
These costs included hundreds of thousands in salaries for psychiatrists, social workers, a surgeon, and more.
The number of inmates who identified as transgender has skyrocketed in recent years.
The number has increased by 14 times in the last decade.
In 2014, a reported 131 inmates in California said they were transgender.
As of October 18, 2023, that figure ballooned to 1,847 and was based on prisoners simply self-identifying as such.
“This number is based on incarcerated people who self-identify using the Gender Identity Questionnaire,” the state document read.
Male inmates who claim to be “female” are often placed in women’s prisons, despite the nature of their crimes.
The California State Corrections Department reportedly does not place any limits on the types of procedures any transgender prisoners can request.
According to the report, the state had received almost than 1,000 requests for “gender-affirming” surgeries by mid-2023.
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