Boston.com – By Jonathan Saltzman – Globe Staff
Like his immediate predecessor as head of the state’s prison system, Harold W. Clarke said that allowing a convicted killer to have a state-funded sex-change operation is a bad idea that would increase the risk of the prisoner escaping while traveling for the surgery and could spur violence against the inmate afterward.
But Clarke parted company yesterday with the previous commissioner, Kathleen Dennehy, in one key respect: He will not quit if a federal court orders him to allow the operation.