An Indiana prison must provide transgender surgery to an inmate convicted of killing a baby, a federal judge ruled last week.
Jonathan C. Richardson, 42, who now identifies as female and goes by Autumn Cordellionè, was convicted in 2001 of fatally strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter. He is currently serving 55 years behind bars for reckless homicide.
In August of last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Indiana Department of Corrections on behalf of Cordellioné, demanding the prison system pay for his transgender genital surgery.
An Indiana law that took effect last year prevents taxpayer dollars from going toward transgender surgeries for prison inmates. The ACLU argued the law violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” because the surgery is a “medical necessity” for Cordellioné.
Last week, United States District Court Judge Richard Young sided with the ACLU and handed Cordellioné a win.
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“Specifically, Ms. Cordellioné has shown that her gender dysphoria is a serious medical need, and that, despite other treatments Defendant has provided her to treat her gender dysphoria, she requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
The state corrections department must now take “all reasonable actions” to provide Cordellioné with transgender genital surgery.
Indiana’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, promised to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“An Indiana inmate convicted of murder wants our taxpayers to fund their gender-altering surgery! Hoosiers do NOT want this. We’re still reviewing the court’s opinion, but you can undoubtedly expect our office to appeal this decision,” Rokita posted on X.
Cordellioné also identifies as a Muslim woman and previously sued the Chaplain at his prison after he was allegedly denied a hijab.
Cordellioné’s baby stepdaughter’s autopsy showed she had been manually strangled to death while her mother was at work, according to court documents. He told detectives that he also shook the child “in a rough manner,” the appeal documents said.
At one point while he was incarcerated, Richardson told corrections officers, “Well all I know is I killed the little f***ing bitch.”
Cordellioné began identifying as a female around 2020 while in prison. He was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and has been taking female hormones and a testosterone blocker since then, according to court documents.
He has been able to obtain “panties, make up, and form fitting clothing” in prison, but he continues to experience “serious depression and anxiety” caused by his “recognition that she is a woman trapped in a man’s body,” documents say.
The ACLU said that trans-identifying men who cannot get transgender genital surgery may try to castrate themselves to “alleviate their distress.”
Cordellioné has attempted suicide and engaged in self-harm, the lawsuit claims.
His earliest possible release date is August, 2026.
Trans-identifying male inmates have caused a number of challenges for prisons in recent years.
Cordellioné is far from the first prison inmate to demand sex reassignment surgery. The ACLU has sued successfully on behalf of other inmates demanding this procedure.
Other inmates have demanded successfully to be transferred to women’s prisons, resulting in them living alongside biologically female inmates. This has sparked lawsuits from women inmates accusing trans-identifying men of sexually abusing and even raping them.
