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BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge says Idaho must provide gender confirmation surgery to a transgender inmate who has been living as a woman for years but who has continuously been housed in a men’s prison.

Barring any appeals, under the ruling Adree Edmo will become the first Idaho inmate to receive gender confirmation surgery while in Idaho Department of Correction custody.

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The ruling in Idaho’s U.S. District Court was handed down by Judge B. Lynn Winmill on Thursday. Winmill said the Idaho Department of Correction and Corizon’s refusal to provide Edmo with the surgery puts her at risk of irreparable harm.

“For more than forty years, the Supreme Court has consistently held that consciously ignoring an prisoner’s serious medical needs amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote in his ruling issued Thursday.

Edmo showed she had a serious medical need and that failure to treat her medical condition could result in significant further injury or the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain, Winmill found. She also showed that prison officials were aware of and failed to respond to her pain and medical needs, causing her to suffer harm.