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Taxpayers face a £100,000 bill so nine male cons in one prison can have sex changes.

The crooks at Isle of Wight jail already dress in female clothing, including ­underwear, and are allowed to spend £25 a week on beauty products.

They are on a programme called Transgender Pathway to prepare them for their new lives as women.

Offenders must pass rigorous ­psychological tests to show they ­genuinely want to change sex and are not just looking for special treatment.

A source said: “This is not just for guys who fancy wandering around in a skirt but want to stay as a man.

“It is for those who feel they are a female trapped in a man’s body and want to have the surgery to make that change happen.

“The Prison Service has guidelines so they can live as women as far as is ­allowable under the conditions.

"They have the same rights in that respect as members of the public.

"The public may think they lost their right to be treated with kid gloves when they stepped though the prison gates.”

Read more:Transgender woman guilty of rape when she was a man sent to male prison

The prisoners will go on to seek gender realignment surgery and hormone ­treatments for a sex change on the NHS, which costs from £10,000 to £14,000.

(Image: Twitter)

A government spokesman said: ­“Prisoners receive the same NHS service as the public.

"Any person applying to be on the pathway is assessed by a range of healthcare professionals, regardless of whether they are in prison or not.”

A report by prison monitors has warned staff need more training to deal with sex change issues in jail.

It said: “A ­disproportionate amount of time is being spent on transgender issues due to the lack of understanding on these.”

Convicts who have a sex change can be later transferred to a women’s prison.

Last year, transgender Tara Hudson , 26, was moved from all-male Bristol jail to female Eastwood Park, Glos, after 140,000 people signed a petition supporting her.

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Prison chiefs launched a review of sex change inmates when two died in male prisons last November.