TRANSSEXUAL PRISONERS (OPINION) opinion on applications for modification of civil status records “if hormone treatments resulting in permanent physical or psychological changes, combined where appropriate with plastic surgery, have brought about an irreversible change of gender, without however requiring the removal of genital organs”. Accordingly, in accordance with Law n°2007-1545 of 30th  October 2007, the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté gives the following opinion on the management of transsexual prisoners: 1. The care structure recommended by the High Authority for Health must include care for prisoners. The multidisciplinary reference team(s) able to provide such care must be clearly identified. 2. For the time being, an existing specialist team should be identified which could provide care for transsexual prisoners. 3. An information and awareness campaign aimed at health-care personnel in the Out-patient Consultation and Care Units (UCSA) and Regional Medical and Psychiatric Departments (SMPR) should be promptly carried out. 4. Any prisoner who expresses the feeling of belonging to the other sex should be able to obtain assistance and be referred to the prison medical services. 5. Transsexual prisoners should receive clear and precise information from the UCSA about the care procedure (treatment stages, management by a multidisciplinary team, coverage of costs etc.) and from the prison administration about the implications for their conditions of detention. 6. Throughout the care procedure, transsexual prisoners should be able to receive psychological assistance within the prison if they feel the need. 7. During the preliminary differential diagnosis stage, the prison administration should, if necessary, assign transsexual prisoners to an establishment located close to the multidisciplinary team. Once the care procedure has started, the prison administration must guarantee the continuity and regularity of medical consultations that have to be conducted outside the prison and, for this purpose, the reference medical team must inform it as soon as possible of the dates of such consultations. 51