The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has launched an investigation into two California women's prisons to determine whether they unconstitutionally provided housing and preferential treatment to “biological male inmates.”
In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, deputy attorney general. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said investigators will look into “widespread allegations of deprivation of prisoners' rights” at the Central California Women's Facility in Madera County and the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County.
The Justice Department said in a news release that there have been allegations “of sexual assault, rape, voyeurism and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation due to the presence of men in the women's prison.”
Newsom's office referred the Times to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A spokesperson for the agency said it is “committed to providing a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people.”
The Justice Department also notified Maine Gov. Janet Mills of an investigation into allegations that the state “has allowed a biological inmate to remain housed with women despite complaints that the inmate has assaulted or harassed multiple female inmates.”
Dhillon said in a video posted on
“In California there are reports of many dozens of men thus housed in women's prisons, which of course exposes these women to sexual assault and other forms of violence and harassment which, if true, are extremely disturbing and could violate the civil rights of these women,” Dhillon said.
In 2020, Newsom signed Senate Bill 132 into law, which gives transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates in state prisons the right to be housed in either men's or women's facilities. Opponents of the law sued the following year, claiming it was unconstitutional and created an unsafe environment for women in women's facilities, and some plaintiffs claimed they were assaulted.
At the time, LGBTQ+ advocates criticized the lawsuit as baseless and harmful.
“The way they wrote [the complaint] “They are saying that trans women are men and they are putting men in women's prisons, which is completely false,” Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, which co-sponsored SB 132, previously told The Times. “They are making a statement that is neither accurate nor respectful toward trans women specifically.”
In an interview with the Times on Thursday, Salcedo said that while there may be cases where people have abused the law, he emphasized that “it is CDCR's responsibility to protect incarcerated people.”
“Not only should they be able to follow the law, but they should also be able to evaluate people appropriately,” Salcedo said.
Salcedo said he was not surprised to learn of the new Justice Department investigation, calling it “an effort by this administration to continue to deny opportunities and access to trans people in our society.”
The Women's Liberation Front, which filed the lawsuit, announced this week that a federal court had dismissed the case but they planned to appeal. In an emailed statement, Elspeth Cypher, president of the Women's Liberation Front board of directors, called the Justice Department investigation “welcome and long overdue.”
“I hope this investigation gives women in prison hope that finally someone is listening,” Cypher said.
Under the bill enacted in 2021, 1,028 inmates housed in men's prisons requested to be transferred to women's facilities, according to data as of March 4. The department had accepted 47 applications and denied 132. Another 140 applicants “changed their minds,” according to the department.
State officials said 84 inmates attempted to be transferred to men's facilities from women's prisons. Of them, seven were approved.
According to the corrections department, 2,405 inmates identify as non-binary, intersex or transgender. These populations are said to suffer excessive violence in prison. A 2007 UC Irvine study that included interviews with 39 transgender inmates found that the rate of sexual assault is 13 times higher for transgender people, with 59% of respondents reporting experiencing such encounters.
The Justice Department said Thursday that its investigation was just beginning and that it “has not reached any conclusions about the allegations in these matters.”
“I am very determined to ensure that no woman incarcerated in the United States is subject to potential rape, sexual assault or other violations of her civil rights as a condition of incarceration to satisfy some woke ideology of the state,” Dhillon said. “If these states are violating these rights and don't stop, we will fix it through litigation.”
