DOJ to investigate California over housing of trans inmates

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has opened an investigation into two California women’s prisons to determine whether they unconstitutionally provided preferential housing and treatment to “biological male prisoners.”

In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon — who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — said investigators will look into “widely reported allegations of prisoner disenfranchisement” at the Central California Women’s Center in Madera County and the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County.

The Justice Department said in a press release that there had 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 “allowed a biological male inmate to remain housed with females despite complaints that the inmate assaulted or harassed multiple female inmates.”

Dhillon said in a video posted on

“In California, dozens of such men are being held 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 troubling and could violate these women’s civil rights,” Dhillon said.

In 2020, Newsom signed Senate Bill 132, which gives transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates in state prisons the right to be housed in either male or female facilities. Opponents of the law filed a lawsuit the following year, alleging it was unconstitutional and created an unsafe environment for women in women’s facilities, with some plaintiffs claiming they had been assaulted.

At the time, LGBTQ+ advocates called the lawsuit baseless and harmful.

“The way they wrote [the complaint] “They are making a statement that is not accurate and is not respectful to trans women in particular. »

In an interview with The Times on Thursday, Salcedo said that while there may be cases in which people have abused the law, she emphasized that “it is CDCR’s responsibility to protect incarcerated people.”

“They should be able to not only follow the law, but also be able to screen people appropriately,” Salcedo said.

Salcedo said she wasn’t surprised to hear about the Justice Department’s new investigation, calling it “an effort by this administration to continue to deny opportunity and access to trans people in our society.”

The Women’s Liberation Front, which filed the suit, announced this week that a federal court had thrown out the case but that it plans to appeal. In an emailed statement, Elspeth Cypher, chair of the Women’s Liberation Front board of directors, called the Justice Department’s investigation “welcome and long overdue.”

“I hope this investigation gives incarcerated women hope that finally someone is listening to them,” Cypher said.

Under the bill passed in 2021, 1,028 inmates housed in men’s prisons requested to be transferred to women’s facilities, according to March 4 data. The department had granted 47 requests and refused 132. Another 140 applicants “changed their minds,” according to the department.

State officials said 84 inmates were seeking transfer to men’s facilities from women’s prisons. Of these, seven were approved.

According to the Department of Corrections, 2,405 inmates identify as non-binary, intersex or transgender. These populations would suffer excessive violence in prison. A 2007 UC Irvine study including interviews with 39 transgender inmates found that the rate of sexual assault is 13 times higher among transgender people, with 59 percent of respondents reporting experiencing such encounters.

The Justice Department said Thursday that its investigation had only just begun and that it “has not reached any conclusions regarding the allegations in these cases.”

“I am very committed to ensuring that no incarcerated woman in the United States is subjected to potential rape, sexual assault or other violations of her civil rights as a condition of incarceration to satisfy a woke state ideology,” Dhillon said. “If these states violate these rights and they don’t stop, we will address them through litigation.”