Advocates for women’s rights are applauding a federal investigation into the presence of trans inmates in California prisons, claiming it puts women at risk, a move they believe is overdue.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is initiating an investigation to determine if California’s policy of allowing trans inmates to transfer to women’s correctional facilities infringes on the rights of female prisoners. This comes amid a troubling case involving a trans convict accused of raping a fellow inmate, leading to pregnancy.
“Finally,” texted Erin Friday, an attorney and women’s rights advocate. “Complete joy on our end.” Amie Ichikawa, founder of WomanIIWoman, a nonprofit offering reentry services to incarcerated women, described the investigation as “a source of hope and light for the women inside who have been completely silenced and gaslit.”
“We should never have to wait for women to get raped and beaten to decide whether their rights are being violated,” Ichikawa stated.
The DOJ’s investigation will focus on women’s prisons in California and Maine, including the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County and the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. The latter, where Ichikawa spent four years following a drug-related assault conviction in 2009, is also where a rape case has stirred advocates for gender-exclusive spaces.
Tremaine Carroll, accused of rape, was placed in the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla due to Senate Bill 132, the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. This law allows transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates to be housed according to their gender identity.
Carroll, 52, faces charges of raping three women while incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility, with one female cellmate reportedly becoming pregnant.
The court has mandated that Carroll be addressed with she/her pronouns. Prosecutor Eric DuTemple is contesting this decision, arguing that Carroll does not genuinely identify as a woman but is exploiting the system. “We contend he was/is only doing so for the benefit of [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] staff to remain at … female only facilities, to carry on his sexual exploits with females,” prosecutors stated in a November 2024 motion.
Carroll’s trial is scheduled for later this year.
Gov. Newsom’s office referred inquiries to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which asserted that placing transgender women in men’s prisons would contravene the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.
The 2003 law mandates that steps be taken to prevent rape and sexual assault in prisons. Proponents of SB 132 argue that trans women are at risk of rape in men’s facilities. “CDCR is committed to providing a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, enforcing a zero-tolerance policy as mandated by the federal legal requirements known as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA),” said spokesperson Terri Hardy. “Any suggestion that all transgender women be assigned to men’s institutions as a matter of policy is a suggestion to violate federal law,” Hardy added.
Ichikawa claims the trans prison policy creates a “huge power imbalance” and a culture of fear where women may be retraumatized if housed with men.
She maintains regular contact with female inmates and claims they face leering, threats, sexual encounters, and other unwanted interactions.
“92% of the population is a survivor of some kind of abuse, at the hands of mostly men. Putting them in the same population… is very detrimental to anyone’s rehabilitation,” Ichikawa noted.
The DOJ’s probe will investigate whether California officials have engaged in a “pattern or practice” of violating inmates’ rights at the two women’s facilities. There are 2,405 individuals identifying as transgender, nonbinary, and intersex in California prisons, according to state statistics.
Since the implementation of SB 132, 1,028 people have requested transfers to women’s prisons based on their gender identity, with 47 approved, according to the state.
Wiener, the bill’s author, criticized the DOJ investigation as an “absurd” misuse of resources.
“President Trump is the one who should be sent to a men’s prison, not the trans women who are routinely targeted and raped in men’s prisons,” Wiener stated. “But Trump and his personal lawyer Pam Bondi are more focused on scoring culture war points on the backs of trans people and immigrants than solving our country’s actual problems.”
