Transgender Inmates Accuse California of Refusing to ‘Fully Implement’ Law Allowing Males in Women’s Prisons

An attorney for a group of transgender inmates has accused California prison officials of refusing to “fully implement” a state law allowing inmates to transfer to a prison facility formerly reserved for the opposite sex, arguing that the officials “regularly violate” the law.

The law, SB132, took effect last year and was later challenged in federal court in November by the Women’s Liberation Front on behalf of four female inmates, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The lawsuit argued the measure would endanger female inmates by allowing men to pose as women.

The group said the law would violate the female inmates’ freedom of speech and religion and their right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment by requiring them to treat the male inmates as women.

“The reality that men and women are factually, materially, immutably different, in ways that disadvantage women and necessitate attention to women’s unique needs, supports protection of incarcerated women by providing women-only correctional facilities,” the lawsuit said, according to the report. 

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a legal filing on behalf of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that the courts have given prison officials the power to choose where inmates, including transgender inmates, should be housed.

A group of transgender inmates filed a request on Monday, asking the judge to allow them to intervene in the case, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The inmates are represented by the Transgender Law Center, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union. A lawyer for the groups accused the state of not going far enough to defend and enforce the law.

These inmates will “lose fundamental rights if CDCR, which has proved to be indifferent or even hostile to the interests of incarcerated (transgender and intersex) people, does not adequately represent their interests,” said Dimitri Portnoi, a lawyer for the groups, in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Fresno.

Inmates have filed at least 321 requests for transfers based on gender identity since the law took effect, but the Corrections Department has granted only 46 of those requests, Portnoi wrote in a filing. Some of those who have had their requests approved have not been moved, he said.

The filing added that one of the transgender inmates was often called a “boy” by prison guards and another was placed in a cell with a man who was a known sexual assailant, who then assaulted the inmate.

The Corrections Department writes on its website that all inmate requests for transfers under SB132 are subject to an “in-depth review” by a committee of prison guards and health care staff led by a warden. The site says transfer may be denied due to “management or security concerns” but not for “discriminatory reasons.”

The department affirmed its commitment to “providing a safe, humane, respectful, and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated persons,” including transgender inmates, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Women’s Liberation Front’s legal director Lauren Adams again pushed back against the law following the new filing this week.

“This law has already subjected incarcerated women to sexual assault, abuse and intimidation, in addition to the constant indignity of having to shower, undress and use the toilet in front of men,” Adams said. “The ACLU, Lambda Legal and the Transgender Law Center have the nerve to call women ‘bigots’ when they object.”

The filing comes after a male inmate identifying as a woman was convicted last month of raping a female prisoner at the women’s facility at the Rikers Island complex in New York.