The Department of Justice notified Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) that it was beginning federal investigations in Maine and California, respectively, due to those states over admitting men into women’s prisons. The investigations will assess whether each state engaged in violating the “constitutional rights of female prisoners” incarcerated at specific prisons in California and Maine.
“Today, the United States Department of Justice notified California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Maine Gov. Janet Mills of the initiation of federal investigations into California’s and Maine’s practice of housing men in women’s prisons,” read a Justice Department press release.
In California, the DOJ investigation involves female prisoners at the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County and the California Women’s Facility in Madera County. In Maine, the federal government is assessing whether the same potential infractions occurred at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi emphasized that separating inmates based on gender was non-negotiable and that a failure to do so lacked “common sense.”
“Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense – it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” said Bondi. “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.”
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon echoed Bondi’s sentiments, categorizing the incarceration of men in women’s prisons as a constitutional risks that put women in harm’s way.
“Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will not allow women incarcerated in jails or prisons to be subject to unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates,” said Dhillon. “These investigations will uncover whether the dangerous national trend of housing men in women’s prisons has resulted in violations of women’s constitutional rights.”
In Maine, an incident where a male inmate was permitted to remain at a women’s correctional facility despite complaints that he harassed and assaulted multiple female inmates sparked the investigation, according to the DOJ. In California, state law permits male inmates at state prisons to request transfers to women’s prisons if they identify as transgender. This privilege would still be granted in cases in which the men identifying as women were “violent felons charged with sex crimes and who have intact genitals.”
“In California, the Justice Department will investigate widely reported allegations of deprivation of female prisoners’ rights, including the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, the Eighth Amendment’s protection from cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause,” read a press release issued by the DOJ. “There have been allegations of sexual assaults, rape, voyeurism, and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation due to the presence of males in the women’s prison.”
“California’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act has provided none of these qualities to the female inmates of state prisons who have been forced to share space with biological men who are violent felons,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “Our Constitution protects women from having their civil rights violated by harmful state legislation wrapped in the language of ‘equity’ and ‘progress.’”
