DOJ Launches Civil Rights Investigation Into California’s Transgender Prison Housing Policy

The U.S. Department of Justice has notified California that it is opening a formal civil rights investigation into the state’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, the 2021 law (Senate Bill 132) that requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to house inmates according to their self-identified gender identity.

The investigation, announced Thursday by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California, focuses on two major women’s facilities: the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County and the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County.

Lawsuit Alert: Under California’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, women incarcerated in state prisons are forced to share space with biological males—including violent felons whose criminal histories included being charged with sex crimes.

Today, the Justice… https://t.co/HDk5R8tCHU

— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) March 26, 2026

Under Senate Bill 132, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2020 and authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), any male inmate who declares a female gender identity must be housed, addressed, and treated as a woman, regardless of criminal history, surgical status, or biological sex. 

As the California Globe reported when the bill was signed, the law mandates that CDCR ask every incoming prisoner about their gender identity and house them accordingly while also restricting staff from using pronouns inconsistent with an inmate’s self-identified gender.

Biological sex is not arbitrary,” California Family Council President Jonathan Keller said in a statement last year. “The legislature is increasing dangers for both inmates and correctional officers by attempting to let prisoners self-determine their sex. Even in prison, males and females are guaranteed a constitutional right to privacy. The legislature should not victimize prisoners, especially biological women, by requiring them to allow members of the opposite sex into facilities that are currently female-only or male-only. This bill is a recipe for complete chaos in our state’s correctional facilities.”

Since the policy took effect in January 2021, there have been multiple documented incidents in which biological male inmates transferred into women’s housing units were accused of sexual assault, rape, voyeurism, and creating a climate of intimidation for female inmates. In one documented case, a woman was impregnated by a trans-woman identified male inmate.

In a statement, Essayli said the law has failed to protect female inmates forced to share housing with biological males convicted of violent felonies. “Our Constitution protects women from having their civil rights violated by harmful state legislation wrapped in the language of ‘equity’ and ‘progress,’” he added.

Dhillon stated that the Civil Rights Division will examine whether the policy has led to unconstitutional risks of harm to incarcerated women and whether it violates their rights under the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection), and First Amendment.

The probe is being conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) and represents the first formal step that could lead to a federal lawsuit if the DOJ determines that systemic violations are occurring.

Critics of the law have long argued that allowing self-identification without restrictions exposes vulnerable female inmates — many of whom have prior histories of trauma from male violence — to unnecessary risk. Supporters of SB 132 maintain that the policy is necessary to protect transgender inmates from harassment and violence and that concerns about safety are overstated.

In 2025, Democrats in the Legislature blocked Sen. Shannon Grove’s (R-Bakersfield) SB 311, which sought to create secure separate housing units for transgender inmates and bar certain high-risk sex offenders from women’s facilities.

The DOJ investigation marks the latest federal challenge to California’s approach to gender identity policies in state institutions. It comes as similar debates continue nationwide regarding the balance between transgender rights and the safety and privacy rights of biological females in prisons, sports, and other single-sex spaces.