California Women's Rights Violated: Men Transferred Into Women's Facilities

For immediate release.

Contact: Sharon Byrne, Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF)

executivedirector@womensliberationfront.org     (202) 573-9026

Aime Ichikawa, Woman II Woman  

amie@womaniiwoman.org     (424) 410-2066 

MADERA, CA — Women’s Liberation Front and Woman II Woman Stand Up For The Human Rights Of Women In Custody In California. 

Incarcerated men use Senate Bill 132 to get transferred into the women’s correctional facilities, leaving these women literally nowhere to go to get away from them.

By Sharon Byrne, Women’s Liberation Front

Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) has erected a billboard on the California State Route 99 between Madera and Chowchilla to raise awareness of the impact of SB 132 on women in California’s custody. 

Womens Liberation Front BillboardPhoto byWomen's Liberation Front

Close-upPhoto byWomen's Liberation Front

The situation for women in custody in the state of California is quite dire. In January, more than 130 former female inmates filed a lawsuit claiming they were sexually abused by prison staff at California Institution for Women in Chino and Central California Women's Facility located in Chowchilla. In April, the Federal Bureau of Prisons shuttered a facility in Dublin, California because female inmates suffered repeated sexual abuse by guards. Women at USC protested guards raping female inmates at the California Institute for Women in Chino. Women’s Liberation Front joined that protest. 

In 2020, California passed Senate Bill 132 to allow male inmates to transfer into women’s facilities based on their self-proclaimed “identity” as transgender. Legislators who voted for this bill likely thought they were helping someone like the character in Orange Is The New Black, but the law was written so broadly that incarcerated men who have no intentions of physically altering themselves can transfer into a woman’s facility.

WoLF vigorously fought the passage of Senate Bill 132. We requested the California Office of the Inspector General audit the law and its application in women’s facilities. That 2023 report showed that the women’s facilities have little to no ability to deny a transfer. The appeals process all but guarantees that transfers will be accepted. Over 40 men have transferred into the women’s facility in Chowchilla. 

In 2021, Women’s Liberation Front filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections on behalf of four women in custody whose civil and human rights were violated when they were forced to accept men in the facility. We have audio recordings of the conditions that women in custody, housed with men, are facing. When women try to protest against men being housed with them, they receive retaliation. For many of these women, it feels like the state has a heavy boot on their necks.

Recently, former female inmates reached out to WoLF and Woman II Woman to express that the men transferring in aren’t even bothering with pretending to be women. They are not taking cross-sex hormones, and there are many reports of sexual assaults on the women in custody. Amie Ichikawa of Woman II Woman communicates regularly with women inside the facility, and can share their stories, including unwanted pregnancies.

WoLF also received a call from a male healthcare worker in the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. He was very concerned that as many as 500 men were on the waiting list, attempting to transfer into the women’s facility. 

On May 17^th, a preliminary court hearing will be held at the Superior Court of California in Madera for one male transferred into the women’s facility. He is charged with two rapes, committed inside the women’s facility. There are reports of many more rapes. 

Women’s Liberation Front will be holding a press conference with Woman II Woman, and families of the women in custody on May 17^th at the Courthouse immediately after the preliminary hearing. That hearing begins at 8:30 AM.

We recognize the local community around Chowchilla might not have been aware of any of this. Workers at the women’s facility living in the community are powerless to stop women in custody from being housed with and abused by male inmates because SB132 was written to ensure the state is a heavy-handed deliverer in violating women’s rights. We recognize that unions, businesses serving the prison, and community members may feel they’ve been force-teamed by the state law, and had no intention of harming women or violating their human rights. 

We invite the public to have conversations with public officials about this, and make your feelings known. 

Women’s Liberation Front is a national radical feminist 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity dedicated to restoring, protecting, and advancing the rights of women and girls using legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education.