Men identifying as trans to switch California prisons are attacking incarcerated women

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Women have become prey for “female-identifying” inmates in Californian prisons. A California law is being blasted by women’s rights groups for allowing transgender inmates to pick the gendered prison of their choice, citing abuse of females by men.

In a letter to Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) accused the state of violating the constitutional rights of incarcerated women and subjecting them to “physical, psychological, and emotional harm” by allowing men into their living quarters to “prey on women.”

“Under the law as written, there is no method to screen out males who genuinely self-identify as transgender from those who are using the system to prey on women. Even if sincere self-identification was the criterion for transfer, however, it would not mitigate or remove the danger posed to women. A 2009 report found 20% of trans-identified men in California are sex offenders, and 50% have committed crimes against persons,” the letter reads.

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“We are working with a woman who was punched in the face so hard by a new transfer that she couldn’t chew for three days. He was taken away and released back in a different yard with no restrictions,” Adams said. “He was her cellmate. She had to sleep with him.”

Adams added that many women who have been sexually abused in the past now have to share communal showers with nude men.

“One woman went in there with two naked men showering who still had penises,” Adams added. “It was incredibly traumatic and scary, to know for, [possibly], the rest of their lives they are going to be subjected to this.”

The state currently has 273 transfer requests. 266 of the requestees are housed at male institutions and are seeking to be transferred to female institutions, while only seven from female institutions are requesting a transfer to male institutions. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the state has 1,286 inmates who identify as transgender or nonbinary.

So far, 24 male prisoners have been transferred to female institutions. WoLF speculates that many of the male inmates looking to transfer to women’s prisons are not transgender, but are looking to escape their current living situation.

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State law requires a committee to vet the transfers, but a considerable number of violent men have slipped through the vetting. One male transfer was convicted of assaulting two boys, aged six and eight, whereas another inmate was convicted of several counts of forcible rape, and still has his penis, Adams said.

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