Justice Department probes California and Maine over housing transgender women with female inmates

The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday it’s investigating whether California and Maine violate the rights of female inmates when they house them with transgender women.

The investigation will focus on the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County and the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County, as well as the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, the Justice Department said in a press release. Both states have policies saying inmates should be housed in a facility consistent with their gender identity. It’s not clear how many trans people live in each of the prisons targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The department “will not allow women incarcerated in jails or prisons to be subject to unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, an assistant U.S. attorney general.

A spokesman for Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills dismissed the investigation.

“Despite the Department of Justice’s claims, this is yet another politically motivated, predetermined investigation designed to target states that stand up to the Trump Administration and its abuses,” Ben Goodman, a spokesman for Mills, said in an email statement.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office referred requests for comment to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The CDCR said in an email that it is committed to providing a safe, humane and respectful environment for all inmates.

“Any suggestion that all transgender women be assigned to men’s institutions as a matter of policy is a suggestion to violate federal law,” the department said.

Newsom, a Democrat who spars frequently with the Republican president, signed in 2020 legislation requiring the CDCR to house inmates based on their gender identity instead of their sex assigned at birth, unless there are security concerns.

The Justice Department said in its press release the law has led to “allegations of sexual assaults, rape, voyeurism and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation due to the presence of males in the women’s prison.”

The press release did not provide details on the allegations and the office did not respond to a message seeking elaboration on specific cases. The upcoming trial of a transgender female inmate charged with two counts of rape while at the women’s facility in Madera County has drawn attention. The defendant, who moved into the facility after identifying as a female in January 2021, was moved to a facility for men after forcible rape charges were filed, according to court documents.

In Maine, the Justice Department said the allegations are that a transgender woman assaulted or harassed female inmates. Last year, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the federal government was revoking some federal funding from Maine’s Department of Corrections due to a transgender woman being housed in a women’s prison. The current status of that money was not immediately clear.

Jill O’Brien, director of government affairs at Maine’s Department of Corrections, said the department takes safety complaints seriously and “follows state and federal law in our practices regarding transgender residents.”

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AP journalist Michael Casey contributed from Boston.