CALIFORNIA — The Department of Justice announced an investigation into two California women's prisons to determine if they unconstitutionally provided housing and preferential treatment to biological male prisoners. The Justice Department said the investigation had not reached any conclusions regarding the allegations.

Investigators will look into allegations at the Central California Women's Facility in Madera County and the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County, according to a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom. 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, according to a news release.

Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General and head of the Civil Rights Division, said in a video posted on X that the investigations are part of a project called the single-sex prisons initiative. "If these states are violating these rights and they don't stop, we will make them through litigation," Dhillon said in the video.

In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 132 into law, giving transgender, nonbinary and intersex inmates at state prisons the right to be housed at either men's or women's facilities. Opponents of Senate Bill 132 sued in 2021, alleging that the law was unconstitutional and created an unsafe environment for women in female facilities, with some plaintiffs claiming they were assaulted.

Under the bill, 1,028 inmates housed at male prisons have requested to be moved to female facilities as of March 4, 2026, according to department data. The department granted 47 of those transfer requests and denied 132 others. Additionally, 140 applicants changed their minds about the transfer requests.

The Women's Liberation Front brought a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 132, and a federal court dismissed the case this month and the group plans to appeal. Elspeth Cypher, board president of the Women's Liberation Front, said in a statement posted on X that the Justice Department investigations are a welcome advance.

Bamby Salcedo, president and chief executive of the TransLatin@ Coalition, which cosponsored Senate Bill 132, criticized the investigation's framing. "The way they wrote [the complaint] is saying that trans women are men and they are putting men in women's prisons, which is completely false," Salcedo said. "They're making a claim that is not accurate and not respectful towards trans women specifically."

According to state officials, 84 inmates sought to be transferred into men's facilities from women's prisons, with seven transfer requests approved. The corrections department reported that 2,405 inmates identify as nonbinary, intersex or transgender.