California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed California Senate Bill 132 (S.B.-132) in January.
The California Department of Corrections said Tuesday (April 6) that 261 California prison inmates have asked to be transferred to prisons consistent with their “self-identified” gender identity since January under a new California law. But some inmates are concerned that some of those requesting transfers may be lying about their gender identity in order to move to women’s prisons.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed California Senate Bill 132 (S.B.-132) in January. The bill requires the California Department of Corrections to require each person entering the department’s custody to identify their gender pronouns, their gender identity, and whether they identify as transgender, nonbinary or intersex.
The law states that if an inmate refuses to provide this information, the Department of Corrections cannot discipline him or her, but is allowed to update the information at a later date. The law also requires staff to refer to inmates using the gender pronouns they request.
The law also requires the Department of Corrections to place inmates in “correctional facilities that identify them as male or female according to their personal preference. Connecticut and Massachusetts have also passed similar legislation.
The California Department of Corrections told the Daily Caller on Tuesday that 261 inmates have requested “gender-based facility” transfers since the bill took effect in January. The vast majority of those are inmates requesting transfer to women’s facilities, with only six not.
Terry Thornton, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections, confirmed that they have not denied a single request for gender-based housing.
The Department of Corrections has now approved 21 of those requests. Four of those 21 have been transferred to the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, but two of those 21 have changed their minds.
Thornton said 1,129 inmates self-identified as transgender, non-binary and intersex as of April 2.
Chowchilla inmates told the Los Angeles Times that “men are coming (men are coming) and inmates probably should have expected sexual violence to happen.
“If we think it’s bad now, we have to prepare for the worst. It’s going to be off the rails, it’s going to be jumping (down),” Tomiekia Johnson, 41, told the newspaper, “(Staff) they say we’re going to need a (protected) facility like a maternity ward. They said we will have programs to make some of the inmates babysitters.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, inmates are concerned that those who request transfers are deliberately lying about their gender identity in order to transfer to women’s prisons. And that has slowed down the transfer process.
Thornton told the Los Angeles Times that the meetings and discussions “help allay any fears” and that “a person’s gender identity is self-reported, and CDCR will evaluate all gender housing requests submitted by incarcerated individuals.”
Thornton said the prison system has asked the state of California to provide millions of dollars to implement the law.
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