The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, commented on this on Monday Worries about the conditions in which female inmates lived at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), saying they were now facing retaliation after reporting alleged sexual harassment, privacy violations, threats and violence.
In June 2026, the Special Rapporteur received complaints from five women who were or are currently detained in the CCWF. The complaints allege that the women had to share intimate spaces such as showers, toilets and sleeping quarters with the biological male prisoners. Several women within the CCWF are suffering psychological, physical and sexual violence as a result of this agreement, which exacerbates their past traumatic experiences, Alsalem wrote in letter to the United States government.
Alsalem also expressed concern California Senate Bill 132which allows transgender prisoners to be housed in male or female correctional facilities according to their gender identity. No formal medical transition, hormone therapy or surgery is required for an inmate to request accommodations consistent with their gender identity. After the bill was passed, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that over 1,100 people self-identified shortly after it went into effect, with the vast majority being biological men who identified as transgender women.
In August, the Special Rapporteur submitted an amicus curiae brief aimed at highlighting the incompatibility of SB 132 with international human rights standards and the rights of women prisoners. The concerns underlying the brief were also reiterated by the Department of Justice, which noted: “reasonable reason to believe” that female inmates were sexually abused by CCWF staff.
This finding is consistent with a long-standing pattern documented by human rights groups. In one Report 1996 The study, published by Human Rights Watch, found that female prisoners suffered sexual misconduct in prison Correctional officers often found it very difficult to avoid their tormentors because their sentences were very limited and they were very afraid of reprisals. The group pointed out that male officers had done this turned their authority into a weapon Denying these women privileges if they refused to engage in sexual acts with them, deliberately conducting mandatory pat-downs to grope them and subjecting them to verbal harassment.
In recent years, there have been several efforts in the United States to reform the treatment of female inmates in prisons Legislative proposalsabove all The Dignity of Incarcerated Women Actwhich was introduced in 2017 by Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren. Although the law existed at the federal level, it was never officially enacted as a stand-alone bill, but many of them were Core provisions Other measures, such as banning the shackling of pregnant inmates and requiring prisons across the country to provide free hygiene products, were included in the law First step actwhich was officially adopted at the federal level in 2018.
Since then, several other states have followed suit and enacted state-level bills to completely reform the criminal justice system. These include states like Kentucky, North Carolinaand Pennsylvania.
