DOJ Investigates States Housing Men in Women’s Prisons, Announces Single Sex Prison Initiative
California and Maine notified that they are under investigation regarding the constitutional rights of incarcerated women
Years after passing laws allowing men to opt into women’s prisons based on “gender identity,” California and Maine are under investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the investigations on X:
Under my leadership, @CivilRights will not tolerate unconstitutional violence toward women from placing men in women's prisons. @TheJusticeDept is investigating Maine and CA’s potentially illegal practices in women’s prisons. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/QsSjfj0bXM
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) March 26, 2026
“Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will not allow women incarcerated in jails or prisons to be subject to unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “These investigations will uncover whether the dangerous national trend of housing men in women’s prisons has resulted in violations of women’s constitutional rights.”
The states were sent notification letters that they are under investigation:
In California, the Justice Department will investigate widely reported allegations of deprivation of female prisoners’ rights, including the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, the Eighth Amendment’s protection from cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. 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.
Under California law, men in state prisons, including violent felons charged with sex crimes and who have intact genitals, can request transfer to women’s prisons based on self-identification as transgender.
In Maine, the Justice Department will investigate allegations that Maine has allowed a biological male inmate to remain housed with women despite complaints that the male inmate has assaulted or harassed several female inmates.
DOJ also announced the Single Sex Prison Initiative, a “national initiative to examine the housing of biological men in women’s prisons,” and encouraged individuals with information to contact them.
California is a natural target for this sort of investigation, with some of the obvious, easy-to-anticipate problems with housing men in women’s prisons in California having been made public, for example, reporting on alleged pregnancy and rapes here and here. In the first year following implementation of the “gender identity”-based prison housing law in California, 1/3 of the men seeking to transfer to women’s prison in California were registered sex offenders.
Among the men housed in the women’s prison in Maine is Andrew Balcer, who has been accused of harassing women there.
Andrew “Andrea” Balcer, Maine Dept. of Corrections profile
Other states, such as New Jersey, which saw multiple pregnancies when men were moved into the women’s prison there, are ripe for similar investigations.
Amanda Stulman is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at the Legal Insurrection Foundation
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Comments
Once again, I’m here to point out that while the pine trees are pretty and the lobster rolls are delicious, the politics in Maine are so far to the left you can now see them approaching you from your right.
The mindset is one of socialism with dripping contempt for anyone who dares think differently.
I believe that Maine is every bit as toxic (more so even) than any other blue state in the country.
Maine (Southern) is full of nutjobs, cheering on their dreadful Governor. Bert and I would not be pleased!
we’re, as people not politics, not too bad from newport/bangor area northwards.
#47 did win one electoral vote in Maine, in the 2024 presidential election, so there clearly is a pocket or pockets of conservatism, in that state. But, yeah, it’s demoralizing that the Dhimmi-crats have destroyed yet another naturally beautiful American state.
And now, Maine seems poised to elect this utterly wicked, vile, greasy, dishonest, Jew-hating, National Socialist psycho, who doesn’t believe that genocidal Iranian Islamofascism and terrorism, are a threat to global peace; those pesky, genocide-resisting Israeli Jews allegedly are, in his warped, evil and stupid worldview.
why are there not separate housing by race?
Race based gangs are separated. Cuts down on the violence.
true but should not even be in the same housing within 10000000 yards of each other
hypocrisy going on here with this outcry
people generally applaud “prison justice” ,,right?
look,, the criminals got what they deserved ( when a priosn beating or more takes place)
so why is there concern and consideration being given for female convicts??
when a male is bashed in by a bigger stronger male or more likely a group,, we dont bat an eye
so why all this “concern” for female convicts?
Not really hypocrisy. Believe it or not, most people still do see a difference between men beating the crap out of each other and men beating the crap out of women. That’s kind of the entire point of single sex prisons.
so therein lies that hypocrisy
you said men beating men and men beating women
but its convicts we are talking about
ok rapes are occurring and that is horrible
but also in the womens prisons
and pregnancies can certainly be aborted ..so thats not an issue