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Dhillon opens probes into California's women prisons
The investigations are part of a new Justice Department initiative focused on prison housing policies and the rights of female inmates.
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Malvika Choudhary - Thu, 26, Mar 2026
- 18:31 EDT
- 27
Harmeet Dhillon / X/ Harmeet Dhillon
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon said the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into California’s women’s prison system over potential violations of female inmates’ civil rights.
Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, said the probe is part of a new “single sex prisons initiative” focused on prison housing policies.
Also Read: Dhillon calls for clean voter rolls nationwide
“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,” Dhillon said in a statement. “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.”
In a post on X, Dhillon said the division “will not tolerate unconstitutional violence toward women from placing men in women’s prisons,” adding that the department was examining what she described as “potentially illegal practices” in California.
According to a Department of Justice news release, the probes will focus on constitutional rights of female prisoners incarcerated at the California Institution for Women (CIW) in San Bernardino County and the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Madera County.
In a video statement, Dhillon said the investigation would examine whether female inmates were being housed with “men who are posing as women to get access to the female prisons,” which she said, if true, could expose inmates to “sexual assault and other forms of violence and harassment.”
The investigation comes as California’s prison housing policy has been shaped in recent years by Senate Bill 132, known as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, which took effect in 2021. The law allows incarcerated transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people to request housing and searches consistent with their gender identity, subject to case-by-case review and security considerations.
According to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data published in December 2024, hundreds of transfer requests had been filed under SB 132, with a smaller number approved. State officials have said such placements are not automatic and are reviewed individually based on security, safety, and other institutional factors.
The Justice Department has not announced a timeline for the investigation or any preliminary findings.
The announcement adds to a broader set of prison-related civil rights investigations launched by the department in recent months, including a probe into prison conditions in Colorado and an earlier investigation into sexual abuse allegations at two California women’s prisons.
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