Correctional facilities: women’s prisons., the official text

An act to add Section 3327 to the Penal Code, relating to correctional facilities.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to institute certain practices to prevent sexual violence and promote inmate and ward safety in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, including reviewing and providing handbooks regarding sexual abuse in detention to inmates and wards. Existing law establishes 2 institutions for the punishment, treatment, supervision, custody, and care of women convicted of felonies, known as the California Institution for Women and the Central California Women’s Facility.
This bill would require the department to establish a secure facility at each women’s prison to house transgender women, in order to protect the security needs of biological women, as specified. The bill would also prohibit certain inmates convicted of specified sexual offenses from being housed at a women’s prison.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
Section 3327 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
3327.
(a) The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall establish a secure facility at each women’s prison to house transgender women, in order to protect the security needs of biological women at birth in sleeping and other intimate areas.
(b) The secure facility would allow the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to focus on the individual needs of the transgender women and biological women at birth populations.
(c) Any inmate convicted of an offense for which they are required to register pursuant to Section 290, except for biological women at birth, shall be ineligible for housing at a women’s prison.