Pregnancy and Rape in Women’s Prisons Shows Failure of Transgender Self-ID Laws
Natalie* had been housed with Tremaine Carroll in a prison cell in Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) for just a few days when she says he attacked her in the shower and raped her. According to charges filed by the Madera County District Attorney’s office - which includes enhancements because Tremaine has prior sex offenses - there was at least one other victim at the prison besides Natalie.
Before California passed SB 132, “The Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act”, the law already allowed males who had surgery, and were deemed to not pose a “management and security risk”, to request housing in women’s facilities. However, the law did not allow men with penises, or those who were considered too dangerous, to be housed with women, regardless of gender identity. That all changed when California passed SB 132, which went into effect in 2021.
Tremaine Carroll: Male Inmate in Women’s Prison Charged with Rape
After serving nearly two decades of his sentence, Tremaine began identifying as a woman and seeking transfer to a women’s facility shortly before SB 132 went into effect. The law was intended to facilitate the transfer of male inmates like Tremaine, who had penises and did not meet security standards for “gender identity” based housing in the women’s prison.
SB 132 is being challenged by four women who have already experienced harm from this policy: Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzales, Tomiekia Johnson, and Nadia Romero, who are represented by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).
"I am not a threat to them."
Tremaine is one of four intervenors in the lawsuit, represented by the ACLU of Southern California and other advocacy groups supporting the right of male prisoners to self-identify into women’s prisons. Even if they have ordinary male anatomy. Even if they are sex offenders. In a sworn declaration to the court, Tremaine stated, “I am not a threat” to the women at CCWF. Now, he is charged with forcibly raping two of them and has been moved back to the men’s facility.
The Transgender Law Center and ACLU of Southern California, representing Carroll in the case, did not immediately reply to comment.
CDCR Confirms Pregnancies After Women Housed with Male Rapists
Tremaine is just one of the many dangerous men with whom the women in California prisons are now forced to live. One-third of the men requesting transfer into California women’s prisons are sex offenders. According to FOIA records, 50% of men in federal prison who identify as women are sex offenders. This is likely understating the problem - Tremaine himself is not considered “sex offenders” under this definition, despite his first- and second-strike offenses being for a kidnapping which included “forced oral copulation.”
"The law is being used exactly the way its author intended it to be."
Amie Ichikawa, Executive Director of Woman II Woman, revealed that there are now 16 pregnant women housed at California Institution for Women (CIW), another one of California’s women’s prisons. Some women may enter prison pregnant, but CDCR has confirmed via a new Public Records Act request that at least one woman this year has already become pregnant while incarcerated at CCWF where the male rapist was also housed.
"I wish I could say that Tremaine was abusing SB132/TRADA or that it’s being taken advantage of in some way," said Amie, "but I can’t. The law is being used exactly the way its author intended it to be: without guardrails and with complete disregard to the safety and well-being of women.”
Advocacy groups like Woman II Woman and WoLF have warned the California Department of Corrections of Rehabilitation (CDCR) for years about the risk of pregnancy and rape when women are forced to be housed with men. The state acknowledged this risk by providing condoms to the women’s facilities for the first time in 2021, immediately following the implementation of SB 132. In 2023, a Special Review by the Office of the Inspector General reiterated this concern, stating: “Because not all transferees have undergone gender-affirming surgery, the potential exists for pregnancies… in prison.”
"We all know how babies are made."
“We don’t need the state or anybody else to acknowledge the risk, because we all know how babies are made,” WoLF Executive Director Sharon Byrne told 4W.
“Housing men in women’s prisons is California’s progressive patriarchy. The state has an obligation to keep everybody safe to the best of its ability. It cannot throw incarcerated women under the bus when there are alternative ways to keep men at risk of sexual violence safe in men’s prisons, such as by getting a waiver to provide a third space.”
On the Frontlines of Fighting SB 132
Lauren Bone, WoLF Legal Director, says that “Rape and pregnancy are the foreseeable and avoidable outcomes of laws like SB 132. But even with knowledge of actual rape and pregnancy, the state continues to house intact men at the women’s facility.”
On May 4, WoLF announced the group had erected a new billboard on California State Route 99 between Madera and Chowchilla to raise awareness of the impact of SB 132 on women in California’s custody. The sign reads, “NO MALES IN WOMEN’S JAILS!”
WoLF and Woman II Woman are hosting a press conference outside of the Madera County courthouse on May 17 — the day Tremaine Carrol will face his preliminary hearing for rape.
For more information or to support this lawsuit, visit stopsb132.com
* For the protection of the victim, Natalie is a pseudonym
