California Dems In Public Safety Committee Vote Against Prison Bill
In a decision that ignited outrage across advocacy circles, Democrats on the California Senate Public Safety Committee voted down legislation designed to protect women in the state’s prison system from violent male offenders. The bill, introduced by Republican Senator Shannon Grove, sought to prohibit male sex offenders — including those identifying as transgender — from being housed in female correctional facilities. It also aimed to provide women with basic privacy protections in spaces such as showers and sleeping quarters.
The legislation was in direct response to the fallout from SB 132, a controversial law authored by Senator Scott Wiener, which mandates that inmates be housed based on self-declared gender identity, rather than biological sex.
The consequences of this policy, Grove argued, have been devastating for incarcerated women. Her testimony referenced letters from inmates detailing abuse, trauma, and even the distribution of condoms within female prisons — a disturbing practice considering the population is, by definition, female.
One particularly harrowing letter included in Grove’s presentation described a “spontaneous abortion” following a beating by a male inmate who had been transferred under SB 132 and now faces multiple rape charges. Another female inmate described her bunkmate as a 6’2″, 200-pound man — evidence, Grove suggested, that the policy had turned women’s prisons into a lawless, dangerous environment.
Senator Grove framed her bill as common-sense legislation to restore balance and safety to a system that has tipped too far toward ideological appeasement. “SB 132 created a preference for predators over victims,” she said, bluntly summarizing her stance.
Yet despite the clear testimony and disturbing statistics — such as the fact that nearly 34% of men seeking transfer into women’s prisons are registered sex offenders, and another 26% have been convicted of sex crimes — Democrats on the committee refused to advance the bill. Only Senator Kelly Seyarto, the lone Republican, voted in its favor.
Senator Wiener, the original architect of SB 132, dismissed the proposal as part of a “culture war” and claimed it unfairly targeted trans people. He doubled down, insisting that refusing male inmates based on their gender identity was “dehumanizing” and that requiring sex offender status as a disqualifier was “discriminatory.” His statements made clear that for the Democratic majority, the ideological premise of gender identity remains paramount — even above documented harm.
Advocates like Amie Ichikawa and Erin Friday called out what they see as an abandonment of women’s rights by progressive lawmakers. Ichikawa, herself formerly incarcerated, demanded that lawmakers prioritize safety over politics. Friday, a former Democrat turned vocal critic of gender ideology, didn’t mince words: “The Democrats won’t even get the known rapists out of the women’s prisons. That’s how much they dislike women.”
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 45 male inmates identifying as women have already been transferred into female facilities, with hundreds more pending review. Meanwhile, the number of females requesting transfer to male prisons remains negligible — a fact that undermines the narrative that these policies serve equality.