The Justice Department launched a probe Thursday into multiple women’s prisons across California and Maine, where transgender-identifying men have been accused of rape and making other sexual advances toward female inmates.
The investigation from the Justice Department will look at whether the states violated the constitutional rights of the imprisoned women with their policies of allowing men to be placed in women’s prisons. One of the prisons under scrutiny is the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County, where a man who served time at the facility was charged with raping a female inmate.
“Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense – it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.”
At the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, a 27-year-old man named Andrew Balcer, serving 40 years for murdering his parents, is currently housed at the women’s unit. State records list him as “female” and standing 6’1’’ tall and 310 pounds. The man has been accused of forcibly kissing incarcerated women and offering to impregnate them, according to the Sun Journal.
Maine Government.
In a case out of Madera County, California, a 53-year-old man named Tremaine Carroll was charged with rape after he was placed at the Central California Women’s Facility. A fellow inmate was found to be pregnant, and two other women also accused him of rape.
“After his first cellmate became pregnant and was moved to Los Angeles, two other cellmates of his had complained that he had raped them, so we have filed rape charges against this inmate,” said District Attorney Sally Moreno in December 2024.
The case is still working its way through the court system, but court officials have mandated that female pronouns be used for Carroll. Court records indicate that Tremaine has had a number of different lawyers and is in the process of getting a new lawyer appointed by the county from an outside legal firm.
Thanks to a law sponsored by far-Left state Senator Scott Wiener and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, at least 45 males who identify as transgender have been transferred into female prisons since the law was implemented in September 2020. Last year, state Democrats rejected a proposal to keep male sex criminals out of female prisons.
“California’s Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act has provided none of these qualities to the female inmates of state prisons who have been forced to share space with biological men who are violent felons,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “Our Constitution protects women from having their civil rights violated by harmful state legislation wrapped in the language of ‘equity’ and ‘progress.’”
The California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County is also being scrutinized.
“Despite the Department of Justice’s claims, this is yet another politically motivated, predetermined investigation designed to target states that stand up to the Trump Administration and its abuses,” said Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said her office will ensure that women are protected from male inmates.
“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,” she said. “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.”
