Male Inmate Charged with Raping Woman Inside California Women’s Prison, CDCR Confirms Pregnancy |4W

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.

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).

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.

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.”

Source: Male Inmate Charged with Raping Woman Inside California Women’s Prison, CDCR Confirms Pregnancy