A transgender inmate was transferred back to a men’s prison after being charged with rape while in custody at a woman’s facility.
Tremaine Deon Carroll was serving a sentence of 25 years to life under California’s Three Strikes Law when he identified as female and requested to be transferred to a woman’s prison.
California law allows male-bodied inmates to be transferred to women’s prisons based on gender identity alone.
In sworn testimony in 2023, Carroll stated, “I know what it feels like to live in fear and to carry the weight of the past abuse by men. But I am not a threat.”
However, soon after Carroll arrived to the Central California Women’s Facility, multiple female inmates reported that Carroll raped them.
In 2021, a female judge tossed out a lawsuit filed by those inmates.
On January 30, another inmate accused Carroll of raping her in the showers.
Carroll was transferred to Kern Valley State Prison, an all-male facility in Delano.
50 male-bodied inmates are being housed at women’s prisons in California. There are hundreds more on a waiting list.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Transgender Law Center and Lambda Legal, represented Carroll in a lawsuit filed by a women’s rights group that opposes policies that permit male-bodied inmates in women-only spaces.
The ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Lambda Legal and Transgender Law Center said in a joint statement that they are unable to speak about the specifics of Carroll’s criminal case and “all allegations of sexual misconduct must be investigated thoroughly and fairly.”
“We continue to represent the intervenors – including four trans women and our partner organization TGIJP – to ensure that the voices of transgender people are heard in the case,” the statement says.
