California lawmakers want reform for women in prison facing ‘double punishment’
Members of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus introduced a slate of bills to reform women’s prisons in California on Thursday morning, building on a broader push toward rehabilitation within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation known as the California Model.
Women make up less than 5% of California’s prison population, but that small portion faces “double punishment,” said Anne Irwin, the director of prison reform group Smart Justice California, at the Capitol press conference with lawmakers.
“The vast majority of women living in California prisons were subject to violence and abuse before their incarceration,” Irwin said. “Now we’ve locked them inside a system that continues to abuse and neglect them.”
Irwin and several other advocates joined the group of Democratic female lawmakers to announce the legislative package that aims to create more accountability within the CDCR, and offers survivors of domestic and sexual violence alternatives to incarceration.
Irwin said half of women locked in California prisons experience sexual violence during their time locked up. Even more experience abuse leading up to their incarceration.
Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s proposal, Assembly Bill 938, allows survivors of human trafficking and sexual and domestic violence to petition a court to remove convictions that stemmed from the violence they suffered at the hands of intimate partners or traffickers.
The Oakland Democrat said that three in four women who are incarcerated report they were victimized or sexually violated within a year of their arrest or imprisonment.
“That means that we are sending victims to prison,” Bonta said.
Bonta noted that states led by both Democrats and Republicans have similar laws on the books. Current California law allows survivors to vacate nonviolent offenses. AB 938 would expand that to apply to any crime, according to a bill analysis. Last month, the bill passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
After women are released from the prison system, they face limited transitional housing options and scant support to rebuild their lives, said Sol Mercado, a reentry coordinator with Planting Justice, an Oakland-based nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated people secure jobs.
Mercado experienced the lack of support firsthand when she was released from prison after spending 16 years incarcerated.
“Women need housing, jobs and comprehensive support to succeed and reduce recidivism,” Mercado said.
To help with that, lawmakers proposed creating a reentry pilot program in Alameda and Los Angeles and San Diego counties. State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, D-Los Angeles, authored Senate Bill 75 to help support formerly incarcerated women transition back into life and work outside of prisons.
“We’re hearing these horrible stories of how women are being physically violated, mentally broken and returning home with nothing to raise families in our communities,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.
“We know that women build families and families build community, and we’re here today to center our women in this conversation.”
The crisis in California women’s prisons, advocates said, is evident in the high rates of sexual violence in state facilities, poor sanitary conditions and medical neglect. Lawmakers want more accountability for rehabilitative efforts in women’s prisons.
Nearly two decades ago, the Legislature created a master plan to support female offenders from reentering the prison system. More oversight of that master plan is needed, said Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-La Palma. Her bill, AB 788, would require the CDCR to report on the status of those services to the Legislature.
Other legislation in the reform package includes a bill that would tackle price gouging in the vending machines of CDCR visiting rooms and another that would allow courts to consider sentences other than incarceration in county jails for pregnant and postpartum defendants.
On the other side of the aisle, a Republican lawmaker recently proposed legislation that would require CDCR to create separate living and bathroom quarters for transgender and cisgender female prisoners. State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said her bill would address “growing concerns about current housing policies in women’s prisons.”
Grove was not part of the Thursday’s press conference on women’s prison reform, where advocates said that roughly 50% of cisgender women and transgender people in prisons experience sexual assault in prisons.
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM with the headline "California lawmakers want reform for women in prison facing ‘double punishment’."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a statistic about the percentage of incarcerated women who are subjected to sexual violence to Assemblymember Mia Bonta. This has been corrected.
