The Fight Is Not Over: Next Steps in Chandler v. CDCR
Left to right: Liz Stroder, Tiasha Croslin, and Amie Ichikawa of WomanIIWoman; and Sharon Byrne, WoLF Executive Director. Madera County Courthouse, May 17 2024.
WoLF is committed to pursuing every legal avenue to justice for Janine, Tomiekia, Krystal, Nadia, and all incarcerated women in California
This week, WoLF received the disappointing news that the district court dismissed Chandler v. CDCR on procedural grounds. We are reviewing the decision and considering our options for the next steps in this case.
Background
In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 132 (SB 132) into law. This legislation, which went into effect in January of 2021 as the “Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act”, allows incarcerated men to be housed in women’s correctional facilities based on self-declared “gender identity.” This law allows men to “self-identify” as women or non-binary, and be housed in women’s facilities.
Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of four incarcerated women challenging SB132. WoLF asked the court to overturn this law and declare it unconstitutional. The full case background and information on our four plaintiffs is available here.
Case dismissed without considering constitutional arguments after years-long delay
The decision by the Eastern District Court of California, issued on May 14, 2024, granted the State’s Motion to Dismiss, and gave leave to amend the complaint as to the named defendants. The Court did not examine WoLF’s arguments that SB 132 is unconstitutional, but rather decided that CDCR is immune under the Eleventh Amendment and therefore could not be a defendant in this case. The Court looked at the immunity issue “sua sponte” - though neither party raised the issue. The Court said that the state needed to explicitly waive immunity and that it had not done so.
An intervenor in the case is charged with Raping a Woman while in prison with her thanks to SB 132
Coincidentally, as the judge in the Eastern District Court was dismissing the case, WoLF held a press conference on the steps of the California Superior Court in Madera County. Tremaine Carroll, an incarcerated male intervenor in the Chandler case, is now facing two counts of forcible rape and one count of attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying. The Madera District Attorney feels they have a very provable case. WoLF and WomanIIWoman held a press conference on the courthouse steps Friday, before the preliminary hearing, to raise awareness that rapes are indeed occurring within women’s custody facilities, committed by men who leveraged SB 132 to transfer in, despite having committed prior sexual assaults.
Next Steps: Continuing the Fight To Stop SB 132
We have already seen the devastating result of these policies in the two years it took to get a response from the court: rape, pregnancy, and repeated violation of women's constitutional rights. This is not the end of our fight.
We will continue pursuing every avenue of justice for Janine, Tomiekia, Krystal, Nadia, and all incarcerated women in California.
Help us continue the fight!
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