The Department of Justice is investigating whether California policies allowing trans inmates to transfer to women's correctional facilities violate the rights of female prisoners. The investigation will focus on women's facilities in California and Maine, including the California Institution for Women in San Bernardino County and Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. The law allows transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates to be housed according to their gender identity. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has stated that assigning transgender women to men's prisons would violate the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, which requires officials to take preventative steps to deter rape and sexual assault in prisons. Amie Ichikawa, founder of WomanIIWoman, called the investigation a "source of hope and light" for women inside who have been "completely silenced and gaslit".