Listen to Woman's Hour: The TERF Report

May 2, 2025

Outside of The Reckoning, I haven’t spoken much about the topic of corrections departments housing male inmates in women’s prisons, other than to complain about the horrendous practice. In today’s episode, I’ll discuss California Senate Bill 311, which would have made extremely incremental steps toward protecting incarcerated women, and which California Senate Democrats shot down on Tuesday.

Housing men in a woman’s prison is a complete violation of the international human rights of women and girls. And even though this bill was not perfect, it would have been a step in the right direction. I was told that Amie Ichikawa from the group Woman to Woman was taking screenshots of public support for the bill and sending them to incarcerated women. That support for the bill was giving women hope. It was making them believe that someone on the outside cares about them. That, in my view, is reason enough to support the bill. But now it’s dead.

In the episode, I quote a formerly incarcerated woman who testified in support of the bill. You can watch her testimony here.

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Have a great weekend!