Housing preferences.

Assembly Member Macedo's prison housing legislation would modify California's policies for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals in state correctional facilities by requiring anatomical-based housing assignments for those convicted of specific violent offenses against victims of the opposite anatomical gender.

The bill maintains existing provisions allowing incarcerated individuals to be housed according to their gender identity preference and requires they be addressed consistent with that identity. However, it establishes new restrictions requiring the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to house individuals in facilities matching their anatomy if they have been convicted of, or if credible evidence shows they committed, certain crimes against victims of the opposite anatomical gender. These qualifying offenses include murder, rape, human trafficking, domestic violence, kidnapping, and assault.

For cases not involving these specific offenses, the department must continue providing written justification before denying any housing preference and must document objections raised by individuals whose preferences are denied. The legislation preserves requirements that health and safety concerns voiced by incarcerated individuals prompt housing reassessment, while maintaining prohibitions on housing denials based on anatomy, sexual orientation, or other discriminatory factors outside the newly specified offense categories.