Maine is one of two states being investigated over their practice of housing transgender inmates at women’s prisons.

Gov. Janet Mills and California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday were notified that a U.S. Justice Department investigation will seek to determine if the constitutional rights of female inmates have been violated.

In Maine, the issue recently came to light when several women housed at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham came forward with complaints about a transgender inmate housed with them.

Nearly a half dozen women at the prison have reported they were repeatedly groped, harassed and assaulted by Andrea Balcer, a convicted double murderer who is a transgender woman.

According to prison records, Balcer is 6-foot-1 and 310 pounds. Now 27 years old, she was 17 when she was charged in 2016 with killing her parents and the family dog in Winthrop. She began going by Andrea shortly before her trial began.

Several prisoners at the women’s prison have reported being cornered, forcibly kissed and sexually propositioned by Balcer, who has been held in the facility for at least a year.

Since those accusations came to light, several people have come forward to investigate the matter, including a Maine lawyer now representing at least one of the Windham inmates, the director of a New England women’s group and a state representative.

A state representative said last week he was exploring an effort to repeal the 2021 bill, LD 1044, that requires Maine prisons to house transgender inmates according to their gender identity.

After that bill passed, President Donald Trump announced he would pull federal funding for the Maine prison system, citing the Balcer case specifically.

However, after the MDOC appealed, the decision to terminate federal grants was retracted without explanation and no funds were cut.  

“Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense — it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Justice Department news release Thursday. “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.”

In California, the presence of transgender inmates in women’s prisons has prompted allegations of sexual assaults, rape, voyeurism and a pervasive climate of sexual intimidation, according to the DOJ release.

As in Maine, under California law, prisoners who identify as transgender, including violent felons charged with sex crimes, can request to be transferred to women’s prisons, according to the release.

“Under my leadership, the civil rights division will not allow women incarcerated in jails or prisons to be subject to unconstitutional risks of harm from male inmates,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release.  “These investigations will uncover whether the dangerous national trend of housing men in women’s prisons has resulted in violations of women’s constitutional rights.”

Charlotte Warren, the former Maine state representative who wrote LD 1044, has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the matter. Nor have representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that supported the bill.

The Justice Department will investigate California and Maine under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

“The Department has conducted CRIPA investigations of many correctional systems,” according to Thursday’s DOJ news release, “and where violations have been found, the resulting settlement agreements have led to important reforms.”

An official with the Maine prison system said late Thursday night that the Department of Corrections follows state and federal law in practices regarding transgender residents. Transgender residents’ housing decisions are made by a multidisciplinary team, under department policy, in compliance with state and federal law.

Allegations of harrassment or abuse among prisoners are independently investigated.

“The Department of Corrections takes resident safety concerns very seriously. Anytime a resident makes a report of physical violence or harassment to staff, the Department investigates,” said Jill R. O’Brien, director of Government Affairs for the Department of Corrections. “If the conduct that occurred rises to the level of a crime, it is referred to the DA for prosecution. If it violates the Department’s disciplinary policy, the residents involved are disciplined.”