Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a clear, sex-based rule and funding incentive for prison housing that may reduce some overnight assault risks and administrative ambiguity, but does so at the expense of transgender and medically atypical inmates' safety and access to individualized care while imposing funding and operational costs on noncompliant jurisdictions.
People in prison will be housed according to birth-assigned biological sex, reducing shared overnight sleeping spaces between different-sex inmates and potentially lowering risk of overnight sexual assault.
State governments that certify they follow the rule will keep eligibility for federal grants under 34 U.S.C. §10152, providing continuity of funding for correctional programs that comply.
Prison administrators and federal/state corrections officials get a uniform statutory definition of 'biological sex,' reducing ambiguity in placement decisions and clarifying enforcement expectations.
Transgender people (and some others with medical or intersex conditions) will likely be placed in housing that does not match their gender identity and may face increased harassment, violence, mental-health harms, and complications in receiving individualized medical care.
State and local governments that refuse to certify compliance will lose federal grant funding, reducing resources available for correctional programs and related services.
Corrections agencies and officials will face operational and administrative burdens because the bill generally limits exceptions to non-overnight co-location, requiring additional segregation or scheduling to comply for overnight housing.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal prisons to use a birth-characteristics definition of biological sex and bars co-housing different biological sexes; conditions certain federal grants on States adopting the same rules.
Official title: Secure the dignity and safety of incarcerated women.
Introduced October 8, 2025 by Thomas Bryant Cotton · Last progress October 8, 2025
Prohibits housing people of different "biological sex" together in federal Bureau of Prisons facilities and conditions certain federal public-safety grant funds on States certifying the same rule for their local and state confinement facilities. "Biological sex" is defined by chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and unambiguous genitalia at birth; temporary, non-overnight co-location is allowed as an exception. States must certify compliance beginning in the first fiscal year after enactment to remain eligible for the referenced grant funds.