Governor Tate Reeves (R) signed the Dignity and Safety for Incarcerated Women Act (HB 188) into law last Thursday, prohibiting male inmates from invading spaces where women are most vulnerable—such as changing rooms, sleeping quarters, and restrooms—at correctional facilities.
"This bill was very important," says attorney Sara Beth Nolan of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). "What we're seeing across the country is that men are requesting to transfer into the female facilities, and when they do that, we are seeing exponentially higher rates of abuse and harassment."
This bill protects women and girls by saying men cannot invade intimate spaces like restrooms and showers while young ladies are in those spaces.
While other states have gone this route, some have not. Nolan encourages legislators to look at whether their states have these policies and to bring forth legislation if there is none, because females are being harassed in prisons, schools, and in public facilities.
"It's so important to the families that we serve, for their daughters and for their wives to go to work and go to school and not have to worry about men being in their private spaces," the attorney contends.
Under the law, all jails and prisons operated by the state's Department of Corrections that house inmates of both sexes must provide separate facilities for men and for women.
Mirroring President Donald Trump's efforts to reflect the biological distinctions of men and women in federal regulations, it defines men and women on the basis of biological characteristics, as opposed to self-asserted "gender identity."
It also establishes a framework that allows a person to sue a state correctional facility if she encounters someone of the opposite sex within one of the protected spaces.
Civil damages can also be obtained if the jail or prison gave someone of the opposite sex permission to enter the space or failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the person from entering the space. All civil actions must be brought within two years of the violation.
ADF, which insists women's right to privacy and safety should not be dependent on others' beliefs about gender, commends Rep. Gene Newman (R) and the Mississippi Legislature for their leadership on this bill and Gov. Reeves for signing it into law. The Mississippi Advocacy Group is also thanked for its work to protect all women in the state.
HB 188 was passed by the Mississippi House of Representatives on February 10 in a bipartisan, 103-4 vote; it passed the state Senate on March 7 in a unanimous 48-0 vote, and it is set to take effect July 1.
