To secure the dignity and safety of incarcerated women.
Summary
What This Bill Does
Requires federal prison housing decisions, and state certifications tied to certain justice grants, to use biological sex and generally bar overnight co-location of prisoners of different biological sexes.
Who Benefits and How
Female inmates and detainees who support sex-separated housing could see lower risk of being housed overnight with people of a different biological sex.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Bureau of Prisons and state correctional systems would need to apply biological-sex housing rules, and states that do not certify compliance could lose eligible justice grant funding. Transgender and intersex prisoners could face more restrictive housing placements.
Key Provisions
- Defines biological sex by reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, hormones, and gonads present at birth.
- Requires the Bureau of Prisons to use biological sex in federal prisoner housing decisions.
- Bars non-temporary overnight co-location of federal prisoners of different biological sexes.
- Makes state grant eligibility depend on a certification that comparable state detention rules are in place.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires federal prison housing decisions, and state certifications tied to certain justice grants, to use biological sex and generally bar overnight co-location of prisoners of different biological sexes.
Key Policy Areas
Criminal Justice, Civil Rights, Government Operations
Primary Purpose
Requires federal prison housing decisions, and state certifications tied to certain justice grants, to use biological sex and generally bar overnight co-location of prisoners of different biological sexes.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Female inmates and detainees seeking sex-separated overnight housing
- States and correctional systems that already use biological-sex housing rules
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Bureau of Prisons and state correctional administrators implementing the housing standard
- Transgender and intersex incarcerated people affected by biological-sex placement rules
- States that do not certify compliant detention policies
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Cotton introduced the following bill; which was read twice …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Female inmates and detainees seeking sex-separated overnight housing
Bureau of Prisons and state correctional administrators applying biological-sex housing rules
Transgender and intersex incarcerated people subject to biological-sex placement rules
States that do not certify compliant prisoner housing policies
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "attorney_general"
- → Attorney General
- "bureau_of_prisons"
- → Bureau of Prisons
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Biological classification as male or female in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, using sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology