This year, a new bill recognizes that all human beings who are incarcerated in California prisons have a right to shower.

Assembly Bill 353, authored by Assemblymember Reggie-Jones Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, assures that incarcerated people have the right to shower at least every other day, unless there is a written reason for the denial.

“All human beings have a right to ensure good hygiene, regardless of their status in society. It is immoral, inhumane, and cruel to deprive someone of their right to shower,” Sawyer said in September 2023 during the bill’s amendment period.

This bill was in response to a long-standing California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy limiting the amount of showers available to the incarcerated population in California’s overcrowded prisons during drought conditions.

By 2010, a state of emergency in California led CDCR to issue an order limiting the number of times incarcerated people could shower to three per week. Many showers were equipped with shutoff valves controllable by officers who would turn them off after five minutes.

Regardless of whether an incarcerated person went out for exercise in the yard, showers could only be taken during designated times. In addition to indoor shower restrictions, outdoor showers were turned off and water hoses were discontinued.

Certain incarcerated groups were exempt from shower limitations. Those who worked in the prison’s kitchen, construction, prison industries or maintenance departments; medically prescribed showers and LGBTQ people were also allowed a shower once per day. 

Other incarcerated people showering outside the allotted times were subject to receiving rule violation reports and disciplinary sanctions. A life-term prisoner going before a parole board can be given a three-year denial of parole for “stealing” a shower since any rule violation report can be determined by the board to be criminal behavior.

Michael Moore is incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. He remembers a rule violation he received during the COVID-19 pandemic after returning from yard exercise while hot, sweaty and in need of a shower.

A correctional officer wrote, “I observed inmate Moore in the shower area disobeying the order that had been given for Unit lockup. It should be noted that inmate Moore is aware of unit rules… I have observed inmate Moore disobeying and I informed him that he will be receiving a rules violation report for disobeying a direct order.”

This shower policy has been problematic in California’s dangerously overcrowded prisons for over a decade. But when the pandemic collided with drought restrictions, a lack of hygiene became a Molotov cocktail for overcrowded prisons with poor ventilation systems. San Quentin saw a surge in COVID-19 cases that led to a virtual state of sickness and the loss of 29 lives at the prison. During the entire pandemic, these shower restrictions existed at San Quentin. 

AB 353 comes at an opportune time when California now has a historically low prison population, just below 95,000, as opposed to 174,000 in 2006. It also comes amid above average rainfall for the past two years.

In March 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted drought restrictions after ending the pandemic emergency. Shortly thereafter, incarcerated people in San Quentin were permitted to shower every day of the week – an allowance that will likely be replicated in prisons across the state now that AB 353 is law.

Specifically, this bill guarantees that persons incarcerated at CDCR have access to showers at least every other day, regardless of whether or not they have an employment position while incarcerated.

The right to shower bill moved through the legislature without opposition. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon commented on the bill.

“How can we expect positive outcomes from individuals released from prison if basic human rights and human dignities like showering are not provided while they are incarcerated? AB 353 ensures that California honors a basic human right and human dignity even for individuals who have committed serious offenses,” Gascon said. “AB 353 will help improve the mental health of our inmate population and reduce health issues/problems that are common in correctional facilities.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that personal hygiene is a basic human need under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment that bans cruel and unusual punishment.

However, the high court recognized the right to a shower every 72 hours in times of an emergency within the prisons. States regulate their own shower policies in prisons, normally without violating this framework. AB 353 creates a new standard of a shower no less than every 48 hours under California law. 

“Of course, incarcerated people also have a right not to shower if they choose,” Moore said. “But I hope they don’t exercise that right.”