This bill creates a new statutory requirement in chapter 70.48 RCW directing local jail administrators to develop and implement written policies and procedures for searching people who are transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming while confined. It is a procedural change, not a change to criminal penalties: it requires compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act and its regulations as they existed on January 1, 2025, mandates staff training on conducting cross‑gender and transgender/intersex searches in a professional, respectful, and least intrusive manner, and sets a deadline of September 1, 2026 for local jails to adopt standards that comply with the new section. The bill also amends RCW 10.79.100 to add rules about strip searches and body cavity searches, privacy protections, who may perform body cavity searches, limits on observers, and specific options for transgender, gender nonconforming, or intersex individuals during strip searches. It bars searching someone solely to determine genital status and permits genital-status determination only by conversation, medical record review, or as part of a broader private medical exam; it specifies allowable strip‑search methods (for example, conducted by a medical professional, by female staff for adults, by staff the individual identifies as most comfortable with, or in accordance with the individual's stated gender identity). The bill limits cross‑gender searches to exigent circumstances and says lack of available trained female staff is not by itself an exigent circumstance. Affected parties named include local jails and jail administrators, jail security and correctional staff, medical professionals licensed in Washington who may perform medical exams or body cavity searches, confined individuals who are transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming, and law enforcement to the extent existing search statutes apply. The extracted text does not show the exact new section number added to chapter 70.48, does not include the text of the referenced RCW 74.09.875 definition of “gender identity,” and does not reproduce the PREA regulations or the full texts of the other RCW sections referenced. The bill passed the House on February 4, 2026 and the Senate on March 3, 2026.

If enacted, local jails will have to adopt and follow new policies by September 1, 2026 that require staff to conduct searches of transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming people in a professional, respectful, and least intrusive way consistent with security, and to follow federal PREA rules as they stood on January 1, 2025. That will change day-to-day operations: jails must train security staff on cross-gender searches, limit strip searches to specified methods (for example, use of a medical professional, female staff for adults when available, asking which gender of staff the person prefers, or honoring the person’s stated gender identity), protect privacy during showers and clothing changes, and restrict cross-gender searches to true exigencies. The groups most affected are local jail administrators and correctional staff (who face new training and procedural duties), medical professionals who may be required to perform certain searches, and incarcerated transgender/intersex individuals who will have greater privacy protections; jails will likely incur costs for policy development, staff training, scheduling or staffing adjustments, and potential legal risk if they fail to meet PREA or the new state requirements. Key implementation details are missing from the extracted text, so it is unclear exactly how some provisions will be applied: the bill cites PREA regulations without quoting them, relies on an external definition of “gender identity” in RCW 74.09.875, and references amended language in RCW 10.79.100 and other RCWs that were not provided, leaving some operational specifics and boundaries open.