After Prop. 8, Gay California Inmates Can Marry Again

California's prison inmates will soon be able to marry same-sex partners, as long as their significant other is not also incarcerated.

Michael Stainer, the director of the adult institutions division for the state Department of Corrections, made the announcement last week, establishing the same marriage rights for gay and bisexual inmates as other inmates in heterosexual relationships, according to the Associated Press.

The policy change follows the judicial dismantling of California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that restored a ban on marriages for same-sex couples in 2008. In the brief window where gay and lesbian couples could marry in California five years ago, inmates were also extended the same right.

State assemblyman Tom Ammiano made an inquiry to the Department of Corrections to clarify whether gay and lesbian inmates would be able to marry, since some prisons still prohibited inmates from marrying same-sex partners.