Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of women behind bars at two California prisons, citing numerous reports of inappropriate touching, groping and rape by prison workers.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of women at the California Women's Center in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino by failing to protect them from sexual abuse by prison staff.
The move comes after dozens of women held at the two prisons over the past two years filed multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging they were subjected to sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape by prison staff under color of authority.
The lawsuits name more than 30 current and former prison officers who graphically document allegations of sexual abuse dating back more than a decade. The complaints also allege that, when they were at their most vulnerable, the women were punished and sometimes further abused for speaking out against their abusers.
Since 2014, at least 17 prison officers accused of sexual misconduct in California women’s prisons have been fired, resigned or retired, records show. However, data on prison sexual abuse shows few disciplinary consequences for prison staff despite hundreds of complaints, and most allegations have not been substantiated.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by correctional staff, who are constitutionally obligated to protect her,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “All women, including those in prison, retain their basic civil and constitutional rights and must be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”
“Correctional staff at both facilities reportedly requested sexual favors in exchange for contraband and privileges,” Clarke said, adding, “I note that the correctional officials named in these allegations vary in rank and have even included the very individuals responsible for handling sexual abuse complaints made by women incarcerated at these facilities.”
In a statement responding to the investigation, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said, “Sexual assault is an egregious violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated, under any circumstances, within the California state prison system. Our department supports transparency, and we welcome the U.S. Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”
Clarke said the inquiry would examine reports from hundreds of women of inappropriate touching, groping and forcible rape.
“Sexual abuse and misconduct will not be tolerated in prisons,” said U.S. Attorney for the Central District Martin Estrada.
More than two dozen protesters marched outside the California Institution for Women in Chino on April 14.
(Mark Boster/For The Times)
“Concerns about the physical safety of individuals inside California’s women’s prisons are not new,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “Media coverage, state audits, advocacy efforts, and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue that often goes unnoticed by many in the community.”
Clarke said no conclusions have been drawn at this stage. However, federal prosecutors painted a bleak picture of the allegations made by the women held in California's two prisons.
The federal action comes as a lawsuit accusing a former corrections officer at the California Women’s Center of widespread sexual assault is set to go to trial in a California court. Filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institute for Women, the suit included allegations of forcible rape, groping and oral copulation, as well as threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct, from 2014 to 2020.
In addition, hundreds of lawsuits with similar allegations have been filed against officials at the Central California Women's Center over the past decade, Clarke said.
Pending legal actions against state prison officials provide a road map of alleged depravity and inaction by prison authorities that federal prosecutors must investigate. For example, one lawsuit accuses a Chino prison sergeant of more than 40 often violent rapes and other sexual misconduct in 2015. And a former Chowchilla prison officer, Gregory Rodriguez, is awaiting trial on 96 counts of sex crimes against nearly a dozen women held there.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women is a widespread problem in correctional facilities across the country. Government surveys indicate that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail workers each year. And it is a problem in both federal and state prisons.
In April, the Federal Bureau of Prisons closed the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, where more than a half-dozen correctional officers and the former warden were charged or convicted of sexually abusing female inmates. The prison was so rife with sexual abuse that it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.”
