2 California women’s prisons under investigation for staff sexual abuse, says Justice Department

Amid increasing civil litigation and a report identifying longstanding deficiencies in how the California prison system addresses staff sexual abuse, the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday, Sept. 4 announced it has launched an investigation into conditions at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Federal officials said in a news release they found “significant justification” for launching a civil rights investigation after reviewing publicly available information and information from advocates, according to federal officials.

The investigation comes more than two and a half years after passage of Assembly Bill 1455 on Jan. 1, 2022, which extended the statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault by police and correctional officers to sue their assailants in civil court.

AB 1455 gives victims two options: One is to sue in civil court up to 10 years after their assailants have been convicted of sexual assault or a crime in which sexual assault was initially alleged. The second is to sue up to 10 years after their assailants left the law enforcement agency they were working at when the assault occurred.

Since the law took effect, a spate of lawsuits have been filed by hundreds of current and former female prisoners in the state prison system describing numerous instances of sexual assault by correctional officers overseen by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Most of the plaintiffs in those cases are current or former inmates at the Central California Women’s Facility and the California Institution for Women.

Last August, attorneys James Lewis and Kyle Gaines of Slater, Slater, Schulman in Beverly Hills said their law firm had filed 135 lawsuits totaling 147 plaintiffs in San Bernardino, Sacramento and Madera counties since AB 1455, authored by Assembly member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, took effect.

They said at the time they planned on filing at least 100 more lawsuits on behalf of current and former prisoners at the California Institution for Women, the California Central Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, and the now-closed Folsom Women’s Facility.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Lewis and Gaines said the number of lawsuits they had filed was now up to 600, with about 530 of them filed on behalf of current and former prisoners at the California Women’s Central Facility and about 30 on behalf of current and former prisoners at the California Institution for Women. All the cases have been consolidated and are being heard in Sacramento Superior Court.

Among some of the allegations in the lawsuits include inappropriate groping during searches, genital rubbing and forcible rape.

A civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women included allegations of forcible rape and penetration, groping, oral sex and threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct between 2014 and 2020. Correctional staff in both facilities reportedly exchanged contraband and privileges for sexual favors, according to the Justice Department.

“This investigation will examine whether the state violates the constitution by failing to protect people incarcerated at these two facilities from staff sexual abuse,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said.

According to the DOJ, the accused correctional officers range in rank and include the staff members directly responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse made by incarcerated women at the two facilities. The names of the accused individuals were not released.

The Justice Department noted the upcoming trial of former CDCR corrections officer Gregory Rodriguez, accused of sexually assaulting at least 13 inmates over a nine-year period at the Central California Women’s Facility.

The Madera County District Attorney’s Office charged Rodriguez, 54, with 96 felony counts, including rape, sodomy, sexual battery and rape under color of authority in May 2023. He faces more than 300 years in prison if convicted.

In March, a state-established working group composed of advocacy groups and community-based organizations published a report to the California Legislature identifying longstanding cultural deficiencies in addressing staff sexual abuse at state prisons, including an unsafe and inaccessible reporting process and the absence of staff accountability, according to the DOJ.

Clarke said that a recent government survey showed that incarcerated women are three times more likely than men to be sexually abused by prison or jail staff. Research also indicated that the female prison population is expanding at as much as twice the growth rate of men.

The two prisons house more than 3,000 female, transgender and nonbinary inmates combined.

The California Department of Corrections could not be immediately reached for comment. Officials at the two prisons also could not be reached for comment.

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern and Central Districts of California are conducting this investigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

“Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect,” Clarke said. “California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”

Lewis called the Justice Department’s investigation “welcome news.”

“I think it is great that they’re actually taking steps to actually investigate, given the widespread abuse that occurred for a long time at these state prison facilities,” said Lewis. “A prison sentence in the state of California shouldn’t mean that you’re being sentenced to sexual abuse. This investigation will hopefully make it a reality for women who are sentenced to prison in the future that it would not be part of their sentence to be sexually abused.”

Gaines said, “It’s a great step. It feels there’s been a lack of attention to these matters. I hope the Justice Department brings attention to what women in the California prison system have been suffering.”