DoJ opens investigation into sexual abuse at California women’s prisons

The US justice department has opened a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse by staff at California’s women’s prisons, which have for years been plagued by misconduct scandals.

The department said on Wednesday that it was investigating the state’s two women’s prisons – the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino – and would evaluate whether the state protects incarcerated residents from sexual abuse by correctional employees.

The announcement of the inquiry into the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) references the case of Gregory Rodriguez, a former guard at the CCWF, who is heading to trial this week on nearly 100 sexual abuse charges, accused of repeatedly assaulting women in his custody for years.

Related: Ex-guard charged with 95 counts of sexual abuse in California women’s prison

A Guardian investigation last year revealed that the prison received a report of Rodriguez’s abuse in 2014, but instead of firing him, punished the victim. Court records suggested that Rodriguez, 56, went on to commit dozens of additional alleged sexual assaults up until 2022, when he retired while under investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” Kristen Clarke, who leads the justice department’s civil rights division, said in a statement.

“Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse. This investigation will determine whether California is meeting its constitutional obligations.”

US attorney Phillip Talbert added that concerns about abuse in the women’s facilities were not new. He said: “Media coverage, state audits, advocates’ efforts and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue often unseen by many in the community.”

Women have filed hundreds of lawsuits in the past two years alleging abuse by staff at the CCWF, the state’s largest women’s prison, including claims of “inappropriate groping during searches”, “genital rubbing” and “forcible rape”, the department said.

The announcement also noted that staff at both women’s prisons have been accused of coercing women into sexual favors in exchange for contraband and privileges; that officers “responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse” have themselves been accused of abuse; and that advocates have documented an “unsafe and inaccessible reporting process” in which staff are not held accountable.

Women who came forward last year about Rodriguez and abuse by others described a system in which they have struggled to access basic amenities like proper food and hygiene products, and as a result have been easily exploited by guards who offer resources or threaten to take them away. They said retaliation for speaking out was rampant, including being placed in solitary confinement after reporting abuse.

Records showed that women incarcerated in California’s state prisons filed hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse by staff from 2014 to 2023, but only four officers were terminated for sexual misconduct during that timeframe. Officers are rarely prosecuted, even when the CDCR determined claims of abuse were substantiated.

Colby Lenz, an advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) who has long worked with survivors at the two institutions, welcomed the investigation on Wednesday: “This is the appropriate move to investigate what is a crisis in the prisons and what CDCR has not taken seriously for decades, which has only allowed more people to be more sexually assaulted … This is an endemic, pervasive problem.”

State lawmakers recently passed legislation sponsored by the CCWP authorizing the office of the inspector general to monitor and investigate claims of staff sexual misconduct against incarcerated people, a reform meant to address the corrections department’s failures to hold its own staff accountable. The bill is now heading to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

A CDCR spokesperson said the department had instituted reforms into its investigations of staff sexual abuse so that the cases would be reviewed by teams at CDCR headquarters, outside of the institution where the complaint originated. The department has also “intensified staff training with a focus on misconduct” and deployed body-worn cameras and expanded surveillance, the spokesperson said.

Jeff Macomber, the CDCR’s secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated – under any circumstances – within California’s state prison system. Our department embraces transparency, and we fully welcome the US Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”

Reports have repeatedly found that sexual abuse by officers is a systemic problem in prisons across the US. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which falls under the justice department, has been plagued by its own sexual assault scandals, including at its women’s facility in California; the US Senate reported in 2022 that staff have sexually abused incarcerated people in at least two-thirds of all federal women’s prisons.