[Pnews] DoJ opens investigation into sexual abuse at California women's prisons

[Prisoner News]

theguardian.com 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/05/california-womens-prisons-investigation> 



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

Sam Levin
Sept. 5, 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sign in front of California prison

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 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/25/california-womens-prison-guard-sexual-assault>, 
accused of repeatedly assaulting women in his custody for years.

A Guardian investigation 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/25/gregory-rodriguez-california-correctional-officer-accused-sexual-assault-womens-prison> 
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 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/29/womens-prison-guards-sexual-abuse> 
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 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/30/california-womens-prisons-correctional-officers-sexual-assault-investigation> 
for sexual misconduct during that timeframe. Officers are rarely 
prosecuted, even when the CDCR determined 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/30/california-womens-prisons-correctional-officers-sexual-assault-investigation> 
claims of abuse were substantiated 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/apr/11/california-prison-sergeant-sexual-abuse-nilda-palacios>.

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 
<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1069> 
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 
<https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/allegations-of-staff-misconduct/> 
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 <https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112.pdf> have 
repeatedly found 
<https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/substantiated-incidents-sexual-victimization-reported-adult-correctional> 
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 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/06/federal-prison-sexual-abuse-deportation-california-mexico>, 
including at its women’s facility 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/15/california-womens-prison-closing-sexual-abuse> 
in California; the US Senate reported 
<https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/2022-12-13%20PSI%20Staff%20Report%20-%20Sexual%20Abuse%20of%20Female%20Inmates%20in%20Federal%20Prisons.pdf> 
in 2022 that staff have sexually abused incarcerated people in at least 
two-thirds of all federal women’s prisons.

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