The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a probe into allegations of systematic sexual abuse of imprisoned women by correctional officers at two California state prisons. The investigation is focused on the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino, both managed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The DOJ stated that there was substantial justification for launching the inquiry, as voiced in a news release. The California corrections department, in response, stated that it does not condone sexual abuse in its facilities and is cooperative with the investigation.
The investigation was prompted by numerous private lawsuits over the past couple of years alleging sexual assault on women inmates at the Chowchilla facility. One lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 women imprisoned at the Chino institution detailed incidents between 2014 and 2020, accusing correctional officers of groping, rape, oral copulation coercion, and threats of violence. Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, stressed that incarcerated women should not be exposed to such abuse by prison staff who are tasked with safeguarding them.
According to the DOJ, the correctional officers were reported to have demanded sexual favors in exchange for contraband and preferential treatment, with some of them being officials responsible for addressing sexual abuse complaints within the prisons. Secretary Jeff Macomber of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expressed the department’s support for the independent investigation, highlighting that sexual assault goes against human dignity and will not be tolerated in California’s state prison system. In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons disclosed its decision to shutter a women’s prison in Northern California dubbed the “rape club” following revelations of widespread sexual abuse by correctional officers.
Located approximately 35 miles east of Los Angeles, Chino is where one of the prisons under investigation is situated, while Chowchilla is about 145 miles southeast of San Francisco.
