DOJ says California prisons failed to protect women from guard sexual abuse

The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that California's prison system has systematically failed to protect incarcerated women from sexual abuse and harassment by guards, and that the state's corrections department failed to provide victims with a safe way to report misconduct without fear of retaliation.

The investigation, which began during the Biden administration, focused on two state facilities: the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino. Investigators found numerous instances in which guards regularly sexually abused incarcerated women.

In at least one instance, a guard was convicted of abuse carried out over roughly a decade and sentenced to 224 years in prison, according to the source.

Women were directed to report misconduct through an online system that was not confidential and to which the accused officers had access, according to Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Dhillon said women are 'fully aware of this gap in confidentiality, and this serves as a deterrent from women reporting this misconduct.'

The investigation also found that staff assigned to investigate misconduct were often themselves accused of sexual abuse or harassment. Dhillon named at least one sergeant whose job it was to investigate misconduct who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving child sexual abuse images on the job.

• The source does not state the full date on which the DOJ released its findings.
• The source does not state the total number of incarcerated women affected or the total number of guards implicated.
• The source does not state what remedial actions, if any, the DOJ is requiring or recommending.
• The source does not state whether the investigation produced a formal consent decree or other legal instrument.
• The source does not identify by name the guard sentenced to 224 years in prison or the sergeant sentenced to 15 years, beyond their titles.

1. Associated Press — original

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