DOJ says California prisons failed to stop decades of staff sexual abuse

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division released a report stating that staff at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino have engaged in an unbroken pattern of sexual misconduct against inmates from 2000 to 2024. The investigation found that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation repeatedly substantiated abuse claims yet failed to protect victims, punish offenders, or prevent retaliation against women who reported the crimes.

The department asserts that these actions breach the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Notable cases include the arrest of former correctional officer Gregory Rodriguez, accused of assaulting at least 22 women, and a 2024 incident where guards pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed inmates in a cafeteria as alleged punishment for filing complaints. The report also mentions the settlement of $1.9 million to 13 women affected by the cafeteria incident and the guilty plea of former CDCR sergeant Ralph Contreras Jr. on child-pornography charges. Advocacy groups say the findings confirm long-standing claims of systemic abuse within California’s women’s prisons.