Justice Department finds California women’s prisons failed to protect prisoners from sexual abuse by staff
By Chelsea Hylton
The U.S. Department announced that it has reasonable cause to believe that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and several prisons failed to protect female prisoners from sexual abuse by staff.
During a news conference on Thursday, the DOJ alleged that the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino violated the U.S. Constitution by denying prisoners their rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
“Female prisoners have the constitutional right to be free from sexual assault and harassment by prison staff,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Department of Justice’s investigation revealed that California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation knew of repeated incidents of sexual assault and harassment against female prisoners and failed to protect them.
CBS LA has reached out to the CDCR for a comment and is waiting for a response.
Officials said during an investigation they uncovered a “longstanding pattern” of sexual misconduct by staff, inadequate safeguards, failures in confidential reporting, improper investigative practices and insufficient accountability measures.
The DOJ also found that the CDCD, CCWF and CIW failed to effectively implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which sets a strict zero-tolerance standard for sexual abuse and harassment of people in federal, state, and local confinement facilities.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said that the department’s findings were unacceptable and added that the state needs to confront the persistent failure of its own employees to prevent sexual abuse.
“This report should serve as a turning point,” Essayli said.
The DOJ provided the state with a notice of the minimum remedial measures it will be required to address the violations. Those measures include expanded camera coverage, enhanced confidential reporting channels, strengthened investigative protocols, improved staff training and monitoring, and implementation of PREA-compliant safeguards.
If state officials do not “satisfactorily address these concerns within 49 days,” Attorney General Rob Bonta may initiate litigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, the DOJ said.
