SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually abused women incarcerated at two California state prisons.
Authorities found “significant justification” to investigate the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino, the Justice Department said in a news release. Both facilities are operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The Department of Corrections said in a statement Wednesday that it does not tolerate sexual abuse in its prisons and welcomes the investigation.
The official investigation was prompted by hundreds of private lawsuits over the past two years alleging that women incarcerated at the Chowchilla prison were raped or otherwise sexually abused, according to the news release. A single complaint filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the Chino facility alleges that between 2014 and 2020, corrections officers at the facility forcibly groped and raped the women, forced them to participate in oral sex and threatened them with violence, the release said.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff, who are constitutionally obligated to protect her,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Prison staff are accused of soliciting sexual favors in exchange for contraband and other privileges, according to the Justice Department. It added that the defendants include prison officials who handle complaints of sexual abuse in the facilities.
Jeff Macomber, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a statement that the department welcomed the independent investigation. “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of basic human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — in the California state prison system,” he said.
In April, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced it would close a Northern California women’s prison known as the “rape club” after an Associated Press investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse by corrections officers.
Chino is located approximately 35 miles east of Los Angeles. Chowchilla is located approximately 145 miles southeast of San Francisco.
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