DOJ: California Prisons Fail to Stop Sexual Abuse of Women Inmates

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has reasonable cause to believe California’s prison system has systematically failed to protect incarcerated women from sexual abuse and harassment by staff, in findings that AP News reports constitute a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The investigation uncovered an “unbroken pattern” of often violent sexual misconduct by staff against prisoners dating from 2000 through 2024 and continuing to the present.

The federal investigation focused on two state prisons: the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, the state’s largest women’s prison, and the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino. The Justice Department’s official findings concluded that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), along with both facilities, “grievously violate prisoners’ rights” under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and fail to adequately implement the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

A Decades-Long Pattern of Abuse

The investigation, initiated in September 2024 under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), began after hundreds of incarcerated women filed legal claims alleging sexual exploitation by staff and after former correctional officer Gregory Rodriguez was arrested for sexually abusing at least 22 women. Federal investigators reviewed 350 allegations of sexual misconduct, interviewed prisoners, and examined body-worn camera footage.

According to CalMatters/KQED reporting, prisoners made more than 375 allegations of staff sexual misconduct at the two women’s prisons between January 2023 and June 2025, and 320 private lawsuits have been filed against the prisons and CDCR, mostly by former prisoners.

The case of Gregory Rodriguez became a flashpoint. Rodriguez, a 27-year veteran of California’s prison system who worked at CCWF from 2010 to 2022, was convicted in January 2025 on 64 counts of sexual abuse against nine women and sentenced to 224 years in prison, as KQED reported. A Guardian investigation revealed that reports of Rodriguez abusing incarcerated women first surfaced in 2014, but instead of reprimanding him, the prison punished his victims. CDCR substantiated allegations that he engaged in sexual acts with 21 incarcerated women, while federal investigators identified more than 65 alleged victims.

Systemic Failures in Reporting and Accountability

The DOJ found that the reporting system for sexual misconduct was not confidential. Women were told to report on an online system that accused officers had access to, creating a powerful deterrent to coming forward. Staff tasked with investigating misconduct were often themselves accused of sexual abuse or harassment — at least one sergeant whose job was to investigate misconduct was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving child sexual abuse images at work.

Investigators also found gaps in surveillance camera coverage, including blind spots around plant operations areas and prison kitchens. Kitchen storage rooms without cameras are known as “sugar rooms” because sexual activity can occur there without detection. Correctional officers failed to properly use body-worn cameras, at times turning them off in violation of prison policy. Only correctional officers are required to wear body cameras, despite confirmed cases of sexual misconduct by other staff, including a cook, mental health counselor, and work-program staff.

The state’s Office of the Inspector General found that 86% of the corrections department’s disciplinary and criminal investigations reviewed during the first half of 2025 were either “inadequate” or “needs improvement.” Staff with sustained allegations of sexual misconduct were allowed to retire with benefits or resign without sanctions.

Retaliation Against Survivors

The DOJ found that an August 2024 mass use-of-force incident at the Chowchilla prison was retaliation for women reporting staff sexual abuse. The incident resulted in injuries ranging from seizures to blindness. The corrections department reached a $1.9 million settlement in April 2026 with 13 women injured during the incident, and investigators concluded that 41 employees violated department policy.

“Some of us are in here for far less than what has been done to us, doing life sentences and decades’ worth of time, while we’re also being preyed upon,” said Antoinette Yancey, who is incarcerated at CCWF. “And it’s just not fair.”

Official Response and Demands for Reform

“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 Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, at a press conference in Los Angeles. “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. This deliberate indifference to the suffering of female prisoners at the hands of prison staff is illegal.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California called the findings “unacceptable,” adding: “The State must confront the persistent failure of its own employees to prevent and address sexual abuse at these facilities and the systemic breakdowns that have permitted these conditions to persist. This report should serve as a turning point.”

The federal government has given California 49 days to remediate the conditions, warning that failure to do so could result in civil litigation under CRIPA. Required measures include expanded camera coverage, enhanced confidential reporting channels, strengthened investigative protocols, and improved staff training and monitoring.

CDCR spokesperson Will Matthews said the department “is fully committed to supporting victims of sexual assault and ensuring safe avenues exist for both incarcerated persons and staff to confidentially report misconduct.” The agency maintains it enforces a “zero-tolerance policy” as mandated by PREA and that independent audits found both prisons in compliance with all 45 federal standards as recently as 2024 and 2025.

Advocates Demand Systemic Change

Advocates who have worked with incarcerated women for years expressed frustration that the findings come after decades of warnings. “None of this should be surprising to CDCR, none of it should be surprising to the Legislature,” said Amika Mota, executive director of the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition, an advocacy organization for incarcerated women and transgender people.

Emily Wonder, an advocate with the same organization, said state audits evaluate prison conditions based on a very “low bar” that allows abuse to slip through the cracks. “It’s not a very strong protection mechanism in general,” Wonder said. “We’ve been really frustrated, feeling like we’re spinning our wheels.”

Colby Lenz of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners emphasized that the problem extends far beyond any single officer: “We don’t want one individual facing these convictions to draw attention away from the systemic crisis. We will continue to push for systemic change and to hold the system accountable for permitting and often enabling this kind of abuse.”

A Broader Pattern of Prison Abuse

The findings echo a similar scandal at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, which the AP previously exposed as a facility nicknamed the “rape club” due to rampant abuse by federal prison staff. The prison was closed following the AP investigation, and the U.S. government agreed to pay nearly $116 million to settle lawsuits over the abuse.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, which helped push for the federal investigation, said: “No person, no matter what the actions that they took that resulted in their getting a sentence, should be subject to being assaulted or raped while they are incarcerated. Nobody.”

What’s Next

The Justice Department has said it looks forward to working cooperatively with California to ensure the state remedies the violations. If California fails to act within 49 days, the attorney general may initiate litigation under CRIPA. Advocates say they will be watching closely to ensure that meaningful change follows the findings — not just promises.

“We are not letting go of the truths that were told by those survivors,” Mota said. “We believe them. We listen to them. We support them. And we are committed to exposing other officers that are inside currently harming folks.”