DOJ Orders California Prisons to Fix Sexual Abuse Failures Within 49 Days
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 14
DOJ Orders California Prisons to Fix Sexual Abuse Failures Within 49 Days
3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 14
Summary
Federal investigators gave California’s prison system 49 days to fix conditions at two women’s prisons that allowed guards to sexually abuse and harass incarcerated women, or face possible civil litigation.
The Justice Department said victims lacked confidential reporting channels, feared retaliation, and in some cases had to report misconduct through systems accessible to accused officers.
At Central California Women’s Facility and the California Institution for Women, the probe found staff assigned to investigate abuse were sometimes accused themselves; one guard was sentenced to 224 years and one sergeant got 15 years.
California’s corrections department said it enforces a zero-tolerance policy and noted independent audits found both prisons compliant in 2024 and 2025, but advocates said those reviews set too low a bar and have not produced meaningful change.
The findings add to wider scrutiny of abuse in California women’s detention facilities after the 2024 closure of the federal Dublin prison following a major sexual-abuse scandal.