Warning: This text accommodates graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday introduced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of girls behind bars in two California prisons, citing quite a few stories of groping, inappropriate touching and rape by correctional employees.
The U.S. Justice Division is investigating whether or not the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of girls on the Central California Girls’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Establishment for Girls in Chino by failing to guard them from sexual abuse by jail workers.
The transfer comes after dozens of girls held on the two prisons within the final two years introduced a number of lawsuits towards the corrections division, alleging that they have been subjected to sexual harassment, molestation and rape by jail workers beneath the colour of authority.
Greater than 30 present and former correctional officers have been named within the lawsuits, which graphically doc allegations of sexual abuse stretching again greater than a decade. The complaints additionally allege that, once they have been at their most susceptible, the ladies have been punished and generally abused additional for reporting their assailants.
Since 2014, not less than 17 correctional officers accused of sexual misconduct in California girls’s prisons have been fired, have resigned or have retired, in response to information. Jail sexual abuse knowledge, nevertheless, present few disciplinary penalties for the correctional workers regardless of a whole bunch of complaints — with many of the allegations not being sustained.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” stated Asst. Atty. Gen. Kristen Clarke of the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division. “Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”
“Correctional staff at both facilities reportedly sought sexual favors in return for contraband and privileges,” Clarke alleged, including, “I’ll note that the correctional officers named in these allegations range in rank and have even included the very people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse made by women incarcerated at these facilities.”
In a press release responding to the probe, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber stated, “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system. Our department embraces transparency, and we fully welcome the U.S. Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”
Clarke stated the investigation will study stories from a whole bunch of girls of inappropriate touching, groping and forcible rape.
“Sexual abuse and misconduct will not be tolerated in prisons,” stated U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada for the Central District.
Greater than two dozen protesters marched in entrance of the California Establishment For Girls in Chino in April 14.
(Mark Boster / For The Occasions)
“Concern about the physical safety of people inside California women’s prisons is not new,” stated U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert for the Japanese District of California. “Media coverage, state audits, advocates’ efforts and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue often unseen by many in the community.”
Clarke stated that at this stage, no conclusions have been drawn. Nonetheless, federal prosecutors painted a dire image of allegations made by the ladies California holds within the two prisons.
The federal motion comes as a lawsuit accusing a former correctional officer on the Central California Girls’s Facility of widespread sexual assaults is slated to go to trial in a California court docket. Filed on behalf of 21 girls incarcerated on the California Establishment for Girls, the lawsuit included allegations of forcible rape, groping and oral copulation, in addition to threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct, from 2014 to 2020.
As well as, a whole bunch of lawsuits have been filed during the last decade making related accusations towards officers on the Central California Girls’s Facility, Clarke stated.
The authorized actions pending towards state correctional officers present a street map of alleged depravity and inaction by jail authorities for federal prosecutors to pursue. For instance, a lawsuit accuses a sergeant on the Chino jail of greater than 40 often-violent rapes and different sexual misconduct in 2015. And a former officer on the Chowchilla jail, Gregory Rodriguez, awaits trial on 96 counts of intercourse crimes towards almost a dozen girls held there.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated girls is a widespread downside in amenities nationwide, with authorities surveys suggesting that greater than 3,500 girls are sexually abused by jail and jail employees yearly. And it’s an issue in federal prisons in addition to state lockups.
In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons closed the Federal Correctional Establishment in Dublin, Calif., the place greater than a half-dozen correctional officers and the previous warden have both been charged or convicted of sexually abusing feminine inmates. The jail was so suffering from sexual abuse that it was recognized amongst inmates and employees because the “rape club.”
