Prisoners made more than 375 allegations of staff sexual misconduct at the state’s two women’s prisons between January 2023 and June 2025.
California prison officials failed to protect female inmates from sexual abuse and harassment by staff at two state prisons, with misconduct dating back to 2000 and continuing to the present, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday.
The department said it has reasonable cause to believe the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and two women’s prisons are violating prisoners’ constitutional rights.
The investigation focused on the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino.
The DOJ report stated the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division conducted an investigation into allegations of repeated sexual assaults and similar misconduct by the staff at the two women’s prisons against prisoners, dating as far back as the year 2000.
“As a result, the Section found an unbroken pattern of often violent, sexual misconduct by staff against prisoners from 2000 through 2024, continuing to the present,” the DOJ report stated.
Prisoners made more than 375 allegations of staff sexual misconduct at the two women’s prisons between January 2023 and June 2025. There were 320 private lawsuits filed against the two prisons and the CDCR, mostly by former prisoners, and the DOJ investigative team reviewed more than 350 allegations by prisoners of sexual misconduct by staff.
Former correctional officer Greg Rodriguez was found guilty in 2025 by a jury in Madera County on 64 counts of sexual assault of nine female inmates at the Central California Women’s Facility, according to the Madera County District Attorney’s Office.
The DOJ report said that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation received information about some of the allegations against Rodriguez in 2014 but appears to have started its investigation of him in 2022, eight years later.
CDCR spokesperson Will Matthews said in an email to The Epoch Times that the department has a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual abuse and that its prisons are regularly reviewed by federally trained Prison Rape Elimination Act auditors. Matthews said the most recent audits of the two prisons found that both met all 45 federal standards of the Act.
Matthews said CDCR has strengthened investigations, expanded fixed and body-worn camera coverage, and improved ways for prisoners and staff to confidentially report misconduct. Matthews said some changes began before the DOJ investigation and that CDCR’s internal actions have led to criminal investigations and prosecutions. The department said it would work with the DOJ on its recommendations.
By Tom Gantert
