Department of Justice

Justice Department Finds 'Unbroken Pattern' of Sexual Abuse in Two California Women's Prisons

A Justice Department report documents California's failure to protect incarcerated women from sexual assault going back decades.

C.J. Ciaramella | 8.20.2026 1:55 PM

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(Tomas O'Valle/Fresno Bee file/TNS/Newscom)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) put California on notice last week that the state's decades-long failure to protect incarcerated women in two state prisons from rampant sexual abuse likely violates the Constitution.

An August 13 report by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division concluded that there was an "unbroken pattern of often violent, sexual misconduct by staff against prisoners from 2000 through 2024, continuing to the present" at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino. Although the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) repeatedly substantiated allegations of sexual abuse by correctional officers at the two prisons, Justice Department investigators found that CDCR officials failed to protect victims or hold correctional officers accountable, and the women who tried to report abuse were retaliated against.

The DOJ says the sustained abuse and failure to stop it violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments, as well as the Prison........

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