The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually abused incarcerated women at two California state prisons. Authorities found “significant justification” to open an investigation into the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino, DOJ said. Both are run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Associated Press reports. The corrections department said Wednesday that it does not tolerate sexual abuse in its prisons and that it welcomes the investigation.
The formal inquiry was prompted by hundreds of private lawsuits over the past two years alleging that women incarcerated at the Chowchilla prison were raped or otherwise sexually abused. A single lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the Chino facility alleges that from 2014 to 2020, correction officers there groped and forcibly raped the women, forced them to participate in oral copulation, and threatened them with violence. Correctional staff are accused of seeking sexual favors in return for contraband and other privileges. Some of the accused include prison officials who are responsible for handling sexual abuse complaints at the facilities. Jeff Macomber, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said, Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system.”
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