The Justice Department is investigating sexual abuse allegations at California women’s prisons

[Pelican Press 0]

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The Justice Department is investigating ******* ****** allegations at California women’s prisons

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically ********* abused incarcerated women at two state-run California 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, the DOJ said in a news release. Both are run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The corrections department said in a statement Wednesday that it does not tolerate ******* ****** in its prisons and that it welcomes the investigation.

The formal inquiry was sparked by hundreds of private lawsuits over the past two years alleging that women incarcerated at the Chowchilla prison were ****** or otherwise ********* abused, according to the news release. 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 ****** the women, forced them to participate in ***** copulation, and threatened them with *********, the release said.

“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to ******* ****** by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Correctional staff are accused of seeking ******* favors in return for contraband and other privileges, according to the Justice Department. It added that some of the accused include prison officials who are responsible for handling ******* ****** complaints at the facilities.

Jeff Macomber, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a statement that the department welcomes the independent investigation. “******* ******** is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system,” he said.

In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons

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a women’s prison in Northern California

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after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant ******* ****** by correctional officers.

Chino is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. Chowchilla is about 145 miles (233 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.

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