California prisons failed to protect incarcerated women from sexual assault, new DOJ report says
An exterior view of the Central California Women’s Facility prison in Chowchilla, California, on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Dan Hernandez/The San Francisco Chronicle via the Associated Press)
The U.S. Department of Justice issued in a report Thursday finding that California’s prison system failed to protect incarcerated women from sexual abuse and harassment by guards.
The DOJ investigation, which began during the Biden administration, also found that California’s corrections department failed to provide prisoners with a way to report sexual abuse and harassment without retaliation.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in an Aug. 13 press release that female prisoners “have the constitutional right to be free from sexual assault and harassment by prison staff.”
The federal investigation focused on the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, and the California Institution for Women in Chino, California. The report also determined that staff members investigating guard misconduct were often themselves accused of sexual abuse or harassment.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation responded in a statement that it “enforces a zero-tolerance policy as mandated by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act,” according to a story by the Associated Press. The statement is referring to a federal law passed in 2003 to help prevent sexual assaults in prisons.
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