California lawmakers want more oversight of sex assault complaints at women's prisons

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California lawmakers are pushing to create more oversight at women's prisons, which face thousands of sexual misconduct and assault complaints.

A new budget proposal would add more than 20 positions to the office of the inspector general to oversee these complaints, the Sacrameto Bee reported.

These new positions would also monitor the investigatory process of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

More than 2,000 staff sexual misconduct and assault claims are investigated each year in California prisons.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in September it was launching an investigation into whether the California corrections department protects incarcerated women "from sexual abuse by correctional staff" at two prisons, the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino. 

In a news release, the DOJ noted that women have filed hundreds of private lawsuits in the past two years alleging officer sexual abuse of people incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility over the last decade, ranging from allegations of inappropriate groping during searches and genital rubbing to forcible rape.

One of those lawsuits was filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women and included allegations of forcible rape and penetration, groping, oral copulation, as well as threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct ranging from 2014 to 2020.

And in  March 2024, the DOJ said that a working group established by California, composed of advocacy groups and community-based organizations, published a report to the California Legislature that identified longstanding cultural deficiencies in addressing staff sexual abuse, including an unsafe and inaccessible reporting process and the absence of staff accountability.