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

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Benjamin AshfordU.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually 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 sexual abuse 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 raped or otherwise sexually 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 raped the women, forced them to participate in oral copulation, and threatened them with violence, the release said.

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

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Correctional staff are accused of seeking sexual 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 sexual abuse 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. “Sexual assault 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 announced it will close a women’s prison in Northern California known as the “rape club” after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant sexual abuse 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.