State Investigates Sex Crimes at Women’s Prisons

Five California corrections employees have resigned and at least 40 more are under investigation for sexual misconduct with inmates at women’s prisons, the state Department of Corrections disclosed Wednesday.

One employee resigned after it was alleged that he had fathered an inmate’s child. Two other workers quit after they were found to be dating parolees. Another has been placed on administrative leave pending a criminal prosecution for sexual assault, according to the department.

The state inquiry, the first major investigation of abuses at women’s prisons, is focused mainly on the California Institution for Women in Frontera. The Corrections Department investigation is continuing and officials provided few details of the allegations they are pursuing at the San Bernardino County facility and elsewhere in the state. They declined to divulge the names of any of the alleged perpetrators or victims.

“Once again we have another embarrassing moment, another black eye to the California correctional system,” said Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), an outspoken critic of the department who had been briefed on the investigation.

Polanco said that the investigation may also focus on an unidentified assistant warden who was allegedly aware of the sexual misconduct but failed to take corrective action.

Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., could not be reached for comment. Two of the five employees who have resigned were prison guards, according to department officials.

Cal Terhune, director of the Department of Corrections, would only sketch the broad outline of the investigation but emphasized that he will not be content until all inappropriate behavior is eliminated.

“Sexual misconduct between prison staff and inmates is particularly abhorrent because of the inherent problems of staff having complete authority over inmates,” he said. “We absolutely will not . . . permit that kind of behavior between a vulnerable inmate and a staff person.”

Terhune also announced that the department is setting up a hotline for female inmates that will provide them direct access to the department’s office of internal affairs.

“Without a doubt this is the most thorough and far-ranging investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct [in California prisons],” Terhune said.

The department’s investigation began in part after an inmate accused a staff person of fathering her child. As investigators began to look into the matter, they uncovered additional instances of alleged illegal and inappropriate conduct between staff and prisoners.

The alleged wrongdoing is the first to surface publicly at state prisons during the Davis administration. Unlike other prison scandals, system officials are taking credit for having detected the problem and are pursuing the allegations through their own internal affairs unit.

Under former Gov. Pete Wilson, a series of controversies plagued the nation’s largest prison system, and focused on brutality by guards at high-security lockups for men.

Last year, The Times reported that two state investigations failed to fully investigate 50 serious and fatal shootings at Corcoran State Prison in the San Joaquin Valley. The revelations prompted six days of state legislative hearings and renewed investigations into dozens of shootings. Many of those shootings were later determined to be unjustified by an independent panel appointed by Terhune.

No other state imprisons more women than California, which has about 11,500 female inmates and is home to the two largest women’s prisons in the world. Both of those facilities, in the small San Joaquin Valley town of Chowchilla, have been plagued by allegations of sexual abuse and inadequate medical care. The other women’s prisons are in Frontera and Stockton.

Corrections officials said Wednesday that wardens at several of the women’s prisons had called for investigations of staff misconduct. But disclosure of the investigation also comes on the heels of pressure from human rights groups.

Within the last year or so, two human rights groups have issued reports about serious problems at women’s prisons nationwide. Human Rights Watch, a New-York based group, discovered that female inmates were frequent victims of sexual assault and that procedures to report and investigate such abuse in California and other states were flawed and biased in favor of guards.

A study by a congressional watchdog agency released in July found that the California prison system has failed to train employees and prisoners in its women’s facilities to recognize and prevent sexual misconduct by staff members against inmates.

Upon being told about the department’s investigation, Catherine Campbell, a Fresno attorney who has represented hundreds of women prisoners in cases against the prison system, said she was not surprised that the department had found problems.

“The Department of Corrections is only crisis-oriented. It only reacts,” Campbell said. The investigation “should have happened years ago. Women have been talking to us about incidents of sexual misconduct at the Central California Women’s Facility and Valley State Prison since those institutions opened.”

Terhune listed a number of steps the department has taken since he took over the director’s job two years ago to root out problems of sexual misconduct.

He cited a memo he issued in April warning department employees that “there is no such thing as a consensual sexual relationship between staff and inmates under California law.”

The department is also backing a measure (SB 377) by Polanco, approved this month by the Legislature, dealing with the issue.

Polanco said he hoped that the latest incident would provide impetus for Davis to sign the measure, which would increase the penalties for guards and other prison personnel who engage in sexual activity with an inmate.

His bill would give judges the latitude to decide if the first offense is a felony or misdemeanor. Repeat offenses would be felonies subject to prison terms of two to four years and a fine of up to $10,000. Under current law the first offense is a misdemeanor and repeat offenses are punishable by prison terms of 16 months to 3 years.

“I would hope [Davis] would sign it, given all the revelations that are going to come out in the very near future,” Polanco said.

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Women’s Prisons in California

Northern California Women’s Facility

Central California Women’s Facility

Valley State Prison for Women

California Institution for Women