As California prisons face ‘wave’ of sex assault lawsuits, new audit highlights slow discipline

This story was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters Five California correctional officers who were accused of sexually assaulting incarcerated people over the last dozen years remain employed by the state according to a new audit from the state prisons inspector general The audit disclosed earlier this month is a twice-a-year summary of how the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation addresses complaints about its staff members Overall the inspector general discovered fault with the internal affairs department s investigations into prison guard misconduct The audit labeled of the prison system s internal affairs disciplinary and criminal caseload as inadequate or requirements improvement only of the cases handled by the internal affairs department were rated adequate Inadequate means there were notable problems with the inspection that affected its final outcome The less-serious label necessities improvement meant that the process had problems but none so serious that they compromised the inspection It comes as the department faces what the overview called a wave of lawsuits from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women who allege they were sexually abused by prison staff The audit revealed at least women have sued the department and they have accused at least prison employees of sexual misconduct The inspector general analysis does not include the names of the officers or even identify the prisons where they work which is in keeping with its past disciplinary audits The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not at once return calls and emails seeking comment for this story California has two prisons that primarily house women At the larger prison the Central California Women s Facility in Chowchilla former guard Gregory Rodriguez was ascertained guilty of counts of sexual abuse in January The Fresno Bee released and later sentenced to years in prison Thirteen incarcerated or formerly incarcerated women testified against him A analysis by The Guardian detected that women had made reports about Rodriguez as early as He worked at the prison until As Rodriguez s development unfolded the inspector general s office learned of other sex assault lawsuits The inspector general s office in the new statement reported it looked at cases and it faulted prison lawyers for being too slow in referring names to internal investigators who could have developed disciplinary cases against officers On average the audit mentioned it took nine months for the corrections department s legal staff to send cases to internal investigators Delayed analysis of sexual assault significantly impairs the integrity and effectiveness of the investigative process the audit explained The audit then described three cases involving six officers five of whom continue to work for state prisons In a separate affair not connected to the wave of lawsuits internal investigators took so long to review assertions of sexual assault that a lieutenant accused by a dozen women was able to retire before facing discipline the audit noted The inspector general s office wrote that the officer allegedly traded chewing gum a radio and marijuana for sexual favors between and and then lied to the prison system s internal affairs unit when sought about it The internal affairs unit unnecessarily delayed the completion of the study which prevented the department from imposing discipline for chosen claims the audit discovered Other violations ranged from minor administrative chicanery like two guards who allegedly faked the numbers in a prisoner count so they could use the time to eat Thanksgiving dinner instead to accusations that a prison guard loudly publicly and untruthfully indicated to other inmates that a prisoner was acting as an informant The audit reflects a chaotic process for even routine investigations In a January episode one of eight prison guards who had broken up a fight struck an incarcerated person with a baton even though the incarcerated person had already disengaged The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was aware of the incident in January according to the lawsuit but didn t refer it to internal affairs until June according to the audit An investigator didn t start conducting interviews until August Then the episode was reassigned to a second investigator who didn t start interviews until November and tried to close the situation without interviewing the incarcerated person the guard who allegedly struck him or any observers Then the second investigator went on extended leave handing the episode off to a third investigator who had weeks to wrap up an inspection that is supposed to take months to complete Ultimately the prison system was handed a development four days before the deadline for disciplinary action with a wholly deficient investigative analysis CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain 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