The U.S. Justice Department has said that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to protect women incarcerated in its facilities despite being aware of “repeated incidents” of sexual assault and harassment by officials.

The DOJ said in a statement on Thursday that the failure amounts to a violation of the U.S. Constitution after federal investigators uncovered a “longstanding pattern of staff sexual misconduct” at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino.

It also found prison officials were responsible for a continued pattern of abuse, failing to provide effective systems where victims could confidentially report abuses, conducting improper investigations, and failing to hold staff accountable for such misconduct.

The investigation also uncovered a failure to adequately and effectively implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law to protect inmates against sexual abuse. The DOJ concluded that “these systemic deficiencies grievously violate prisoners’ rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments”.

To address the violations, it ordered California to expand camera coverage, strengthen investigations, improve staff training and monitoring, enhance confidential reporting systems and put PREA-compliant safeguards in place.

“If state officials do not satisfactorily address these concerns within 49 days, the Attorney General may initiate litigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalised Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997 et seq,” it warned.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, reiterated female prisoners’ rights against all forms of sexual abuse and described California’s corrections department’s failure as illegal.

“This deliberate indifference to the suffering of female prisoners at the hands of prison staff is illegal, and the Civil Rights Division, in partnership with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern and Central Districts of California, will end this brutal abuse,” Ms Dhillon added.

First assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, said the findings were unacceptable and stressed California’s responsibility to protect prisoners and to address the systemic failures that have allowed staff misconduct to persist.

The investigation into the prison system involved the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for California’s eastern and central districts. It began in September 2024 under former President Joe Biden’s administration pursuant to CRIPA.

In a statement responding to the findings, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation claimed that it “enforces a zero-tolerance policy as mandated by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act”.