California Women’s Prison Sexual Assault Lawsuit
If you were sexually assaulted while incarcerated at a California prison – no matter how long ago – you have rights and we can help you use them. Contact our team now.
There’s Still Time to Make Them Pay for What Happened To You.
This has to stop, like, yesterday. Was it today or decades ago when you were behind bars in California paying society for a mistake you made and you found yourself helplessly cornered by a sexual predator working as a warden, therapist, guard, cook, janitor, whatever. Run or hide? Not on your life.
If you were assaulted by an authority figure at a California prison while doing time, ever in your life, we want to help you join the California prison sexual assault lawsuit. An extended California lookback window (AB 250) was passed January 1, 2026, giving you a temporary free pass to pursue life-changing compensation until December 31, 2027.1
After one settlement paid a whopping $116 million in December 2024 to 103 former inmates ($1.1 million each) who sued the FCI/ Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, CA, for assault by Ray Garcia, an ex-warden, hundreds more women began filing prison sexual assault lawsuits alleging staff-on-inmate abuse.2
CONTACT US
We’re changing the narrative about lawsuits.™
“We were sentenced to prison, we were not sentenced to be assaulted and abused.”
Former inmate Aimee Chavira, survivor of sexual assault at the “rape club,” aka, FCI.3
Sexual Assault Can Happen Behind Bars – and Women Are Often Hurt More.
Here’s a peek at the bigger picture, per an investigation published by the National Institutes of Health/ NIH in July 2024 called Sexual Violence Inside Prisons: Rates of Victimization4 + other coverage by the Associated Press:5
- Research suggests rates of sexual victimization in prison may be as high as 41%, with staff-committed rape nearly 6x higher than for those who have never been incarcerated.
- It is highly likely these incidents are way under-reported because of fear of retaliation or loss of privileges.
- Only 24% of staff sexual misconduct incidents were reported (compared to 69% for staff sexual harassment) for fear of retaliation or loss of privlege.
- From 2019–20, just 38% of staff-on-inmate incidents were reported.
Human Rights Watch concluded that “If you are sexually abused in prison you cannot escape from your abuser. Grievance or investigatory procedures, where they exist, are often ineffectual, and correctional employees continue to engage in abuse because they believe they will rarely be held accountable, administratively or criminally. Few people outside the prison walls know what is going on or care if they do know. Fewer still do anything to address the problem.”6
We aim to change that.
What Facilities are Part of the Women’s Prison Lawsuit?
Sexual assault has been reported by women inmates held at California state prisons, usually long-term, serving more than a year for convicted felonies. Here are some of the offending facilities – that we know of:
Central California Women’s Facility
(CCWF, California’s largest women’s prison) — Chowchilla:7, 8
- Ex-guard Gregory Rodriguez was convicted in January 2025 on 59 felony counts of sexual abuse, including “rape, rape under color of authority, oral copulation, sexual penetration and sodomy, acts perpetrated on nine women.”
- Reports of Rodriguez’s abuse were ignored since 2014 + he was “allowed to retire” in 2022.
- In October 2023, 29 women filed a lawsuit alleging former guard Israel Trevino Jr. abused them for more than a decade.
- Civil lawsuits against CCWF settled in October 2023 to the tune of $3.7 million, and now hundreds more cases are pending.
- The DOJ opened a civil rights investigation here in September 2024 before the facility was permanently closed down in December 2024.
California Institution for Women
(CIW, California’s oldest women’s prison) — Chino:9
- In February 2026, Marcus Johnson, an ex-cook at CIW, was charged with rape.
- Scott Shih-Shia Lee, the only gynecologist at CIW from 2016–2023, is the subject of February 2025 charges for sexual abuse under the guise of medical treatment.
- Six women filed a civil lawsuit in February 2025, accusing CDCR/ BOP of ignoring repeated complaints.
- Another lawsuit alleges that staff sought sexual favors in exchange for contraband + privileges.
- The DOJ also opened a civil rights investigation here in September 2024, still underway.
Federal Correctional Institution
(FCI, permanently closed in December 2024 – nicknamed “the rape club) – Dublin:”10, 11
- Ten former officers, including former warden Ray Garcia, Jeffrey Wilson, and Lawrence Gacad, were charged with sex crimes perpetrated on hundreds of women inmates.
- In December 2024, 103 women were awarded $116 million ($1.1 million apiece).
- By late 2025, 300+ more women had filed additional claims, still pending.
Other:
Prison assault can happen anywhere, even in local jails. The facilities we highlighted above are just the tip of the iceberg. This is a problem that has infected our system, and heavy underreporting is very likely. So if you were sexually assaulted at another facility in California, let us know.
Why Does This Keep Happening?
Several reasons: CDCR’s/ BOP’s track record of slow or suppressed investigations is one thing. A December 2025 audit showed it takes at least nine months for CDCR’s legal staff to refer cases to internal investigators.12
On top of this, 86% of the prison system’s calls for investigation are considered “inadequate” or “needing improvement,”- meaning significant problems exist with these stalled investigations + this can compromise outcomes.13
“Incarcerated women have accused at least 83 California correctional officers of sexual assault in active lawsuits.”14
But survivors are reluctant to report abuses for fear of punishment, losing privileges, or having their medical records tampered with (facilities may tamper with or destroy medical records to avoid charges of neglect, violence, civil rights abuse, or cause of death).15
“I was like, ‘please don’t write me up. Is there anything extra I can do, like cleaning?’” Jane Doe One recalled saying to Marcus Johnson, a former cook at CIR in Chino. Her complaint alleged that Johnson “then took her to a nearby bathroom where she thought she would be cleaning, but instead he forced her to give him oral sex, then ‘slammed her against the bathroom wall’ and raped her.”16
Can I Obtain Compensation from a Prison Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
Yes. LA County detention center settlements average $600,000 – $2 million per individual, the LA Times reported in October 2025.17
Setting the stage for recent waves of California prison assault lawsuits was a similar case in California that awarded $4 billion in December 2024 + another $828 million in October 2025 to plaintiffs who survived sexual abuse in state-run facilities as children in LA County.18
Now AB 250 lifts the SOL for prison assault survivors of all ages between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2027, no matter how long ago you were hurt.
What Can A Case for
Women Do About This?
We know exactly what we’re doing to help you make these losers pay you back. Big time. Tell us what happened to you.
We only partner with prison sexual assault lawyers who work on contingency – meaning no win, no pay. We don’t charge you either, not ever. Plus we’ve been around the block so many times before, pushing justice for women in big deal cases, like:
We cut through the BS. We talk straight.
CONTACT US 24/7/365
Sources
- Katie Stegall, “2026 New California Laws | Opens look-back window for adult sexual assault victims,” CBS8 San Diego, January 1, 2026.
- Associated Press Staff, “U.S. to pay $116M settlement over rampant sexual abuse at Calif. Women’s prison,” NPR, December 17, 2024.
- Richard Winton, “Women victimized in ‘rape club’ at California prison get record $116-million settlement,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2024.
- Nancy Wolff, Cynthia L. Blitz, Jing Shi, Ronet Bachman, Jane A. Stegel, “Sexual Violence Inside Prisons: Rates of Victimization, NIH/ PubMed, May 23, 2006.
- Associated Press Staff, “U.S. to pay $116M settlement over rampant sexual abuse at Calif. Women’s prison,” Associated Press, December 17, 2024.
- Unnamed, “All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of Women in U.S. State Prisons, Human Rights Watch, December 1996.
- Elize Manoukian, “Former Guard at California Women’s Prison Found Guilty of 59 Counts of Sexual Abuse, KQED Radio (NPR/PBS) ,January 15, 2025.
- Sam Levin, “Ex-guard at California women’s prison sentenced to 224 years for sexual abuse,” The Guardian, August 14, 2025.
- Sam Levin, “Women in California prison accuse staff cook of rape and urge criminal charges,” The Guardian, February 18, 2026.
- Lisa Fernandez, “FCI Dublin: Nearly 300 more women expected to file sex assault claims vs. BOP, Fox News, December 17, 2025.
- Press Release, “Two More FCI Dublin Correctional Officers Plead Guilty To Sexually Abusing Female Inmates,” United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of California, August 7, 2025.
- Nigel Duara, “As California prisons face ‘wave’ of sex assault lawsuits, new audit highlights slow discipline,” Sacramento Observer, December 10, 2025.
- Nigel Duara, “As California prisons face ‘wave’ of sex assault lawsuits, new audit highlights slow discipline,” Sacramento Observer, December 10, 2025.
- Nigel Duara, “As California prisons face ‘wave’ of sex assault lawsuits, new audit highlights slow discipline,” Sacramento Observer, December 10, 2025.
- Oana-Maria Isaila, Sorin Hostiuc, “Malpractice Claims and Ethical Issues in Prison Health Care Related to Consent and Confidentiality,” NIH/ PubMed, July 12, 2022.
- Sam Levin, “Women in California prison.”
- Rebecca Ellis, “New fraud claims in L.A. County’s $4-billion sex settlement leave victims outraged,” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2025.
- Rebecca Ellis, “L.A. County to pay out an additional $828 million for victims of alleged sexual abuse,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2025.
WE WEAR THIS BADGE PROUDLY. Because, in a time when legal services are still dominated by men, only a Women Owned Business can bring the woman’s perspective to issues that disproportionately affect women.
We are the ones, far more than men, who are injured by sexual assault, financial scams, the gender pay gap, toxic chemicals, and the misguided practices of powerful pharmaceutical companies.
