California Women’s Prison Avant-garde sentenced to 224 years for sexual abuse | California

former California A corrections officer with dozens of sexual abuse charges in a woman’s prison was sentenced to 224 years in prison Thursday.

Gregory Rodriguez57, serving as a guard at the Central California Women’s Facilities (CCWF), the state’s largest women’s prison, and was found guilty in January More than 60 fees Abusive women were detained, including rape and assault. The state filed the case on behalf of 13 women.

Rodriguez’s case became a huge scandal in the state, revealing a long-standing crisis of sexual misconduct and abuse. Before retiring in 2022 while under investigation, it was found that the official had targeted the imprisoned women for nearly a decade.

one Guardian investigation Published in 2023, reveals that the prison received reports of Rodriguez’s abuse in 2014, but did not terminate him, but punished the victims. Survivors talk about existence Sent to solitary confinement Authorities investigated her claims of abuse.

Although prison officials are rarely criminally charged and convicted of sexual misconduct for work, data In California and throughout the United States, suggesting abuse by guards is a systematic problem. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Record (CDCR) revealed that hundreds of incarcerated women filed complaints about employee sexual abuse from 2014 to 2023, but Only four officers were fired Sexual misconduct within that time frame.

Rodriguez, who worked at CDCR for 27 years, isolated victims in areas without cameras and forced them to have sex by providing items like gum or tobacco, and threatened to “make prisons very difficult” if they don’t comply, According to litigation by prison investigators and victims. Most rapes alleged by prosecutors occurred in parole hearing areas in 2021 and 2022, where incarcerated residents held confidential lawyer meetings and defended in front of a commissioner.

A woman struggling with drug disorder explain Rodriguez offered to take addictive drugs to force her to have sex, but instead of prescribing her, he gave her heroin, which led to her overdosing.

Rodriguez pleaded not guilty and his lawyer tried to doubt the victim’s account at the trial. He was sentenced to the majority of charges filed by more than 90 prosecutors, although some were charged with jury hanging or finding him Innocence. Rodriguez begged for leniency, saying he My daughter is sick And need support, his family testified on his behalf.

“The jury clearly believed some prisoners did not believe others” after his conviction. Wilson did not immediately respond to the investigation.

Some survivors testify Last month in court before Rodriguez, including Nikki, who spoke to the Guardian from prison in 2023 and has since been released. In court proceedings, she mentioned her in her name.

“I have lived after what you did to me for more than a decade,” she said in court. “I am a prison woman – a vulnerable woman, lonely, deprived of dignity, humanity and strength… You feed me with that moment. You hunted me… What you did is predatory, manipulative and evil. You violated my cloak of authority when I was not running freely… You don’t want me to not want to tell me again, I don’t want to tell you again. To crawl out of the hole you put me in.”

She said he had “touched” her, saying he “used my isolation, my loneliness, my desire for basic humanity”: “You built a prison in prison, and I still live there.”

She added: “I will no longer whisper the truth about you, your lawyer and CDCR trying to bury. This statement is for me so that I can start recycling what you are trying to take from me.”

Nikki said in an interview this week that she won’t be quiet: “I’m doing this for the women who are still inside…too scared to speak out because that’s me too.”

She said the CDCR was “protected by bullies” and she faced harassment and intimidation after being imprisoned, following Rodriguez’s abuse. Yes: Injustice? ”

Last year, the Biden administration of the Justice Department Open Civil Rights Investigation In the CCWF and other California women’s prisons, the citations are the Rodriguez case and hundreds of lawsuits. The Justice Department noted that officials accused of misconduct include “people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse.”

Under Trump’s leadership, the Justice Department has Dismissed police civil rights abuse case Proposed by the previous administration, but advocates say an investigation into misconduct in California prisons is underway. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment.

• The following organizations provide information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse. In the United States, Rennes Provides support at 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape crisis Provides support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support can be provided 1800 (1800 737 732). Can be ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html