Survivors of sexual assault in California prisons should be freed

Along with at least 1 in 4 women in this country, I’m a survivor of sexual assault. I am also formerly incarcerated. And the family I built with other people incarcerated at the California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla was essential to my survival. 

Sexual assault in prison is even worse than you can imagine. There is no safety behind bars. When a prison guard is the person who sexually assaults, you are at their mercy as an incarcerated person.

That’s why I was terrified when I watched guards round up many of the people incarcerated at the California Women’s Facility, hold them in the cafeteria and unleash pepper spray and tear gas over and over again, apparently as punishment for filing sexual misconduct grievances. 

Video of that retaliation incident was leaked, and the reality of life for people who survive sexual assault by prison staff became widely known. 

That was in August 2024, but little has changed for the incarcerated people who every day still have to face the people who assaulted them — and in some cases, who continue to abuse them.

Some guards were fired after that video leaked. One prison guard was sentenced to 224 years for multiple counts of sexual assault against at least nine women. But the leaked video was just one incident from one day in one prison. It’s just a glimpse into what really happens behind bars.

The reality is, in prison, survivors face a cycle of violence and abuse from prison staff. While we can technically file a grievance and we hope for accountability, it rarely results in safety or protection for us. Even worse, filing a grievance after a prison guard sexually assaults you usually results in retaliation. 

California’s state government and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are responsible for the care of anyone who is serving time in its facilities. And they’re not doing their job by keeping women behind bars with their abusers, whose salaries are paid by California taxpayers. 

I remember a time when a male guard stuck his hands up my shirt and then said, “Thanks, I needed to warm my hands up.” Other times, guards would repeatedly touch themselves in front of me — that alone and other sexual misconduct went on for years. 

I remember having to sit in one of my parole hearings with one of the prison staff who had abused me. 

I’ve also seen prison staff sexually abusing other people. Seeing it happen feels like it’s happening to you, too. And you can’t do anything to stop it.

It’s long past time for California to provide true support and respite for survivors of sexual assault in our state prisons. Ultimately, the only way to protect these survivors from retaliation and further violence is to release them from the prisons where guards have assaulted them and routinely retaliate if they report it. A statewide working group examining sexual abuse response and prevention made this recommendation in a 2024 report. 

There are so many ways our prison system is broken. Extreme sentences only increase the challenges we face once we’re released from prison. 

When those of us who served time do the work to heal — even as we survive ongoing harassment and assault from the people who are supposed to protect us — we deserve recognition of that work and resilience. We all deserve a path forward that centers our healing and lets us return home to help heal our families as well. 

One step forward is to prioritize releases for the people incarcerated in women’s designated facilities who face unsafe conditions every day.

California has the power to — and should — update the corrections department’s policy, to allow someone to be released after being assaulted by prison staff. There’s no way that survivor is going to be safe inside. 

The only way to keep incarcerated survivors safe is to release us.