Survivors & Advocates Call for End to Sexual Violence, Say CDCR Promotes Rape Culture
On January 14, 2025, a jury found former California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) officer Gregory Rodriguez guilty of 66 of the 97 charges filed against him, including 21 counts of rape and rape by threat of arrest under color of authority. While we recognize this step in holding Gregory Rodriguez individually accountable, we call for systemic change in CDCR policies and practices that will help ensure that abuse in women’s prisons does not continue.
The four-month trial included testimony by 13 of the currently and formerly incarcerated women targeted and abused by Rodriguez. Their testimony and other evidence painted a clear picture of Rodriguez’s patterns of abuse, including how CDCR enabled his actions and failed to prevent sexual violence by prison staff. During the trial, the survivors who testified were bullied and belittled on the stand, replicating the abusive conduct that had occurred in prison. Survivors who are still incarcerated were forced to testify in chains. As one survivor witness described, “I had to tell my story in detail while facing my abuser. It was awful and humiliating. His attorney tried to paint us as liars, despite all kinds of evidence against him.”
In prisons like the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), correctional officers like Rodriguez are permitted to commit heinous abuse by isolating and threatening victims. They count on fellow officers to not only fail to report rape, but also to facilitate their access to incarcerated people in unmonitored spaces, and exact retaliation against survivors who report the abuse. Dr. Alisa Bierria, advocate with Survived & Punished, stated, “As I witnessed in court, survivors testified that correctional officers have vast institutional power to control incarcerated people’s movement, safety, and opportunities for freedom, making them extremely vulnerable to abuse. Survivors will not be safe from ongoing violence until they are released.”
Rodriguez was investigated in 2014, but, as The Guardian reports, instead of firing him, CDCR punished the victim and his violence continued. “This case sheds a bright light on the abuse that people inside these state institutions have experienced for decades. Though Rodriguez is being held accountable, he is just one of many prison staff members who have sexually assaulted vulnerable people in prison without any intervention,” said April Grayson, Political Director with Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition. In the words of one of his victims who testified and chooses to be anonymous for her own protection while in prison, “This is not a one officer problem. From my experience, Rodriguez is one bad apple on a tree that’s rotten to its core.”
Currently and formerly incarcerated people have taken great risks to report this violence and recommend concrete change. Decades of evidence of sexual violence by CDCR staff have been documented by California’s Sexual Abuse Response and Prevention Working Group, the Prison Law Office, countless civil lawsuits, and an active Department of Justice investigation. As Colby Lenz, an advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, stated, “These conditions have been denied by CDCR leaders for years, and CDCR continues to resist reform. Meanwhile, more incarcerated people are sexually abused.” The recent arrest of Ralph Contreras, Jr., a CDCR Sergeant, on charges of distributing child abuse pornography further exposes the depth of abuse culture among CDCR staff. One of Contreras’ duties included investigating reports made by incarcerated people of staff sexual abuse.
Survivors and community advocates are committed to the ongoing fight to end sexual violence by staff in CDCR prisons and to bring survivors home. This crisis will not end with this trial.
