Incarcerated women at the at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino are continuing to fight for justice against prison abuse. In August 2024, a mass use-of-force incident left dozens of women injured and traumatized at the women’s prison in Chowchilla. The incident led to an investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice released a report finding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) systematically failed to protect female prisoners from sexual abuse and harassment at the two facilities, after investigators uncovered a long-standing pattern of staff sexual abuse, groping, rape, and coercion dating back to 2000.

The DOJ concluded these failures violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

The Snap Judgement podcast is offering a three-part series, “We Are Jane Doe” following thirteen women’s dramatic fight for justice, and the stunning ripple effects that threaten to upend the system of power and control at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF).

KQED reporters Anna Sussman and Madi Bolaños spent two years investigating this story. They spoke to more than a dozen women incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility, read through hundreds of pages of internal prison documents, obtained leaked audio, and painstakingly watched hours of video footage to reconstruct one of the most complex and devastating use-of-force incidents in state history.

Listen to the first episode, “We Are Jane Doe E1: Ali’s Story” here —>>> We Are Jane Doe E1: Ali’s Story