Women sue prison gynecologist over ‘horrific, sadistic’ exams, sexual abuse in California

By Julia Marnin

February 5, 2025

If women needed gynecological care at an all-female prison in southern California, their only option was to see the sole gynecologist on staff — a doctor now accused of sexually and physically abusing scores of patients.

Dr. Scott Lee performed abusive, invasive and unnecessary exams on pregnant women and others incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, a new federal class-action lawsuit says.

Lee’s patients endured harmful pelvic examinations, pap smears, sexualized digital penetration, physical restraint and retaliation, along with being denied medical care at the facility, where he was the only gynecologist from 2016 to 2023, according to a complaint filed Feb. 2. The lawsuit was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

To read the full article in the Sacramento Bee, click here.

Incarcerated Women Plead for Help After Central Valley Prison Death Amid Extreme Heat

The Madera County coroner’s office is investigating the death of a woman imprisoned at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla over the weekend as temperatures continue to reach into the triple digits.

California Coalition for Women Prisoners, an advocacy group for incarcerated women, said the woman suffered from heat-related illness after she had become incoherent and collapsed in a shower while trying to cool off.

“It was heat exhaustion,” CCWP said in a statement, quoting a fellow inmate who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal. “She dropped to the ground and her legs started shaking and wouldn’t stop.”

Read more from KQED.

‘Like an oven’: death at US women’s prison amid heatwave sparks cries for help

The Guardian

 in Los Angeles

July 9, 2024

An incarcerated person at California’s largest women’s prison has died amid a brutal heatwave that has left prison occupants without air conditioning begging for relief and warning of dire consequences for their health.

A woman in the Central California Women’s Facility, located in the Central valley city of Chowchilla, died on Saturday as temperatures in the region climbed above 110F (43.3C). The California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), an advocacy group, said it appeared the woman suffered a preventable heat death. The woman’s daughter told the Sacramento Bee that her mother had complained about the physical toll of the summer weather for years.

Mary Xjimenez, a spokesperson for the state corrections department, said in an email that the woman was transported to a medical facility on Thursday and died on Saturday and that the “death appears to be the result of an ongoing medical condition and not heat-related, but will be determined by the coroner’s office”. Tyson Pogue, the local sheriff-coroner, said it was too soon to say whether the death was due to heat and his office would conduct an autopsy.

News of the death comes as more than 146 million Americans were under extreme heat alerts across the nation, leaving people incarcerated in aging prison facilities without air conditioning particularly vulnerable. There have been reports of potentially fatal conditions inside jails and prisons during heatwaves across California and in NevadaIllinoisTexasFlorida and other states this year.

The Chowchilla fatality has escalated fear and panic throughout the prison, advocates and incarcerated people said. The cells in the overcrowded facility, which houses more than 2,000 people, lack air conditioning, and occupants said officials have failed to provide enough cold water and other supplies that would alleviate their suffering and reduce heatstroke risks.

“Please help us, they’re not doing anything for us,” Trancita Ponce, a Chowchilla resident, said in a statement shared by the CCWP. “There is hot air blowing inside of our rooms, I have a huge migraine and I feel sick and other girls are throwing up.”

Another CCWF resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told the Guardian she’s been struggling with nausea and headaches, and that she had a thermometer in her area that recently showed it was 103F (39.4C). After residents’ complaints, the facility gave out ice water on Tuesday, but residents were only given two cups each, she said: “I’ve seen people passing out. This is inhumane … You feel like you’re dirt, like you’re nothing. If we were animals, they’d be treating us better.”

Elizabeth Nomura, state membership organizer for the CCWP, who has been in contact with Chowchilla residents, said the facility has swamp coolers meant to lower temperatures in the cells, but that they weren’t working properly – an issue documented by the Modesto Bee during a period of extreme heat last year.

“My friend said, ‘Help us, we can’t breathe,’” said Nomura, who was previously incarcerated at Chowchilla. “I’ve had heatstroke before [while incarcerated] and I know what it feels like to be so dehydrated that you can’t see. They are sitting in a room, toasting in what feels like an oven. They’re all suffering.”

Nomura said the death in the institution created a “dark cloud” for residents: “It brings that harsh reality forward for so many – that they could very well die in prison. Everyone in there is frantic, locked in these death chambers. It’s nothing short of cruel.”

Xjimenez said each state prison has a “heat plan coordinator” who monitors conditions and temperatures, and that housing units have some form of “cooling relief”, typically evaporative coolers and fans. During extreme heat, prisons will sometimes provide additional access to air-conditioned areas and increased access to water and ice, she said, and when temperatures exceed 90F (32.2C), some vulnerable residents are moved to air-conditioned rooms.

At Chowchilla, staff are providing ice water to all residents and “industrial floor fans” are cooling the housing units, she said.

“The California department of corrections and rehabilitation is closely monitoring the current heatwave and is coordinating with our state partners and the leadership in each of the state’s 32 prisons to ensure there are appropriate resources and response,” she said in a statement. “We are paying special attention to medically vulnerable incarcerated people, and will be providing additional water, ice, cooling areas, and information to our staff and incarcerated population on ways to prevent heat-related illnesses throughout this heatwave.”

“To Be Free Is to Free Others”: Formerly Incarcerated Women Urge Decarceration

Avis Lee holds a banner for Let's Get Free, the Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee which helped with her fight for freedom and with which she now organizes to free others.

truthout.org

By: Victoria Law

May 5, 2024

Part of the Series – The Road to Abolition

The fight to free women and end mass incarceration is long and ongoing, but these activists aren’t giving up.

We have a long way to go to bring justice to all the individuals who were harmed by the ‘tough on crime,’ zero-tolerance legislation passed in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s,” says Amy Povah, founder and director of CAN-DO Justice through Clemency, which advocates for people imprisoned on federal drug sentences.

“Many people we are advocating for have served over 25 years and many are elderly and need a second chance,” Povah told Truthout.

Read the full story from Truthout here. 

Activists protest inmate transfers at Dublin women’s prison

nbcbayarea.com  

Published April 19, 2024 • Updated on April 19, 2024 at 9:07 pm

Activists are asking a federal judge to stop the transfer of inmates from a women’s prison in Dublin.

The Bureau of Prisons earlier this week ordered the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin shut down due to a history of sex abuse scandals and employee misconduct.

On Friday, a small group of people with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, including activists, former inmates and families of those incarcerated, held a protest on the road that leads up to the prison. It’s the very road the prison has been using to bus its female inmates off the property to transfer them to other facilities.

 

Read full story at nbcbayarea.com.