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Your Call

The Guardian investigates sexual abuse crisis in CA women's prisons

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss a Guardian investigation about the scale of the abuse taking place behind bars in California's women's prisons. Since 2014, people behind bars have filed hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse by staff, but only four officers have been terminated for sexual misconduct, and four guards have faced criminal charges for their behavior.

Abuse of incarcerated women is a systemic problem across the United States – government surveys have estimated that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail staff each year, and that federal employees have abused women in at least two-thirds of federal women’s prisons.

Guest:

Sam Levin, correspondent for Guardian US, based in Los Angeles

Web Resources:

The Guardian: Abuse behind bars

Malihe Razazan is the senior producer of KALW's daily call-in program, Your Call.
Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.