Central California Women's Facility - History

History

The Madera County board of supervisors gave the prison its current name in 1989 "after months of discussion and disagreement." CCWF opened in October 1990, having cost $141 million to construct.

In 1996, the City of Chowchilla was given permission to perform a "non-contiguous annexation" of CCWF.

Starting in April 2007, CCWF received some inmates from California Rehabilitation Center after closure of the women's wing at that prison. The population at CCWF "swelled by 8 percent."

Health services at CCWF have been the subject of controversy over the years, as exemplified by the following events:

• In June 1991, an inmate died; some inmates "refused to report to their prison jobs" to protest the prison's medical care "which they said was linked to the death." Later, an autopsy showed that the inmate "died of acute inflammation of the pancreas," not "an overdose of the tranquilizer Haldol" as some inmates believed.
• Over 100 protesters outside the prison in January 1994 alleged that CCWF "failed to provide a medical specialist and educational programs to deal with HIV/AIDS-infected inmates," and that CCWF's healthcare providers "often ignore inmate ailments and provide little or no follow-up examinations."
• An April 1995 class action lawsuit against CCWF and California Institution for Women "allege that inmates suffer terribly and in some cases die because of inadequate medical care." A 1997 settlement agreement led to two reports showing "improvements" in health care for female prisoners, but plaintiffs' lawyers claimed that "the changes deal mostly with medical records, not actual care."
• From July to November 1996, a private laboratory billed CCWF $161,000 "for thousands of medical tests, including Pap smears to detect cervical cancer, AIDS tests, biopsies and urinalyses" even though the tests had never been used on the inmates. At least six other prisons also used the laboratory. Although the State of California closed the laboratory in 1997, a 2000 newspaper investigation found that there was "little evidence of any attempt by the California Department of Corrections to retest inmates or notify them that their test results were faked."
• In 1999, an inmate with "hepatitis C and liver disease" died after being "prescribed anti-TB medications known to be toxic to patients with liver disease." A wrongful-death lawsuit based on the case was "settled for $225,000" in 2002.
• In the "month and a half" prior to December 20, 2000, seven CCWF inmates died. Of these, four "apparently succumbed to chronic terminal illnesses," but an advocacy group claimed that the deaths "were precipitated by inadequate care." The other three "died suddenly and unexpectedly," which led to autopsies being performed. As a result, the three causes of death were determined to be "heart problems and natural causes," "a severe asthma attack and chok on her vomit after a routine strip search," and "clogged arteries and an enlarged heart." Nevertheless, "relatives of the three women" and a physician from the University of California, San Francisco "who reviewed their deaths" held the opinion that "better health care could have saved their lives."
• A hospice program was started at CCWF in the summer of 2000, but by mid-2001 was "seldom" used. One possible explanation was a low amount of funding compared with the men's hospice at California Medical Facility; another possible explanation was CCWF's granting "compassionate releases to dying inmates who otherwise might enter the program."
• In December 2003, seven CCWF inmates sued seven physicians and "several nurses" for "malpractice, negligence and unprofessional conduct."
• In February 2007, the California Office of the Inspector General concluded "Numerous studies show that despite an annual cost of $36 million, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s in-prison substance abuse treatment programs have little or no impact on recidivism." The report specifically mentioned the "New Choice female felon program" at CCWF, for which "12-month recidivism rates... were lower for non-participants than for participants."