The wife of a California inmate will receive $5.6 million after being sexually violated during a strip search when she tried to visit her husband in prison, her attorneys said Monday. Of the $5.6 million settlement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will pay $3.6 million and the rest will be paid by the other defendants, which include two correctional officers, a doctor, and the Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital. Despite no contraband being found in any of her belongings or her body, Cardenas was denied her visit with her husband. California prisons have faced an ongoing problem of sexual abuse and misconduct, with the the U.S. Justice Department announcing it had opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually abused incarcerated women at two state-run California prisons. Earlier this year the federal Bureau of Prisons announced it will close a women’s prison in Northern California known as the “rape club” after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers.

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Persons: Christina Cardenas, ” Cardenas, Cardenas, Christina, It’s, “, Gloria Allred, Allred Organizations: California Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, Adventist Health, U.S . Justice Department, of Prisons, Associated Press Locations: California, Tehachapi, Calif, Adventist Health Tehachapi, Cardenas, Northern California