The women who fought back when their jailers assaulted them

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Incarcerated women walk through a Receiving and Release (R&R) yard at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, on June 30, 2026. The prison is the largest women’s correctional facility in California, and the R&R yard is used to process incarcerated people entering and leaving the facility. Beth LaBerge/KQED hide caption

Aliksandria Prout had only been at the Central California Women’s Facility for a few days when a male officer stopped her at a checkpoint. “You have beautiful lips and beautiful eyes,” he said. That was just the beginning. On this episode of The Sunday Story, we feature the first episode of a new three-part series from KQED’s Snap Judgment called “We Are Jane Doe.” It follows thirteen women and their fight for justice against the jailers who sexually assaulted them.

This episode was produced by Madi Bolanos, Anna Sussman & Sukey Lewis. It was edited by Sukey Lewis, Nancy Lopez & Mark Ristich. Engineering by Dirk Schwarzhoff and fact checking by Mark Bettancourt.

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