Valley State Prison

And then, um, in 2009, I recei- in August of 2009, I received a phone call from my very close friend and colleague Laurel Coffer, who was a mediator and lawyer in Los Angeles.

And she read me a letter, handwritten, from a woman serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in the largest, most violent women's prison in the world, which at that time was Valley State Prison for Women, about an hour and 15 minutes from where I live.

California doesn't put prisons in nice places.

[laughs]

So I learned that the warden at the California, Central California Women's Facility was transferred and demoted.

She's now at the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla.

Actually, it's right down the street from there.

And then in the course of reporting that out, I learned that several officers had been walked off the yard, which means that they were taken off the premises of the prison.

They were coming at this from the inside, and their goal, or at least their stated goal, was to find out what had gone wrong on August second and to hold the people responsible accountable.

Today, we are here to discuss case number C(NV-C-CCWF-464-24-A, or C-464-24-A. We're going to start with that internal affairs investigation. Uh, we are physically at Valley State Prison in Serramonte, California. We asked for all the tapes, but so far CDCR hasn't given them to us. Uh, sitting in a room with me, identified as a subject, is, uh, Chief Deputy Warden, uh, Cynthia Rojas and her legal counsel- This interview with the Chief Deputy Warden, Cynthia Rojas, was leaked on YouTube ... along with my supervising special agent, Bueller. Uh, Rojas, on August first, you had a, did you have a meeting with, um, then-Acting Captain Mendoza and Associate Warden Torres? Okay. Yes. Could you- But we weren't going to search that day. We were preparing to do a search. Rojas says the acting captain and the associate warden were coming to her about ongoing problems on D-yard, with people smoking and being disruptive. We talked about what we were going to be doing. They were a little flustered, like, "What are we gonna do? We, we gotta do something with this block. It's, you know, it's getting out of control in there." And so then we decided, you know what? We need to do a mass search in there. Let's get the contraband out. Um, and I did say, I said, "We need to take, we need to gain control of that fucking unit." Okay. "We need, we need to g- we need to g- we need to gain control of it." And then I immediately told them, "I don't mean it like that." The investigator doesn't follow up to ask what she meant. "You guys know what I mean. I don't mean like that. It needs to be done. It needs to be done right. It needs to be done professionally in the way we know how to search." Okay. And they said, "Oh, we got you, boss. We know what you mean. We know what you mean." And I said, "Okay." And then we- Rojas planned to be off the next day, but she gave them the go-ahead. It was alleged that you made the statement, "I'm tired of their shit. They're going to find out who's in charge." Did you make that statement? Not that I recall, no. No, not that you recall? Okay. Um, did you make the statement, "These bitches need to be reminded who's in charge," or words to that effect? Not that I recall. I, I- Nothing you recall? Yeah, I'm not... No, not that I recall. Is that something that, is that language that you would use? Do I curse? Yes. Mm. Do I refer to the female population as bitches? I do not. Okay. All right. So my question is, then why we have, we have witnesses stating differently. Why do you think that is? Like I said, I don't recall. I didn't say I did or I didn't. I'm telling you, I don't recall- Mm ... making that statement. Okay. During the search, the contraband they found was pretty small stuff, some vapes, cell phones, no drugs. Okay. So no, no weapons stock or weapons? Not that I recall. Okay. But I'd have to- When asked here- We might have found one. I think we did find one or two. Okay. But, uh- Rojas says she didn't realize that this kind of operation, breaking them down and taking their belongings with no notice, was completely out of the ordinary for this prison. And the ultimate plan that was created, a- as far as from, you didn't direct it or it wasn't intended to in any way provoke the female staff or the female inmates, excuse me? No, it was not. Okay. That's it. Okay. You are ordered not to discuss the details of this investigation except with your chosen representative. They interview her for about an hour and 15 minutes, but they never ask her, was August second actually about retaliation? Rojas did not receive any discipline for planning and approving Operation Breakdown. Later, she was promoted and is now acting warden at another prison. CDCR said they did take immediate action and held people accountable. In all, 34 officers were disciplined. Most received some type of temporary pay cut. Three people got fired, but some officers are still fighting their discipline, so that could change. We asked some of the women who were there what they thought of this, including Christina Wind, you know, Cameron's girlfriend, who was taken to solitary for about 10 days after officers beat her up. So, like, CDCR has said that this event w- resulted in the largest disciplinary action ever taken by them, with, like, all of this, uh, consequences for officers. What do you make of that?I think it's bullshit. I think a couple people got hung out to dry, and a couple people got punished and, and were used as fall guys, and I think the rest of the people are just working the CDCR circuit. Does that feel like accountability to you? Absolutely not. A pay cut? Transferred so you could abuse somewhere else? This is Elizabeth Lozano, who spoke out in those women's circles about her experience of assault. To me, if you could openly spray people as if they're rats or roaches, they're not human, you completely disregarded them as human, they could not breathe, they believed they were gonna die, you're sadistic. You're an abuser. [instrumental music]

(NV-C-CCWF-464-24-A, or C-464-24-A. We're going to start with that internal affairs investigation. Uh, we are physically at Valley State Prison in Serramonte, California. We asked for all the tapes, but so far CDCR hasn't given them to us. Uh, sitting in a room with me, identified as a subject, is, uh, Chief Deputy Warden, uh, Cynthia Rojas and her legal counsel- This interview with the Chief Deputy Warden, Cynthia Rojas, was leaked on YouTube ... along with my supervising special agent, Bueller. Uh, Rojas, on August first, you had a, did you have a meeting with, um, then-Acting Captain Mendoza and Associate Warden Torres? Okay. Yes. Could you- But we weren't going to search that day. We were preparing to do a search. Rojas says the acting captain and the associate warden were coming to her about ongoing problems on D-yard, with people smoking and being disruptive. We talked about what we were going to be doing. They were a little flustered, like, "What are we gonna do? We, we gotta do something with this block. It's, you know, it's getting out of control in there." And so then we decided, you know what? We need to do a mass search in there. Let's get the contraband out. Um, and I did say, I said, "We need to take, we need to gain control of that fucking unit." Okay. "We need, we need to g- we need to g- we need to gain control of it." And then I immediately told them, "I don't mean it like that." The investigator doesn't follow up to ask what she meant. "You guys know what I mean. I don't mean like that. It needs to be done. It needs to be done right. It needs to be done professionally in the way we know how to search." Okay. And they said, "Oh, we got you, boss. We know what you mean. We know what you mean." And I said, "Okay." And then we- Rojas planned to be off the next day, but she gave them the go-ahead. It was alleged that you made the statement, "I'm tired of their shit. They're going to find out who's in charge." Did you make that statement? Not that I recall, no. No, not that you recall? Okay. Um, did you make the statement, "These bitches need to be reminded who's in charge," or words to that effect? Not that I recall. I, I- Nothing you recall? Yeah, I'm not... No, not that I recall. Is that something that, is that language that you would use? Do I curse? Yes. Mm. Do I refer to the female population as bitches? I do not. Okay. All right. So my question is, then why we have, we have witnesses stating differently. Why do you think that is? Like I said, I don't recall. I didn't say I did or I didn't. I'm telling you, I don't recall- Mm ... making that statement. Okay. During the search, the contraband they found was pretty small stuff, some vapes, cell phones, no drugs. Okay. So no, no weapons stock or weapons? Not that I recall. Okay. But I'd have to- When asked here- We might have found one. I think we did find one or two. Okay. But, uh- Rojas says she didn't realize that this kind of operation, breaking them down and taking their belongings with no notice, was completely out of the ordinary for this prison. And the ultimate plan that was created, a- as far as from, you didn't direct it or it wasn't intended to in any way provoke the female staff or the female inmates, excuse me? No, it was not. Okay. That's it. Okay. You are ordered not to discuss the details of this investigation except with your chosen representative. They interview her for about an hour and 15 minutes, but they never ask her, was August second actually about retaliation? Rojas did not receive any discipline for planning and approving Operation Breakdown. Later, she was promoted and is now acting warden at another prison. CDCR said they did take immediate action and held people accountable. In all, 34 officers were disciplined. Most received some type of temporary pay cut. Three people got fired, but some officers are still fighting their discipline, so that could change. We asked some of the women who were there what they thought of this, including Christina Wind, you know, Cameron's girlfriend, who was taken to solitary for about 10 days after officers beat her up. So, like, CDCR has said that this event w- resulted in the largest disciplinary action ever taken by them, with, like, all of this, uh, consequences for officers. What do you make of that?I think it's bullshit. I think a couple people got hung out to dry, and a couple people got punished and, and were used as fall guys, and I think the rest of the people are just working the CDCR circuit. Does that feel like accountability to you? Absolutely not. A pay cut? Transferred so you could abuse somewhere else? This is Elizabeth Lozano, who spoke out in those women's circles about her experience of assault. To me, if you could openly spray people as if they're rats or roaches, they're not human, you completely disregarded them as human, they could not breathe, they believed they were gonna die, you're sadistic. You're an abuser. [instrumental music] In the free world, if you, a regular citizen, assault someone with pepper spray, with a baton, with your fists, it could land you in prison.

In this case, with the discipline that was handed out, not one officer was criminally charged with anything.

With this internal investigation, the prison agency never got to the bottom of that central allegation that we'd heard, that the operation was meant to stop women from reporting sexual assault.

Right.

So I learned that the warden at the Central California Women's Facility was transferred and demoted.

She's now at the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla.

And on July 23rd, 2025, almost exactly 30 years after Elise disappeared, the board affirmed Royce's parole.

He left Valley State Prison in early August and entered transitional housing in Los Angeles County.

Okay, that's pretty messed up that Jacob got out before Royce, in my opinion.

Because if it wasn't for Royce, they probably wouldn't they could maybe never would have been caught.

We co-founded Prison of Peace in 2009.

And in 2010, started work with 15 women serving life sentences and life without possibility parole in the largest, most violent women's prison in the world, Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California.

And the very first thing we taught them was how to do this.

And I mean, it's just unbelievable.

... very first story.

So we start, we start training at Valley State Prison for Women, which at that time, as I said, was the largest, most violent women's prison in the world.

Wow.

And there we are standing in front of 15 women.

Cruz is no longer warden of the Central California Women's Facility as of Tuesday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says she will become a correctional administrator at nearby Valley State Prison next month.

The move comes one month after the U.S. Department of Justice found a, quote, unbroken pattern of sexual assault and retaliation at the facility.

Elizabeth Nomura is a formerly incarcerated advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

The California Report's Maddy Bolaños has more.

Anissa De La Cruz is no longer warden of the Central California Women's Facility as of Tuesday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says she will become a correctional administrator at nearby Valley State Prison next month.

The move comes one month after the U.S. Department of Justice found a, quote, unbroken pattern of sexual assault and retaliation at the facility.