Black prison official sues CA, claims retaliation after reporting discrimination
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- CDCR official Kevin Robinson alleges demotion followed reports of racism.
- Lawsuit claims CDCR violated racial, religious rights and retaliated unlawfully.
- Attorney cites systemic discrimination, urges stronger investigation protocols.
A Black prison official was unlawfully demoted from an administrative position in a retaliatory act after he reported racial discrimination and harassment, a recent complaint filed against the state’s corrections department alleges.
Kevin Robinson, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employee with over two decades of experience, was demoted from associate warden to lieutenant, according to the complaint, after he raised concerns about racist comments others in the department made about Black men, which a CDCR administrator warned him would negatively impact his career.
The correctional department violated the California Fair Employment and Housing Act by discriminating against Robinson on both racial and religious grounds, according to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court last week.
Robinson’s attorney, Kaveh Navab, said the behavior toward his client is part of a broader pattern of discrimination at CDCR. Navab said he’s been involved in other cases in which Black employees suffered from racial discrimination.
“There’s been a culture at the CDCR for quite some time that either allows things like this, discrimination against African Americans, to either be dismissed or if a person brings it to their attention, then they’re retaliated against,” Navab said.
CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy declined to comment, citing the department’s policy to not discuss pending litigation.
In addition to the allegations of retaliation, the complaint alleges that the department violated Robinson’s religious freedom when a supervisor pressured him to shave his beard. As a Muslim, Robinson said he obtained a reasonable accommodation exempting him from CDCR’s facial hair policies.
Harmful stereotypes
Robinson started at the department in 1999 and worked his way up the ranks until he was promoted to associate warden in 2022, where he oversaw the Allegation Investigation Unit in the central region of the department’s Office of Internal Affairs.
After starting at the internal affairs office, Robinson claimed that his coworkers regularly excluded him and another Black employee from critical meetings, made disparaging comments that invoked demeaning stereotypes of Black men and criticized his management style by characterizing it as “aggressive” and “intimidating.”
In a meeting with other CDCR staff, one of Robinson’s supervisors allegedly said, “Every time I hear Kevin talk, I just cringe.”
On several occasions in 2023, after Robinson became a supervisor, a number of his subordinates filed complaints against Robinson, alleging he created a hostile work environment or was intimidating because he used a “harsh” tone. These allegations against Robinson “invoked harmful stereotypes about Black men,” he asserted in the complaint.
Upon appeal, the State Personnel Board found Robinson did not violate policies and was not overly hostile in those incidents, the complaint asserts.
Later that year, Robinson contacted Sarina Calderon, a CDCR associate director, to report racially motivated harassment. Calderon allegedly told Robinson that reporting discriminatory treatment would harm his career at the department and the director refused to file a formal complaint.
An internal investigation into Robinson, related to the complaints made about him earlier in the year, was opened in May and led by a supervisor who Robinson previously alleged was harassing him.
In February 2024, several months after Robinson received a positive performance review, the investigation was closed and Robinson was demoted two classifications to a correctional lieutenant. He appealed the demotion and an administrative law judge found that the department lacked authority to demote Robinson, the complaint stated.
Robinson has since been transferred to the California Institution for Men, an assignment which he stated is further evidence of the department’s retaliation against him.
A call for more thorough investigations
To support his assertion that there is a pervasive culture of discrimination against Black employees, Navab pointed to a case of harassment that he worked on.
Ronnie Caver, a Black correctional officer at Pleasant Valley State Prison, found that one of his colleagues had placed a noose on his jacket in 2016.
Navab said Steve Hosman, the sergeant who allegedly put the noose on Caver’s jacket had been cited for making racist comments about Black people, but instead of facing repercussions he was promoted. In 2022, CDCR settled that case and paid Caver a “fair and reasonable settlement,” Navab said.
To avoid future incidents like this and what happened to Robinson, Navab said the department needs to do more thorough investigations when CDCR employees make complaints about discrimination.
“There’s been this tendency within CDCR to not properly investigate allegations of race discrimination,” Navab said.
