The Standing Record

This is the Standing Record for August 14, 2026. We recorded 2 events from August 13, 2026 that erode our democratic ideals and added 12 more from earlier dates — 248 so far this month, bringing the total archive to 1640. If you saw something happen — yesterday, or any other day — that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

DOJ found California's CDCR failed to protect women prisoners from staff sexual abuse at two facilities

Event: August 13, 2026 Location: Chowchilla, California / Chino, California Jurisdiction: California Abuses: Corrections abuse

On August 13, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division concluded a CRIPA investigation finding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to protect female prisoners at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino from a longstanding pattern of staff sexual misconduct. DOJ cited broken confidential-reporting systems, deficient investigations, and insufficient accountability, and gave California 49 days to remedy the violations before facing possible litigation.

People & Organizations: - California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/08/13/ca-corrections-abuse-eb9f7af2/ Primary source: Justice Department Finds California Women's Prisons Fail to Protect Female Prisoners from Sexual Abuse by Staff

WIRED FOIA disclosure reveals CBP employees misused law-enforcement databases to surveil exes, colleagues, and family members for over a decade

Event: August 13, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Improper collection or dissemination of personal data

WIRED reported on August 13, 2026 that internal CBP and DHS Inspector General records, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, document nearly 300 allegations of law-enforcement-database misuse by Customs and Border Protection employees between 2009 and 2022, including officers using government systems to track romantic interests, family members, and colleagues, and in some cases to feed information to suspected smugglers. Of those allegations, 138 were referred to CBP management and 78 were assigned to internal criminal investigators, but CBP withheld or left blank the outcome in most cases and would not disclose specific disciplinary results.

People & Organizations: - U.S. Customs and Border Protection#b62f629b

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/08/13/federal-improper-collection-or-dissemination-of-personal-data-3ce51f3a/ Primary source: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues

Filling out the archive

We're steadily backfilling the archive — working backward through the record so the timeline is complete, not just current. These are older events we archived yesterday. If you know of something from months or years back that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

• July 4, 2024 — SFPD officer smashed driver's car window, pepper-sprayed him during 2024 stop based on license-plate error
• January 27, 2025 — Trump signed EO 14183, reinstating a ban on transgender military service
• January 8, 2026 — ICE agents beat Mexican national in St. Paul, fracturing his skull in 8 places, then unlawfully detained him
• February 11, 2026 — ICE detained pregnant Massachusetts woman in bedless holding cell, denied care until hospitalization forced her release
• February 18, 2026 — DOJ Civil Rights Division opened investigations into three Michigan school districts over gender-identity curriculum
• February 19, 2026 — U.S. Department of Education pressured 31 universities to end partnerships with minority doctoral-support nonprofit PhD Project
• May 28, 2026 — Bloomberg investigation revealed DOJ subpoenaed X for an anonymous ICE critic's identity, address, and banking data
• July 8, 2026 — ICE detained Fort Polk soldier's wife at Alabama green-card interview, enforcing a removal order she never received notice of
• August 6, 2026 — HSI agent covertly surveilled Rep. Ilhan Omar's town hall from vehicle with mismatched license plates
• August 9, 2026 — ICE detained material witness who helped Houston police identify armed suspect, complicating gun case prosecution
• August 10, 2026 — ICE agent drew and pointed gun on bystander distributing immigration-lawyer cards in Virginia parking lot
• August 11, 2026 — MyPillow founder Mike Lindell refused to concede Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary loss, alleged unproven vote 'anomalies'

Like what you're reading? Share this with someone who should see it, and subscribe if you haven't yet — so tomorrow's record reaches you too.

Follow the record in real time: Bluesky · X