California’s Infamous Federal Women’s Prison Set for Closure After Persistent Misconduct

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal jail in California for women called the “rape club” will be closed on Monday, even though the Bureau of Prisons has been trying to fix the problems at the facility since an Associated Press investigation showed that staff members were sexually abusing inmates all the time.

The head of the Bureau of Prisons, Colette Peters, told the Associated Press that the organization had “taken unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure and, most importantly, employee misconduct.”

Peters said, “Even with these steps and resources, we have decided that FCI Dublin is not meeting the standards we expect and that the best thing to do is to close the facility.” “This decision is being made after ongoing evaluation of how well those unprecedented steps and extra resources are working.”

By saying that Dublin will be closed, the Bureau of Prisons is essentially admitting that its long-promised efforts to improve the culture and surroundings there have not worked. The AP study found a pattern of abuse and bad management that went back years or even decades. This led to many attempts to fix the problems at Dublin.

Ten days before it was announced that the jail would be closing, a federal judge did something that had never been done before: he or she appointed a special master to oversee the prison.

Lawyers Want Prisoners to Be Set Free

The only federal jail west of the Rocky Mountains is FCI Dublin, which is about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. It is one of six prisons for women only. At the moment, it holds 605 prisoners: 504 are in the main jail and 101 are in a nearby minimum-security camp. That number is less than the 760 prisoners who were locked up in February 2022.

Peters said that the women who are currently in prison will be moved to other sites and that no one will lose their jobs. Advocates want the prisoners at FCI Dublin to be set free because they say the prison is full of sexual abuse and has dangerous mold, asbestos, and bad health care.

In August of last year, eight prisoners at FCI Dublin sued the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), saying that the BOP had not done enough to stop sexual abuse. A lawyer for the plaintiffs named Amaris Montes said that prisoners who reported abuse were still being punished by being locked up alone and having their things taken away.

Montes said that she and her clients thought that closure might be possible, but they were surprised by how quickly the decision was made after the special master appointment. Montes said Monday, “It’s a sign that the prison knows they are not following the Constitution to protect people from sexual assault and harassment.”

Montes said that the exact date of the closing and moving of the prisoners was still being planned, but she hoped that it would happen slowly.

“I believe the BOP is quick to try to shift blame and blame to other places as a way to fix the problem. And that would mean moving people quickly without taking care of their needs right now. She said that many of the women who are in jail have physical and mental health problems that need to be fixed. Other prisoners might be eligible for release.

A former Dublin prisoner who is a “whistleblower” in the civil case said on Monday that the sudden closure “just feels wrong” because it hurts the long process of getting justice for the women who were abused and lived in horrible conditions.

The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is a whistleblower in a case, said, “We’ve worked so hard to get a special master in there to clean house.” The AP doesn’t name people who have been sexually abused without their permission. It was pretty much right after that that they said they were going to close it down.

She said that moving hundreds of prisoners to jails across the country, away from their families, would be cruel. She said, “What the women went through at this facility, the abuse they got, that was punishment.” “All of them have low security.” You should send them home or to supervised comfort care. Let them do useful things for society.

On Monday, two buses were going back and forth in the FCI Dublin parking lot. The people who work at the prison move goods and bags between buildings and buses. A reporter from the AP did not see any prisoners leave the factory.

A LIST OF ABUSE CASES AND CONVICTIONS

Last month, the FBI searched the jail again, and the Bureau of Prisons changed its leadership again because a warden sent to help fix up the facility was accused of punishing an inmate who spoke out against the government. A few days later, a federal judge who was hearing lawsuits against the jail said she would name a special master to run the facility.

In 2021, the AP looked into the jail and found that there had been a pattern of abuse and cover-ups for years. Congress paid more attention after that report came out, and the Bureau of Prisons promised to fix issues and change the culture at the prison.

At least eight people who worked at FCI Dublin have been charged with sexually abusing prisoners since 2021. Five have said they are guilty. Two were found guilty at trial, and Ray Garcia, who used to be the director, was one of them. We have another case to hear.

It is against the law for a jail worker to have sexual relations with a prison inmate. The people who work in prisons have a lot of power over the prisoners. They control every part of their lives, from meals to lights out, and the prisoners can never say no.

Some of the safety issues that were seen at FCI Dublin could still happen at the other women’s jails, say people who work to help inmates. Someone who used to be in Dublin prison and spoke on the condition of silence said, “Sending these girls to new facilities won’t solve the problem.” No changes were made to the original sentence.

Montes said that the legal case will go on even though the court is about to close.

“The BOP is the person being charged. She said, “It’s not FCI Dublin.” “Because of this, we think that our case is still open and that they still owe it to our clients to keep them safe.”