A day after it was announced that the federal women’s prison in Dublin would be permanently shuttered, attorneys for former inmates at the facility said they have reached a tentative settlement with the federal Bureau of Prisons that includes public acknowledgement of staff sexual abuse at the facility.
The settlement’s proposed consent decree would be enforced at more than a dozen federal women’s prisons where nearly 500 former FCI Dublin inmates are now housed for the next two years, attorneys said Friday.
The agreement to settle the class action suit, if approved by a federal judge, would mandate oversight and remedies for issues related to staff sexual and physical abuse, retaliation, medical care, and case work.
“This settlement is historic. It is the first time in BOP history that monitoring will be enforced by consent decree across over a dozen federal women’s prisons nationwide,” said Amaris Montes, an attorney with Rights Behind Bars, representing class members along with co-counsel at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld, and Arnold & Porter.
One of the provisions includes acknowledgement that abuse took place at the prison. “The BOP Director will issue a formal, public acknowledgement to survivors of staff sexual abuse at FCI Dublin,” according to a summary of proposed terms released by attorneys.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said on Dec. 6 that the agency had agreed to terms in the proposed settlement, which was filed that day in U.S. District Court.
On Dec. 5, officials with the Federal Bureau of Prisons notified Congress that they have no intention of reopening the low-security lockup, which announced a temporary closure in April.
The prison requires “considerable repairs” and suffered from staffing shortages due to the region’s high cost of living and competition for employees with better-paying local law enforcement agencies, according to BOP officials.
It also suffers from a reputation as a “rape club” that prison officials knew about for years yet did nothing to prevent, according to the class action lawsuit filed by eight former prisoners who were victims of abuse.
The women “endured horrific abuse and exploitation at the hands of facility staff, including but not limited to: rape and sexual assault,” according to the lawsuit.
Other abuses included sexual coercion — including officers forcing prisoners to undress in order to get permission to leave their cells — degrading sexual comments, voyeurism and taking and sharing explicit photos, drugging and groping inmates during medical exams and abusing immigrant women while threatening them with deportation, according to the suit.
A lawyer for the women said that while the federal government should close prisons it can’t run safely, simply shuttering a prison doesn’t fix the underlying problems that led to the rampant abuse.
“Those issues, including decrepit facilities, understaffing, and lack of programs, are the result of a long history of mismanagement by BOP and remain at the other prisons currently holding our clients following the closure,” said Kara Janssen, an attorney with Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld.
U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Walnut Creek) said he’s happy the prison is permanently closed but still has questions for BOP leadership.
“I remain committed to continuing my work to conduct federal oversight and to seek answers from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) as to how this situation was allowed to continue for so long, get answers about the botched closure, and insist on reforms to root out abuse at other facilities,” DeSaulnier said in a news release.
The congressman, along with nine of his colleagues, also sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in May asking for hearings related to how BOP officials mishandled inmate transfers when the Dublin prison initially closed in the spring.
Alleged abuses include retaliation against whistleblowers, inhumane treatment and withholding of necessary medical care, according to the letter.
So far, eight former prison employees have been charged with sex crimes, including former warden Ray Garcia, who was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to nearly six years in prison for sexually abusing three inmates and lying about it, and the prison’s former chaplain, James Highhouse, who pleaded guilty in February 2022 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing an inmate from May 2018 to February 2019.
In addition to the Dublin prison, BOP officials said they are closing six other locations around the country over staffing shortages, decaying facilities and “limited budgetary resources”.
— Story by Kiley Russell and Kathleen Kirkwood, Bay City News Service
