Victims Begin Seeing Justice Through Payouts and Closure of FCI-Dublin

The Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California has made headlines for years due to allegations of rampant inmate abuse involving prison employees. 

Now the prison just north of San Francisco is permanently closed, and, on December 17, a settlement was reached between the federal government and more than 100 women who filed lawsuits against FCI-Dublin.

Under the settlements, the Justice Department will pay approximately $1.1 million to each woman. While the settlements are indeed substantial totaling more than $115 million, this is considered an initial wave of lawsuits. Others still need to be resolved. 

The agreement between the two sides came after a consent decree was filed on December 6 in a separate class-action lawsuit which requires the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to open some facilities to a court-appointed monitor. The decree, brought on due to issues relocating prisoners from FCI-Dublin earlier this year, also requires that Colette Peters, the agency’s director, “issue a formal, public acknowledgment to victims of staff sexual abuse at FCI-Dublin.”

Along with the settlement news, on December 5, officials at the Bureau of Prisons made it official that along with six other minimum security facilities, FCI-Dublin, which has been”temporarily” shuttered since April, is now officially closed.

The reasons cited for the closures include staffing shortages, crumbling infrastructure, and limited budgetary resources. However, the Bureau of Prisons has said there was hope that the site could reopen for a different purpose, such as housing male inmates. However, after assessing the facility, the agency decided there were too many repairs that would need to be done. 

“Low staffing, exacerbated by the high cost of living in the Bay Area, also contributed to the decision to close the facility,’’ the BOP said in a statement.

FCI-Dublin’s History 

For many years, FCI-Dublin served as the only all-female federal prison east of the Rocky Mountains. Notable former inmates include Heidi Fleiss, Patty Hearst, Squeaky Fromme, and Felicity Huffman.

In the last four years, it has become known for cases of extreme violence and sexual abuse against its inmates.

In an investigation by the AP in 2021 it was revealed that although women at the prison had been reporting instances of sexual abuse, including rape, and filing complaints with prison officials for several years, because of a “permissive and toxic culture,” the abuse remained hidden from the public, no matter the severity.

One inmate alleged that she was attacked by a maintenance foreman. After she reported him, her supervisor forced her to work alongside him and taunted her by saying, “Let the games begin.” In another instance, an inmate reported that a prison employee expressed a desire to get inmates pregnant. In another, a former chaplain sexually abused an inmate in his office, leading her there under the guise of spiritual guidance.

Eventually, more than eight employees, some holding top positions, were arrested. Those who were brought into custody included a former warden who admitted to lying to officials about the accusations and is now serving a 70-month prison sentence.

The chaplain also admitted to lying to federal agents about his actions and is serving 84 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

In April, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was tasked to oversee the court-ordered reform of the Dublin prison and ordered a special master to oversee the facility. 

Before her appointee was able to proceed, the head of the BOP abruptly shuttered the prison setting off another firestorm involving allegations of mistreatment of prisoners during their relocations to different sites across the country..

Prison Closures Impact: A Look at the Numbers

Along with the closing of FCI-Dublin, the six other federal prisons that are marked for closure include facilities in Minnesota, West Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

With the closures, 400 jobs will be eliminated. While employees will have an opportunity to relocate to other locations that have vacancies, if they refuse to relocate, they will be laid off.

Currently, the BOP is holding 160,000 residents at 122 prisons and camps. To help with housing concerns, the agency recently committed to building a new $500-million medium-security prison facility and minimum-security camp for about 1,400 inmates in Roxana, Kentucky.