One month after the federal court for the Northern District of California made the first-ever appointment of a special master to oversee rulings to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the agency announced on April 15, 2024, that it would close the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Dublin, California. Efforts to relocate prisoners from the lockup—known as the “rape club” since seven staffers, including the former warden, were convicted of sexually assaulting prisoners—have only brought BOP more criticism; federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers called the plans “ill-conceived,” and a group of U.S. Congressmen decried the effort as “botched.”

As PLN reported, Judge Rogers is hearing a complaint filed by a group of prisoners sexually assaulted by BOP staffers; calling the prison a “dysfunctional mess,” the judge appointed the special master and certified the suit a class-action on March 15, 2024. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.60.] Though Judge Rogers had told Plaintiffs as recently as January 2024 that it was “highly doubtful” the Court would order the prison closed, BOP decided to do it anyway, hastily transferring 605 prisoners to other lockups around the country.

That prompted a series of orders from the Court, which had “serious concerns” about the well-being of prisoners, who complained that their property was lost in the moves and that they were subjected to continued harassment and ongoing retaliation in their new lockups. Tyra Deja Mabon ended up at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) for Seattle-Tacoma, where “they keep locking us in all the time like we are a threat,” she said. Transferees were denied soap and cleaning supplies, she added, and forced to wear unwashed clothing and sleep on soiled bed sheets. For dinner, they got only rice and beans, though other prisoners got chicken patties. Requests to call attorneys were also denied. “The entire SeaTac staff has been very hostile and aggressive and mean,” she said. Four others transfered to FDC-Miami said that “[b]eing an inmate of FCI Dublin has definitely made all of us targets to such harsh treatments,” leaving them “dealing with more anxiety, stress, and depression than we did when we were waiting to be sentenced.”

The reports echoed those the Court received before the transfers in January 2024, when a prisoner identified as “S.L.” said she “can’t leave [her] room without feeling a sense of fear” because guards “are so mean and make very degrading comments.” Despite “reporting and saying things” and “seeking help,” she said that “it’s not getting any better.” Another prisoner identified as “C.A.H.” testified in Spanish that after reporting her rape by a guard she was denied needed epilepsy medication and threatened with solitary confinement. Prison officials replied that solitary confinement of prisoners was necessary for their own protection, given a shortage of both guards and healthcare staff. But Judge Gonzalez Rogers wasn’t having that. “Let me tell you something,” she warned. “You’re going to have to figure it out, because I’m not going to tolerate it.”

She didn’t, either, issuing a preliminary injunction on May 8, 2024, requiring BOP to update the status of each transfer every week to the Court and its appointed special master, former Chief Probation Officer for Alameda and San Francisco Counties Wendy Still. “Although it had as much time as needed to prepare,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote, “BOP’s operational plan for closure of FCI Dublin was ill-conceived and, like Swiss cheese, full of holes.”

Also included in the status update distribution she ordered were Plaintiffs’ attorneys from Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP in San Francisco, Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Palo Alto, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice in Oakland and Rights Behind Bars in Washington, D.C. BOP responded with a motion to dismiss the suit on June 18, 2024; PLN will update developments as they are available. See: Calif. Coal. for Women Prisoners v. United States, USDC (N.D. Cal.), Case No. 4:23-cv-04155.

In addition to this case, which has eight named prisoner plaintiffs, there are at least 40 similar suits pending before the Court, and Judge Gonzalez Rogers has related all to one another. She is also presiding over the criminal case against an eighth former staffer, Darryl “Dirty Dick” Smith, who is awaiting trial for raping prisoners—twice in a janitor’s closet—and forcing them to strip for him while he ate bananas. See: United States v. Smith, USDC (N.D. Cal.), Case No. 4:23-cr-00110.

On June 13, 2024, Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Cal.) joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and a group of U.S. House Representatives in a letter demanding answers from BOP Director Collette Peters about the transfers, which they described as “botched” in an accompanying press release. Citing “whistleblower retaliation, inhumane treatment, and withholding of necessary medical care” alleged by some prisoners, the congressmen told Peters that “[t]his level of disregard for human dignity cannot be tolerated.” As they noted, until Still’s appointment, BOP had “repeatedly asserted that conditions and care at FCI Dublin were constitutionally adequate,” so its sudden about-face also cast doubt on its repeated denials of alleged staff misconduct and retaliation. They imposed a deadline for Peters to respond by July 10, 2024.

Additional source: AP News, KQED, KTVU

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