Congressional Committees Pile On BOP Sex Abuse Scandal – Update for March 10, 2022 | Legal Information Services Associates LLC

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BOP BEATDOWN CONTINUES (DESERVEDLY)

Eight members of the House of Representatives have joined the fracas over the BOP’s mismanagement at FCI Dublin (California) where the rampant sexual abuse of female inmates has led to the arrests of four employees, including the former warden and chaplain.

Last week, the legislators – including members of the House Judiciary Committee and oversight subcommittees – wrote to BOP Director Michael Carvajal demanding a copy of the Prison Rape Elimination Act audit conducted at FCI Dublin, California, by the end of the month.

(The last PREA audit of FCI Dublin, which reported that everything was just peachy, occurred in 2017, even while the “Rape Club” was in full flower. That’s hardly surprising: “In 2020, Associated Press reported, “the same year some of the women at Dublin complained, there were 422 complaints of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse across the system of 122 prisons and 153,000 inmates. The agency said it substantiated only four of those complaints and that 290 are still being investigated. It would not say whether the allegations were concentrated in women’s prisons or spread throughout the system.” That’s a one-percent rate (or a three-percent rate, if you count only the investigations completed, having faith that the 290 still being investigated two years later have a snowball’s chance of concluding in favor of the inmate complainant).

The group also asked DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to conduct an inspection at Dublin. In a letter to the IG, they said:

We were first made aware of the systemic issues plaguing FCI Dublin through the detailed articles and investigations completed by several reputable news sources earlier this month… These writings detailed how the all-women inmate population at FCI Dublin has allegedly been subjected to rampant sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of predatory male employees like former Warden Ray Garcia, former Chaplain James Theodore Highhouse, Prison Safety Administrator John Bellhouse, and recycling technician Ross Klinger.

As well, the Senate Judiciary Committee is also examining recent BOP problems. On February 23rd, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked DOJ for information on recent reports of BOP employee misconduct and sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, the Dublin problems only worsen. DOJ said last week it is “gravely concerned about allegations that a high-ranking federal prison official entrusted to end sexual abuse and cover-ups at a women’s prison known as the “rape club” may have taken steps to suppress a recent complaint about staff misconduct.”

AP reported last week that BOP Deputy Regional Director T. Ray Hinkle has been accused of attempting to silence a female employee who said she had been harassed by an FCI Dublin manager by meeting with her personally in violation of established protocols.

“These allegations, if true, are abhorrent, and the Department of Justice takes them very seriously,” DOJ told AP.

Hinkle, who pledged to staff that he would help Dublin “regain its reputation” during a stint as acting warden that ended this week, was also admonished by his BOP bosses for sending all-staff emails that were critical of agency leadership and policies. In one email, AP said, Hinkle complained he was unable to defend himself in news reports airing allegations that he bullied whistleblower employees, threatened to close Dublin if employees kept speaking up about misconduct, and stonewalled a Congresswoman who sought to speak candidly with staff and inmates at the prison last month.

The BOP was also blasted last week for poor planning in its contract with private healthcare contractor NaphCare for some inmate medical services. The Bureau awarded NaphCare a three-year blanket purchase agreement in 2016 to care for inmates in home confinement and halfway houses. The contract had an initial ceiling value of less than $4 million, but officials used the agreement to add on some $52 million in additional health care services. Then, the BOP issued sole-source awards to extend the same contract for three more years – one year at a time – all against federal contracting regulations.