We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
ONLY THIS AND NOTHING MORE
US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (Northern District of California) told the associate warden at FCI Dublin last Friday that she’s coming to perform a short-notice inspection of the women’s prison to see how things operate.
Rogers plans to email the facility after 9:30 pm sometime in the next month to announce she will be showing up at the front gate at 5:30 the next morning. “I don’t want you to prep for it,” she told the AW. “I just want to show up.”
(apologies to Edgar Allen Poe).
The judge will bring two of her staff and lawyers for the government and the class of sexual assault victims suing the BOP, but – according to KTVU-TV, Oakland – “but she also might shoo them away so that she can talk to anyone in the building that she wants.”
Rep Jackie Speier (D-Cal), since retired, visited the prison twice in early 2022. During her visit, Speier said, acting warden (and Deputy Regional Director) T. Ray Hinkle), tried to block her from speaking with several inmates who reported abuse and instead sent her to speak with hand-picked prisoners. Speier said Hinkle – later dismissively called sexual abuse committed by employees “an embarrassment.”
Speier said she told him: “This isn’t an embarrassment. This is a toxic work environment. It is a reprehensible set of circumstances.” Afterward, in an email to Dublin staff obtained by the AP, Hinkle alleged Speier “mistreated” prison workers and treated one employee “as though she had committed a crime.” Hinkle later was accused of retaliating against BOP employees who complained about prisoner abuse at Dublin, and he admitted to having beaten prisoners back in the 1990s. After these allegations and admissions, he was promoted.
Judge Rogers does not intend to be buffaloed like Rep Speier says she was. During her inspection of the facility, she told Dublin management, “there won’t be anything you can do other than follow me around.”
The Judge is hearing a lawsuit by the California Coalition of Women Prisons, asking the court to stop many of the harms reported at FCI Dublin, such as sexual abuse by the guards and retaliation for speaking up, and possibly appoint a “special master” over the facility to make sure reforms are being met, according to KTVU-TV.
Government attorneys representing the BOP maintain that while there used to be sex scandals at the prison, they are now part of a long-gone era because of new leadership.
KTVU-TV, Scandal-plagued FCI Dublin to receive semi-surprise visit from judge (January 26, 2024)
Associated Press, Whistleblowers say they’re bullied for exposing prison abuse (February 24, 2022)
Associated Press, AP Investigation: Prison boss beat inmates, climbed ranks (December 9, 2022)
KTVU-TV, ‘Cultural rot:’ U.S. Congressional team tours Dublin prison after sex scandal widens (Machr 14, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root