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Two Years Into New BOP Director, Seems Like the Same Ol’ Same Ol’ – Update for September 10, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THEY EXPECT SOME RESULTS

Sometime in the next few months, we should see Bureau of Prisons Director Colette S. Peters make the 10-minute walk from her office to Capitol Hill for an oversight hearing.

honeymoon220224When she first appeared in front of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary two years ago, it was a love-fest. Last September, after she had been at the helm for a year, she received a decidedly cooler reception, with Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) warning her that “you’ve now been in the post for about a year and Congress expects results.”

We now have results. And they’re not all that good. The next oversight hearing ought to be a doozy.

In the FCI Dublin class action lawsuit last Thursday, US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (N.D. CA) denied a BOP motion to dismiss the case, saying she doesn’t believe Bureau platitudes that that it is now providing former Dublin prisoners with “adequate care” at prisons across the country.

“The Court is not so easily persuaded,” a skeptical Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote. “The notion that the constitutional injuries alleged by FCI Dublin’s AICs (adults in custody) were comprehensively remedied by the facility’s closure strains credulity.”

The BOP offered a one-page declaration from Deputy Director William Lothrop that asserted, among other things, that “the BOP is able to presently care for its female AIC population and anticipates the ability to meet their future needs without requiring the use of the FCI Dublin facility.” But when the Court ordered Lothrop to testify, it turned out that he did not know “the details of this case… He was not aware, for instance, of the many outstanding issues… includ[ing] but… not limited to (i) 126 medical alerts; (ii) 63 Medication Assisted Treatment alerts; (iii) 30 mental health alerts; and (iv) 137 unprocessed property claims. This lack of awareness directly undermines his statement that ‘[t]he BOP is able to presently care for its female AIC population.’”

liar160103What’s more, the Judge wrote, “the BOP has not memorialized its alleged decision not to re-open FCI Dublin to house women AICs anywhere outside of Lothrop’s declaration… Thus nothing stops BOP from reversing course in the future, should this case be dismissed as moot.” Also, the Deputy Director admitted that all other BOP facilities are understaffed, “yet the decision was made not to increase staffing prior to the transfer” of the FCI Dublin prisoners.

“This directly undermines Deputy Director’s statement that ‘the BOP is able to presently care for its female AIC population and anticipates the ability to meet their future needs without requiring the use of the FCI Dublin facility,’” the Court observed. “It cannot simultaneously be true that (i) no BOP facility is fully staffed, and (ii) the BOP is aware of no barriers to providing the IACs in their custody with appropriate care.”

NPR reported last week that despite the Dept of Justice Inspector General’s and media reports on inadequate medical care at FCI Sheridan, the BOP is still failing to treat inmates for months on end and making a hash of recordkeeping, according to inmates. The BOP has responded that it “takes pride in protecting and securing individuals entrusted in our custody” and makes “every effort to ensure the physical, medical, and mental safety” of those individuals.”

On September 6th, Reason reported that “last week, at least seven women at [FCI Waseca] were sent to a local hospital for suspected drug overdoses, and incarcerated women and attorneys say the conditions inside are chaotic, filthy, and violent because of rampant abuse of the dangerous drug.”

The BOP confirmed that “[l]ast week, out of an abundance of caution, [FCI] Waseca sent seven incarcerated individuals exhibiting signs of drug use to a local hospital for additional evaluation. All were evaluated and returned the same day.”

“The [BOP] takes seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody,” a BOP spokesperson said, “as well as to keep correctional employees and the community safe, by maintaining a controlled environment that is secure and humane.”

Reason reported that 7 months ago, Catherine Sevcenko, senior counsel with the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, wrote to FCI Waseca administration “detailing accounts from inside the prison about women smoking K2 and vomiting, having diarrhea, seizures, and hallucinations. Users became aggressive and paranoid. Addiction and drug debts were leading to violence and theft.”

“Everyone who has reached out to us believes that someone will die, whether from overdose or being attacked, if things do not change quickly,” Sevcenko reportedly said.

The Waseca warden replied,

I would like to assure you that the Bureau of Prisons is committed to providing a safe and healthful environment for individuals in our custody, as well as our staff… The introduction and use of illicit substances within our facilities is prohibited and the prevention of such remains a priority to all Bureau staff. At FCI Waseca, procedures exist to prevent and detect the introduction of contraband into the facility, as well as to prevent and detect the use of illicit substances inside the facility.

Well, that’s a relief! Everything’s under control.

Spice_drugLast week, a union representing FCI Thomson employees issued a press release reporting that a correctional officer had been exposed to what was believed to be amphetamines, and was revived with Narcan and hospitalized. Two weeks before, another Thomson CO reportedly was also exposed to drugs and had to be given Narcan and hospitalized.

The press release cited the death of a USP Atwater BOP officer last month from exposure to fentanyl, but authorities have not announced whether fentanyl was the cause of death, and as of Sep 6, the three defendants have not been charged with drug distribution leading to death.

KTVU, FCI Dublin women transfers continue to complain; judge denies BOP (September 6, 2024)

Order, California Coalition of Women Prisoners v BOP, ECF 385, Case No 4:23-cv-4155 (N.D. Cal., September 5, 2024)

NPR, 2 years and counting. Inmate says medical delays still plague federal prison in Oregon (September 1, 2024)

Reason, A Federal Prison Was Warned About Synthetic Marijuana. Then Inmates Started Overdosing (September 6, 2024)

AFGE 4070 Press Release, A Correctional Officer was exposed to what was believed to be amphetamines. The staff member was given Narcan before being transported to a local hospital. (September 2, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Judge Skeptical At BOP’s Claim That FCI Dublin’s Problems Are In the Rear-View Mirror – Update for August 6, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

FCI DUBLIN CLOSURE HAS NOT MADE EVERYTHING “HUNKY DORY”

If anyone at Bureau of Prisons headquarters thought that peremptorily closing FCI Dublin and creating a diaspora of its female prisoners across the BOP would solve its sex abuse headache, last week may have dissuaded such hopes.

hunkydory240806Oakland TV station KTVU reported that at a hearing last Friday, US District Court Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (N.D. Cal.) “slammed” BOP lawyers for trying to dismiss a class action lawsuit over sexual abuse and retaliation at the FCI Dublin and “grilled” BOP Director Colette Peter’s deputy, who flew in from Washington, DC for the hearing.

The BOP shut down FCI Dublin on April 15 following a years-long sex abuse scandal by guards and a federal court’s appointment of a special master to oversee reforms at the prison. Its lawyers now argue that the lawsuit against the BOP is moot because of the closure.

Judge Gonzalez did not receive the argument well:

You’re asking to dismiss this case and are saying that everything is hunky dory, and you can’t even resolve ]a myriad of issues that include giving the women their property back or proper medical treatment]… The BOP caused these problems themselves. It strains credulity that this motion was filed, given everything. Clearly, major issues still need to be resolved… You want this court to wipe its hands clean and go its merry way with respect to those hundreds of individuals that are out there?

KTVU reported that the issues include 126 medical cases, 63 people with substance abuse needs, 39 mental health issues and 137 property claims that are still not resolved. All of these stem from the closure of the prison, where 605 women were transferred to prisons across the country.

BOP lawyers argued that staff can’t process property claims because the prisons to which the women were transferred are “severely understaffed.” The judge testily reminded the attorneys that the transfers and understaffing “was completely of their own doing,” KTVU reported.

The judge had ordered Deputy Director William Lathrop to appear before her or she would throw out the BOP’s motion to dismiss. He testified that a “high-level executive decision” to close Dublin was made about a month before the closure.

nothingtosee240806The judge suggested that the BOP simply spread the problem elsewhere. “So you sent [the incarcerated women] to understaffed facilities and didn’t increase staffing?” the judge asked.

“Correct,” Lathrop answered.

BOP lawyers, for the first time, told the court that another reason for closing Dublin was because local doctors (none of whom were identified) did not want to work at the prison because they were worried the women would falsely accuse them of sexual assault.

The judge expressed her skepticism. “This is all news to me,” she said. “It’s nowhere in the record and I have not heard any evidence of that.”

Documents ordered unsealed last Friday in the lawsuit included Special Master Wendy Still’s report that detailed systemic abuse and inadequate medical and mental health care at Dublin:

Management’s failure to ensure staff adhered to BOP policy put the health, safety and liberty of [adults in custody] at great risk for many years… It is unconscionable that any correctional agency could allow incarcerated individuals under their control and responsibility to be subject to the conditions that existed at FCI-Dublin for such an extended period of time without correction.

Special Master Still, a former corrections professional, wrote that she “continues to have concerns that the mistreatment, neglect and abuse” inmates experienced at the facility not be repeated where they were transferred, “as many of the conditions that existed at this facility appear to be longstanding and systemic in nature.”

The Report was to be made public yesterday but was not posted on the docket as of the morning of August 6th.

dungeon240806The Special Master’s concern is not misplaced. Susan Beaty, an attorney who represents hundreds of women formerly held at Dublin, told KTVU last week that about 200 of the 605 women transferred from the now-closed facility are being held in three BOP detention centers and have lacked access to sunlight for months.

“The lack of access to outdoor space has really compounded the impact of these transfers and the trauma that our clients have already been through,” Beaty said. She reported that one of her clients told her that the BOP is aware of this issue because the prisoner’s unit team told her to “drink milk” to help with Vitamin D deficiencies.

KTVU, Judge slams BOP for trying to dismiss FCI Dublin case; grills deputy director (August 2, 2024)

KTVU, Former FCI Dublin prisoners say they haven’t felt sunlight in months (July 30, 2024)

KQED, Special Master Slams Conditions at FCI Dublin in Report (August 2, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

‘We Only Believe You When It’s Convenient,’ DOJ Tells BOP inmate Sexual Abuse Victims – Update for June 20, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

KUMBAYA MOMENT PAST FOR COMPASSION FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS

kumbaya221003Last November, prosecutors asked female inmate Ilene Wahpeta to provide a victim impact statement at the sentencing of Andrew Jones, a former BOP employee convicted of sexually assaulting three inmates at FCI Dublin and sentenced to eight years..

Reason reported last week that six months later, the same Dept of Justice that presented her victim testimony as a compelling basis to sentence the former CO to 96 months is arguing against Ilene’s compassionate release motion on the basis that Ilene wasn’t a named victim in Jones’s criminal case and that her claims aren’t credible.

In September 2022, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote a letter to FAMM saying that she had ordered BOP Director Peters to “review whether BOP’s policy regarding compassionate release should be modified” to accommodate female prisoners who had been assaulted by federal employees. Peters responded that “she has begun to consider requests from inmates who have been abused and are not deemed to be threats to the community if they are granted their release,” according to the New York Times.

forcedsex161202Then, Sentencing Commission Guideline § 1B1.13(b)(4) was modified effective last November to include as an extraordinary and compelling reason justifying sentence reduction cases where “the defendant, while in custody… was a victim of sexual abuse involving a “sexual act,” as defined in 18 USC § 2246(2) (including the conduct described in 18 USC § 2246(2)(D) regardless of the age of the victim…”

Last week, Reason said that DOJ is actively undercutting its own policy as well as § 1B1.13(b)(4). Ilene’s case is such an example. “Lawyers representing incarcerated women filing for early release based on their status as sexual assault survivors say federal prosecutors are now routinely fighting to disqualify their clients because of an unreasonably narrow definition,” Reason reported.

DOJ has been arguing that the cases against the BOP employees accused of sexual abuse have to be completed prior to granting compassionate release under § 1B1.13(b)(4). In other cases (like Ilene’s), DOJ is saying that the victims’ claims are not credible.

“Before November 1, 2023, when this policy statement went into effect, in almost every single case the government was agreeing or not opposing the compassionate release motion,” FAMM attorney Shanna Rifkin, who has been working with BOP inmate abuse victims, says. “Since then, there has been a lot more resistance to compassionate release motions based on sexual abuse.”

When the Sentencing Commission was considering adopting what became § 1B1.13(b)(4), DOJ argued in written comments that “permitting compassionate release hearings only after the completion of other administrative or legal proceedings will help ensure that allegations are more fairly adjudicated, prevent mini-trials on allegations, and reduce interference with pending investigations and prosecutions.”

“It effectively puts the DOJ back in the driver’s seat,” Rifkin told Reason, “because who drives a criminal case? The Department of Justice. Victims of abuse have no say over when a case against their abuser will be brought, if it will be brought, and who will be charged as the victims in the case.”

womenprison240620And while a finding of guilt may sound like a reasonable standard, Reason said, it is a surprisingly difficult one to meet in cases of sexual assault perpetrated by government employees… So women who are survivors of his abuse ostensibly have to wait until the government has concluded their case in order to have a cognizable claim under this policy statement.”

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2016 to 2018 perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct were only convicted, sentenced, fined, or pleaded guilty in 6 percent of substantiated incidents in federal and state prisons.

Reason, Advocates Say the Justice Department Is Failing To Provide Relief to Women Who Were Abused in Prison (June 10, 2024)

New York Times, Justice Dept. Considers Early Release for Female Inmates Sexually Abused Behind Bars (Dec 13, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root

The Wheels On The Bus – Update for April 29, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

PUNISHING THE VICTIMS, DISSING THE JUDGE

wheelsonbus240429Nearly all inmates had been transferred out of the beleaguered Bureau of Prisons women’s facility FCI Dublin by last Tuesday, according to a BOP spokesman, with only about 23-40 prisoners–all of whom have pending releases or halfway house/home confinement transfers scheduled–remaining at the facility.

Several news outlets last week reported that the hasty transfers bore more than a passing resemblance to the Bataan Death March. Inmates reported they went without water or sanitary products, and some ended up sitting in their own excrement. A prisoner’s parent told KTVU-TV in Oakland that when the inmates asked where they were going, 

“They were told ‘none of your business,’ or ‘SFTU, see, this is why Dublin is closing, you all need to learn to keep your mouths shut. I gave up my Saturday off to move you girls.’ The other CO said, ‘I came out of retirement to help move you bitches.’

“The bus driver played a children’s recording of the Wheels on the Bus over and over again at full volume, and then played loud rap music with sexually explicit language about sex acts.

“He told them the more they fussed, the louder it was going to be,” [the parent wrote to the TV station]. “All thru the 12 hours they were called bitches. They were told they were the reason for the closing of Dublin. They should have kept their mouths shut.”

BOPbus240429The San Jose Mercury News reported that one source said of the closure and transfer, “I have witnessed people fighting. I have witnessed people crying. I have witnessed people drinking pills because they just want to pass out and not think about it. I have witnessed people vomiting. Another lady over here next to me, she was cutting herself. We have witnessed all of that. And even officers over here are crying because that’s how crazy it is.”

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to BOP Director Colette S. Peters expressing concern over claims of a chaotic transfer. The letter, signed by Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) and four others, alleged that

“concerned stakeholders and advocates have made alarming reports about the ensuing chaos. These reports include: unavailability of medical staff; inadequate-to-no medical attention, including for individuals expressing suicidal ideation; improper medical clearance prior to transport; lack of food and water for those remaining in the facility awaiting transfer; mistreatment, harassment, neglect, and abuse while in transit; and confiscation of personal property. This reporting is appalling and even more concerning in light of the well-documented abuses that have taken place previously at FCI Dublin…”

The letter demanded that the BOP director provide the Committee with information on how the agency has prepared to close FCI Dublin, including its written plans on the “safe and humane release from custody.”

On that same day that the BOP announced Dublin would close, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the Oakland, California, judge overseeing the class action suit against Dublin officials, ordered a halt in the transfers so that the special master she had appointed to oversee Dublin could review the process. A review of each prisoner’s status would “ensure inmates are transferred to the correct location,” the judge wrote in her April 15 order. “This includes whether an inmate should be released to a BOP facility, home confinement, or halfway house, or granted a compassionate release.”

bird240429The BOP pushed back, filing a motion for relief from the Judge’s order, questioning the authority of the special master and complaining that the judge’s order amounts to “a de facto requirement” that the BOP keep the prison open. “The Court not only lacks jurisdiction to impose such a requirement, but it is also antithetical to the overall objective of safeguarding inmate safety and welfare,” the motion complains. “Extensive resources and employee hours have already been invested in the move.”

As of yesterday, the motion has not been ruled on. Given that the BOP has already transferred up to 96% of the Dublin inmates–many in horrific conditions–the BOP appears to have presented Judge Gonzalez Rogers with a fait accompli that the Court is unlikely to be able to undo,

goodjobhomer240429In a case of the BOP really not getting it, KTVU reported that in an interoffice memo sent last week, Director Peters “commended her staff for their ‘tireless efforts in facilitating the successful transition’ of women from FCI Dublin… Peters said that the transfer involved ‘careful planning and coordination to ensure the safe transfer of women to other facilities, with special attention given to their unique programming, medical, and mental health requirements’.”

It is perhaps unsurprising that the Federal Prison Oversight Act (H.R. 3019), introduced a year ago, was approved earlier this month by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Under the bill, which still must be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law, the Dept of Justice’s Inspector General would conduct periodic prison inspections of BOP facilities. The bill would require the attorney general to ensure the inspectors have “access to any covered facility, including the incarcerated people, detainees, staff, bargaining unit representative organization, and any other information” needed. The assessments “may include” incarceration conditions; staff adequacy and working conditions; availability of FSA programs; SHU practices; prison medical and mental health services; and violence, sexual abuse and excessive-force allegations.” The bill would establish an ombudsman to whom prisoners and loved ones could complain.

Associated Press, Senators demand accounting of rapid closure plan for California prison where women were abused (April 24, 2024)

KTVU, FCI Dublin prison closure: Women describe horrific journey across US (April 22, 2024)

KTVU-TV, U.S. Senators call FCI Dublin transfer of women ‘appalling’ (April 25, 2024)

Senators Richard Durbin, Cory Booker et al., Letter to Colette S Peters (April 24, 2024)

San Jose Mercury News, Chaotic Dublin prison closure leads to fighting, crying, cutting, inmates say (April 24, 2024)

Associated Press, Feds push back against judge and say troubled California prison should be shut down without delay (April 18, 2024)

KTVU, BOP director commends FCI Dublin staff, despite accounts of abusive behavior (April 24, 2024)

HR 3019, Federal Prison Oversight Act

– Thomas L. Root

More Sexual Abuse Fallout in the BOP – Update for April 2, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

STAFF ON INMATE, INMATE ON STAFF…

A former FCI Dublin (California) correctional officer was sentenced to six years last Wednesday after he admitted to sexually abusing more than a half-dozen women at the scandal-plagued facility.

sexualassault211014Nakie Nunley, 48, became the seventh Dublin staff member to be sentenced in recent years, part of what the officers called a “rape club” at the facility that tormented inmates. The defendants have included a warden and chaplain.

An eighth officer has pled guilty to sexual misconduct charges but has not yet been sentenced.

Nunley was convicted of four counts of sexual abuse of a ward and five of abusive sexual contact of five women. He also admitted to lying to federal officials. His sentence comes amid mounting concerns that the initial wave of arrests has done little to reform a toxic culture at the prison that has left inmates in constant fear of retaliation for reporting their guards’ alleged misdeeds.

Meanwhile, a second suit has been filed in Ft. Worth alleging that a former prisoner at FMC Carswell was repeatedly raped by former BOP employee Marerllis Nix. Nix has denied the allegations in the first suit and has not yet responded to the second complaint.

A 2022 investigation by the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram found a pattern of abuse and cover-ups at Carswell that KERA-TV has called “among the worst of any facility across the US.”

“We filed a second lawsuit, just a couple days ago on behalf of Jane Doe, not only just to get compensation for her injuries but, more importantly, to call awareness to this severe problem at the Carswell medical unit in Ft. Worth,” said Randall Kallinen, a Houston-based civil rights attorney.

At the same time, BOP officers in Illinois are pushing Congress to do something about sexual abuse in federal prisons – just not in the way you might think.

attack240402Driven by reports of BOP staff facing indecent exposure by inmates and vulgar and sometimes violent sexual remarks, officers at USP Thomson are calling for adding criminal penalties for such behavior. The union alleged more than 300 incidents in 2022 of inmates exposing themselves or engaging in sexual acts in front of staff at Thomson. Since then, Thomson has been converted to low security, and the number of incidents has fallen to near zero.

A national law is needed “to protect our correctional workers from sexual attacks from inmates at all federal prisons,” said Jon Zumkehr, president of a local American Federation of Government Employees chapter. “Victims of sexual assault crimes experience significant trauma, and these profound and understandable fears may keep victims from coming forward.”

San Jose Mercury News, FCI Dublin officer sentenced to six years in prison after admitting he sexually abused several inmates (March 28, 2024)

NBC, Former correctional officer at women’s prison in California sentenced for sexually abusing inmates (March 28, 2024)

KERA-TV, Sexual abuse a ‘severe problem’ at Fort Worth’s Carswell prison, attorneys for 2 women say (March 11, 2024)

Federal Times, Bureau of Prisons officers seek federal law penalizing sexual threats (March 28, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

‘The Rape Club’ Front Door Gets Kicked In – Update for March 14, 2024

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

FBI EXECUTES SEARCH WARRANT AT FCI DUBLIN

And you thought your Monday mornings were lousy.

tigerseat240314Art Dulgov, the warden selected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons Central Office to clean up the sexual abuse cesspool that is FCI Dublin, started his week with over a dozen FBI agents armed with a search warrant swarming over his prison, seizing computers, documents and other evidence and seeking to interview employees, according to an Associated Press report.

The FBI said its agents were conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity.” But it looked a lot like one agency of the Dept of Justice was raiding another agency of the Dept of Justice. As Rodney Dangerfield might have put it, ‘a tiger eating its young.’

Before the day ended, Warden Dulgov, Associate Warden Patrick Deveney, a captain and the executive assistant who oversaw the prison’s minimum-security satellite camp, were all unceremoniously walked off the compound by their employer.

Dulgov, only three months into his warden gig at Dublin, was the third leader of the low-security female prison since Warden Ray J. Garcia and a half dozen of his underlings were convicted of sexually assaulting multiple prisoners at the institution, which was known by BOP employees and prisoners there as the “rape club.”

Garcia was sentenced to 70 months. BOP records suggest that he is being housed in a non-BOP prison, with a release date set for 2028.

hitroad240314Dulgov and staff are not accused of sexual abuse, but rather of retaliating against an inmate who testified in January in a class-action lawsuit that alleges “horrific abuse and exploitation” at the prison, with rampant sexual assault of incarcerated persons, according to a court filing. However, it is not clear that this was the basis for the FBI search. That search warrant and the affidavit supporting it have not been made public.

After inmate Rhonda Fleming, herself a storied and frequent pro se litigator, accused a BOP lieutenant of retaliation in January testimony before US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the prisoner was transferred to MDC Los Angeles despite the Court’s order that none of the inmate witnesses be removed from Dublin.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers later admonished an Assistant US Attorney representing the BOP for the transfer in defiance of her order, but accepting the excuse that the BOP misunderstood her directive. The Judge said she would have levied sanctions against the attorney earlier in her career as a federal judge, but settled on the warning instead: “I’ve been around long enough to know that lawyers make mistakes,” Gonzalez Rogers told the AUSA, who apologized for the transfer. “The point is: You need to follow my orders.”

I feel for the AUSA, who didn’t ask for the BOP as a client and probably was as shocked to learn Fleming had been transferred as was the Judge. After the Court learned of the transfer, the BOP got Fleming back to Dublin in record time.

After a January hearing at which Dublin inmates were among the witnesses, Judge Gonzalez Rogers made an unannounced inspection of FCI Dublin on Valentine’s Day. During this inspection, she spoke to about 100 inmates outside of the presence of BOP minders. Later, in an order, she said that the “first-hand communication will prove critical to resolving the pending motions (which will be done after full briefing).”

doitnow240314(The visit also resulted in a virtually unprecedented court order requiring that some physical conditions of the facility – including lack of hot water and the presence of mold and asbestos – be resolved “IMMEDIATELY,” with the Court itself employing the word “immediately” in all capital letters. The Court undoubtedly means it and is not to be trifled with).

The FBI search and management massacre are the latest developments in what the Los Angeles Times calls a “years-long scandal “ surrounding the facility:

Legal experts say what has happened at the federal prison is indicative of the worst aspects of institutions with abusers in their midst.

“There is no accountability with some public entities, and the sexual abuse keeps festering and festering until it blows up,” said attorney David Ring, who has handled high-profile sexual assault litigation involving schools, facilities and Hollywood studios.

“They tend to shuffle the offenders,” he said. “Officials in prisons can be the worst because they are so jaded that all the complaints fall on deaf ears about the guards.”

The Times reported that “a dozen new lawsuits” were filed against the BOP in Oakland federal court last week “alleging more mistreatment and sexual misconduct by staff.”

fbidublin240314
A BOP statement issued Monday characterized the removal of top Dublin staff as being “consistent with unprecedented and ongoing actions” to reform Dublin’s culture, and said that recent unspecified developments “have necessitated new executive employees be installed at the institution.” BOP Regional Director Nancy T. McKinney was installed on Monday as interim warden.

Kara Janssen, an attorney representing some Dublin inmates, said that the leadership changes at Dublin prison haven’t changed much. “This is not a proactive change in leadership,” said Janssen. “The only changes in leadership seem to come through criminal investigations.”

Associated Press, Warden ousted as FBI again searches California federal women’s prison plagued by sexual abuse (March 11, 2024)

Los Angeles Times, Warden is ousted as FBI raids California women’s prison known as the ‘rape club’ (March 12, 2014)

San Jose Mercury News, Warden ousted amid FBI raid at scandal-plagued FCI Dublin women’s prison (March 12, 2024)

KGO-TV, FBI raids Dublin prison plagued by sex abuse; pattern of immigrant women being targeted, lawyer says (March 12, 2024)

SFist, FBI Raids Dublin Women’s Prison, Warden and Three Others Ousted (March 11, 2024)

Forbes, Troubled Women’s Federal Prison Raided By FBI (March 12, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

‘Tis Some Visitor,’ I Muttered, ‘Tapping At My Prison Door’ – Update for January 31, 2024

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ONLY THIS AND NOTHING MORE

Dublinraven240130US 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.”

“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my prison door—
Some early visitor entreating entrance at my prison door;—
This it is and nothing more.”

(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.”

welcometohell230518Speier 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

‘Sexual Abuse Victims: We’ve Got Your Back!’ Said No BOP Official Ever – Update for October 5, 2023

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

LEGAL ABUSE CONTINUES AFTER SEX ABUSE ENDS

The California office of a New York law firm announced last week that it had sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons alleging that 10 inmates were sexually assaulted while in BOP custody while housed at FCI Dublin. The action was brought under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Slater Slater Schulman LLP said at least 20 different BOP sex abuse perps have been identified by at least 92 former female inmates at FCI Dublin. And the lawyers are going after them.

rape230207However, a 6th Circuit decision last week suggests that holding the BOP liable for its employees’ sex crimes could be a hard sell.

L.C. (we’ll call her ‘Lonnie,’ not her real name) was in the BOP’s Residential Drug Abuse Program at FMC Lexington when her path crossed with Hosea Lee, a BOP RDAP instructor and serial rapist. When happened then was ugly and left Lonnie with a sexually transmitted disease. Hosea was eventually walked off the compound, arrested and convicted.

Lonnie was traumatized by being repeatedly raped and assaulted by a person she was powerless to resist. Eventually, she got medical treatment for herpes, at which time a BOP Health Services nurse told her that Harry had given herpes to all of his inmate victims. She said another BOP employee, a counselor, told her that Hosea had been reported to BOP officials a long time before she had been raped.

Lonnie sued the BOP under the Federal Tort Claims Act, arguing that the agency had a duty to protect inmates from serial rapist employees and it negligently failed to do so. To make clear how seriously the BOP takes its obligations to protect inmates from criminal sex acts of its own staff, the BOP argued in court that it had discretion whether to protect female inmates from sexual predator staff and anyway, Lonnie had not made a plausible claim that BOP management knew that Hosea liked to rape female inmates.

didnotknow231005Under the FTCA, a federal agency is immune from being sued for negligence if it is accused of not performing a function that is discretionary or grounded in policy. The district court held that investigating and taking action where the BOP has become aware of alleged misconduct is discretionary, so Lonnie’s FTCA suit had to be dismissed. Even if that were not so, the district court said, Lonnie’s negligence claim should be dismissed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) because her complaint failed to “allege sufficiently” that the BOP knew or should have known of Hosea’s attacks.

Last week, the 6th Circuit left Lonnie with nothing. The Circuit agreed that BOP Program Statements impose a mandatory requirement that the first BOP official with “information concerning incidents or possible incidents of sexual abuse or sexual harassment,” report such information and investigate immediately. “These are mandatory regulations and policies that allow no judgment or choice,” the 6th said.

But Lonnie had not “plausibly alleged that BOP officials failed timely to report or investigate information that Lee may have been attacking women incarcerated at FMC before November 22, 2019,” the Court ruled. While Lonnie pointed to her allegation that a BOP told her that Hosea had been reported “a long time ago,” her complaint “provides no context for when the counselor made the statement, which limits our ability to draw inferences that the counselor herself knew of Lee’s attacks before November 22, 2019, or that the counselor later came to learn that others knew of his attacks before then. [Lonnie’s] allegation that a medical department staffer told her on February 18, 2020, that all of Lee’s victims had contracted herpes does not permit the inference that staff treated multiple other victims before November 22, 2019, and knew then that each person they were treating had contracted herpes because Lee had attacked them.”

bartsimpson231005The Circuit admitted that “there is of course a possibility that some BOP officials knew of Lee’s assaults before November 22, 2019, and failed to act on that information… With so many holes in the timeline in [Lonnie’s] allegations, we cannot plausibly draw the necessary inferences in a manner that satisfies the pleading standard.”

In an opinion piece appearing on CNN two weeks ago, US District Court Judge Reggie Walton (District of Columbia) wrote that a commission he served on heard from former prisoners who “described in detail to me and to my fellow commission members the abuse they endured while incarcerated, sometimes over many years. Some recounted how they were disbelieved, silenced or unofficially punished for speaking out and seeking help. The formerly incarcerated people who testified spoke of the guilt, shame and rage that consumed them after being sexually assaulted and how the abuse cast a shadow over their lives even years after they were released — trauma evident in their voices, on their faces and in the tears many shed.”

As the government made clear before the 6th Circuit, it will take any position necessary – even that the BOP is not liable if it knows its employees are raping prisoners – to avoid paying damages to those harmed by agency negligence.

PR Newswire, Approximately 250 Survivors of Sexual Assault File Lawsuits Against U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons and State of California For Being Sexually Assaulted by Correctional Staff While Incarcerated (September 27, 2023)

LC v. United States, Case No. 22-6105, 2023 U.S.App. LEXIS 25695 (6th Cir. September 28, 2023)

CNN, Opinion: Sexual assault should never be part of a prison term (September 17, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

‘Hey, Abuse Victims, We Didn’t Really Mean It’ – Update for May 11, 2023

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

SERIOUS STEPS TAKEN TO ADDRESS FEMALE PRISONER ABUSE

justkidding230511Just kidding. Last week, a BOP contractor employee monitoring home confinement inmates who sexually abused a Miami woman on house arrest got a prison sentence one month shorter than his victim’s time on house arrest.

Miami-Dade resident Benito Montes de Oca Cruz, 60, got a 4-month prison sentence for one count of abusive sexual contact, followed by a year of supervised release, four months of which will be on home confinement. His victim was on five months of house arrest at the end of her 51-month sentence when he committed “abusive sexual contact” on her.

Remember when DOJ official Lisa Monaco said that women prisoners who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of BOP employees would be recommended for compassionate release due to their treatment? She was kidding, too. One FCI Dublin victim was denied a compassionate release recommendation last fall, the BOP telling her “that the officers’ cases have not yet been ‘adjudicated…’ [Her attorney] said that prison officials told her to refile her motion, most likely once all the officers are charged or sentenced.”

The inmate has under a third of her sentence to serve – under three years – so the BOP’s “come back next week” directive should run out the clock on her request right smartly.

Sadly, this would be true even if she were doing a life term. One of the abusive COs, aptly if disgustedly known as ‘Dirty Dick,” committed suicide after he learned that he was under investigation for abusing women, according to the woman’s lawyer. “So unless they are planning to do a final adjudication… there will never she will never be able to meet the Bureau of Prisons’ standard.”

Maybe Satan can convene a grand jury somewhere in the fires of hell… 

beatings230511Of course, this begs the question of why the BOP and DOJ themselves cannot turn their considerable investigative powers to determine whether the abuse happened.  The BOP has its own investigative office, the SIS (which stands for “Special Investigative Supervisor”). The DOJ has an inspector general office. To be sure, the BOP doesn’t need to get a criminal conviction against a BOP employee to recommend compassionate release for an inmate victim, either.  But showing any initiative might hurt BOP employee morale by suggesting that abusing inmates was not a perk of working at the BOP.

And after all, how many other sordid tales about ‘Dirty Dick’ would be enough to corroborate that he was a s abuser? E. Jean Carroll only required two…

Last week, the female prisoner filed for compassionate release with her sentencing judge, seeking a sentencing reduction of about 34 and a half months of her 120-month sentence.

Miami Herald, A Bureau of Prisons monitor gets his sentence. He raped a Miami woman on house arrest (April 30, 2023)

KTVU, Dublin prison sex assault survivor seeks compassionate release after BOP denies (May 5, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root