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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.

Oakland 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.

The 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.

The 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