Tag Archives: FCI Dublin

Dublin Presents “101 Damnations” – Update for August 12, 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.

COURT-APPOINTED SPECIAL MASTER DECLARES BOP MANAGEMENT OF FCI DUBLIN ‘UNCONSCIONABLE’

dalmations240812There are no cute spotted puppies in Special Master Wendy Still’s 101-page report on FCI Dublin, made public last week in the class action case pending in Oakland, California, federal court against the Bureau of Prisons.

US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered the report released at an August 2 hearing where BOP attorneys argued the suit should be dismissed. Gonzalez Rogers has yet to issue a ruling on that request, but the report was unsealed last week.

Still’s report had very little good to say about Dublin or the BOP, finding an “unconscionable” pattern of derelict care and oversight at the now-closed women’s prison and “rais[ing] the alarm that similar problems may be plaguing other federal prisons across the nation,” according to the San Jose Mercury-News.

Special Master Still, a veteran corrections professional, listed a litany of policy failures at Dublin, including inadequate medical care, improper investigations into sex abuse reports, unnecessary disciplinary measures, lack of FSA and RDAP programming and a completely broken administrative remedy system. “The cascade of failures in operational practice has led to staff and [adults in custody] becoming discouraged and to lose confidence in the ability of the BOP to protect/support them,” Still wrote.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers appointed Still as the first special master of a federal prison in history after the Judge made an unannounced visit to Dublin in February and declared the prison to be “a dysfunctional mess.” Still had only been on the job 10 days when the BOP announced Dublin would be closed and started hustling prisoners out the door, a fall-of-Kabul-style evacuation that was halted by Judge Gonzalez Rogers only after Still called the Court to report that the buses were loaded and idling in the parking lot.

medical told you I was sick221017Still’s report chronicles systemic failures at Dublin from sexual abuse recordkeeping to boilerplate BP-9 responses to medical care to the second worst short-staffing in the Western Region. She singled out medical care, noting that “nurses and doctors at the prison often failed to adequately examine inmates “even when the patients presented with symptoms of serious medical conditions,” the report said. Patients were denied timely access to care for physical ailments or mental illness, with Still finding “serious deficiencies” in the prison’s specialty care medical records.

The failures Still noted were not limited to Dublin. She wrote

In addition to the dysfunction noted by the Court, the [Special Master] found numerous operational, policy and constitutional violations as outlined in the body of this report. This included the failure of Central Office and Regional Office management to correct significant and longstanding deficiencies that had previously been iden[ti]fied in multiple audits and investigations. Furthermore, management’s failure to ensure staff adhered to BOP policy put the health, safety and liberty of AICs 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.

This Special Master continues to have concerns that the mistreatment, neglect and abuse the AICs received at FCI-Dublin not be repeated at the facilities where these individuals are being transferred to as many of the conditions that existed at this facility appear to be longstanding and systemic in nature.”

Still’s report said that more than 600 women removed from Dublin have filed reports in court of similar problems at other prisons. “It is critical to note that some of the deficiencies and issues exposed within this report are likely an indication of systemwide issues with the BOP,” Still wrote, “rather than simply within FCI Dublin.”

“What happened at Dublin did not happen in a vacuum — it was extremely open and obvious what the warden and others were doing at the time,” said Kara Janssen, an attorney helping to oversee the class-action lawsuit. “Until they fix the broken system, we’re just waiting for the next Dublin. They’re being caused by the failures at the top” of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

kickingbutt240812In an email, BOP spokeswoman Randilee Giamusso said the agency “welcomes the report and will work with Still on her findings and recommendations.” Of course it does, just like Ms. Giamusso probably welcomes a root canal without anesthetic.

Courthouse News Service, Unsealed court monitor’s report describes ‘cascade of failures’ at Bay Area women’s prison (August 5, 2024)

San Jose Mercury News, Federal prison leaders excoriated for ‘unconscionable’ conditions at shuttered FCI Dublin women’s prison (August 6, 2024)

Case No. 4:23-cv-04155 (NDCal), First Report of the Special Master Pursuant to the Court’s Order of March 26, 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

Some Short Stuff – Update for August 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.

Today, some short reports for easy beach reading…

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SUMMERTIME SHORTS

retro160110Sentencing Commission Retroactivity Decision, Priorities For Next Year Set For Aug 8: At a scheduled Aug 8 meeting, the US Sentencing Commission will decide whether four proposed Guidelines changes to become effective in November will be retroactive.

The four changes for which retroactivity is on the table are

• the acquitted conduct amendment;

• a change to § 2K2.1(b)(4)(B)(i) to provide that the 4-level enhancement gun serial number obliteration applies only if the serial number has been modified such the original number is “is rendered illegible or unrecognizable to the unaided eye;” and

• a change to Commentary in § 2K2.4 to permit grouping of an 18 USC § 922(g) gun count with a 21 USC § 841 drug trafficking count where the defendant has a separate 18 USC § 924(c) gun conviction based on drug trafficking.

• a change in § 2D1.1(a) to tie mandatory and high base offense levels to statutory maximum sentences instead of more complex factors that are not necessarily consistent with 21 USC  § 841(b)(1)(A) or (B).

The Commission will also adopt priorities for the coming year.

US Sentencing Commission, Public Meeting, Thursday, August 8, 2024

‘Dirty Dick’s’ Woes Continue: A superseding indictment handed up last week accused former Bureau of Prisons correctional officer Darrell Wayne “Dirty Dick” Smith of sexually abusing more inmates at FCI Dublin.

Last Thursday, a federal grand jury charged Smith with 15 counts of sexual abuse, including a civil rights violation, against five women in their cells and a laundry facility between 2016 and 2021.. Smith, known to detainees as “Dirty Dick,” had previously been indicted of sexually abusing three female inmates.

He is accused by inmates of actively roaming the prison, seeking out victims, and locking women in their cells until they exposed themselves to him.

L.A. Times, Guard at ‘rape club’ prison faces new charges of sexually abusing inmates (July 26, 2024)

DOJ Sides With Prisoners In SCOTUS First Step Case: The Supreme Court has had to appoint private lawyers to argue the other side of a pending case, Hewett v. United States, asking whether the First Step Act requires a resentencing to apply changes in mandatory minimums favorable to defendants.

goodlawyer240802The Dept of Justice has told the high court that “the government agrees that the best reading of Section 403(b) is that Section 403’s amended statutory penalties apply at any sentencing that takes place after the Act’s effective date, including a resentencing.”

In cases where the government agrees with the petitioner, the Supreme Court appoints a lawyer to argue the other side so that the Court’ decision is based on a thorough examination of the issue. In Erlinger v. United States, decided last month, DOJ agreed with the petitioners that juries should decide whether Armed Career Criminal Act predicate crimes occurred on separate occasions, requiring SCOTUS to appoint counsel to argue against the petitioner. The Court appointed a private attorney to argue the side abandoned by the government.

For Hewitt, the Court appointed Michael H. McGinley, Global Co-chair of the Securities and Complex Litigation practice group for mega law firm Dechert LLP, to argue that First Step does not let defendants benefit from more liberal sentencing terms if their original sentence was imposed before the law passed.

Supreme Court, Order (July 26, 2024)


hardtime240801‘Hard’ Federal Time Converts Another One: Peter Navarro, who completed a 4-month federal sentence for contempt of Congress two weeks ago just in time to be whisked to Milwaukee to address the Republican National Convention, said last week that federal law imposes harsher sentences than necessary for drug offenses.

“The standard that we want to have when we think about the criminal justice system, which I’ve been inside of now and I understand this better, there are bad people doing bad things, but there’s good people doing bad things as well,” Navarro said in a TV interview.

Navarro said that the longer people are in prison, the higher the chance that they will commit more crimes because they have “fewer skills” and “get more angry.”

The Trump advisor also said the costs of housing inmates costs about $60,000 a year per inmate, but that placing people on house arrest or in halfway homes reduces the costs by roughly half.

Just the News, Navarro urges U.S. to be ‘smart’ on crime, not ‘soft’ on crime following prison sentence (July 23, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Nothing to See Here Anymore,’ BOP Tells Court About FCI Dublin – Update for June 25, 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.

But first, a mea culpa…

THOSE PESKY DETAILS

embarrassedLast week, I reported on a U.S. Sentencing Commission methamphetamine study that debunked the idea that there was anything special about meth with purity over 90%, despite the fact that 80% plus pure meth comes with much higher Guideline sentencing ranges.

I reported that the study found that meth tested by the government in fiscal year (FY) 2022 averaged over 90% pure with a median purity of 98%, “measurements dramatically higher than just two years before, when meth purity ranged from 10 to 80%.”

An alert reader questioned my data. It turns out he was correct.

According to the DEA, meth purity ranged from 10% to 80% in the year 2000, NOT 2020. My embarrassment at my error tests out at 100% purity, and I thank my reader for pointing out the mistake.

USSC, Methamphetamine Trafficking Offenses In The Federal Criminal Justice System (June 13, 2024)

‘WE BURIED THE DUBLIN PROBLEM, SO LET’S STOP TALKING ABOUT IT,’ BOP TELLS COURT

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has asked the U.S. District Court in Oakland to dismiss a class action lawsuit demanding systemic changes at FCI Dublin as moot, on the grounds that no one is imprisoned there anymore.

“The injunctive claims addressing conditions of confinement at FCI Dublin—a facility where no inmates are confined—must be dismissed as moot,” the motion filed last Tuesday argues. The plaintiff’s money damages claims, consideration of which have been stayed until August, would remain on file.

The suit was filed last August by female inmates, alleging rampant sexual assault and retaliation by Dublin staff. BOP abruptly shut down the facility in April shortly after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed a special master to oversee changes at the prison.

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The BOP’s motion admits that Dublin was in “dire need of immediate change.” The agency said, “Following its own deliberative process, BOP leadership determined that it needed to close FCI Dublin and transfer all female adults in custody (AICs) to other federal facilities. The transfer process was conducted subject to various court orders and in coordination with the Court’s special master. That process is now complete, and the AICs previously confined at Dublin are now at new facilities. If Dublin is eventually reopened, it will not be used to house female AICs again.”

The Court has described the closure of Dublin as “hasty and chaotic” but the BOP claims it “was carefully planned” and that the Court was privately advised a month before the April 15 mass movement.

A group of Congressional representatives is investigating allegations that the transfers were conducted inhumanely.

Motion to Dismiss, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v, BOP, ECF 326, Case No 4:23-cv-4155 (ND Cal, June 18, 2024)

KQED-TV, Biden Administration Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Bay Area Women’s Prison Abuses (June 18, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

FCI Dublin Is Closed But The Controversy Keeps Swirling – LISA Newsletter For June 17, 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.

THE BAND PLAYS ON…

BOPbus240429Acting with efficiency and consideration for the well-being of prisoners, the Federal Bureau of Prisons closed FCI Dublin two months ago.  This is the BOP version.

Acting precipitously, hiding its intentions, and with all the care and haste of a concentration camp evacuation in front of the advancing enemy, the BOP shuttered FCI Dublin, treated inmates like cattle while they were being transferred to other facilities in order to stop or at least hobble investigations into the inmate abuse at BOP facilities. This is the critics’ version.

Three Senators and 19 Representatives wrote to BOP Director Colette Peters last Thursday to get to the bottom of the unprecedented prison closure.  

rios-marques240617The letter they sent asks who made the decision to close Dublin and when the decision was made. The request focuses on the role of Regional Director Rios-Marques in the culture of abuse at FCI Dublin, “including her selection of a succession of wardens who have been at best ineffective and at worst complicit in retaliation and intimidation,” and wants to know whether she was following BOP policy “when she refused to advise [the Special Master appointed by the court to oversee Dublin] of the impending closure, which would begin the next day, even when asked directly on April 14?”

Madam Regional Director, you’ve got 29 years in at the BOP. It might be a good time to contemplate retirement.

The letter hints at a credibility gap forming between Congress and the BOP. “[T]here has been a tragic and unacceptable history of long-term abuse of [prisoners] at FCI Dublin,” the letter says. “Up until weeks before the closure of FCI Dublin, BOP leadership and their counsel repeatedly asserted that conditions and care at FCI Dublin were constitutionally adequate, and repeatedly denied allegations of staff misconduct and retaliation.”

cattle240617The letter also recounted that the legislators were concerned “about shocking abuses that allegedly took place during the mass [prisoner] transfers,” noting that “this level of disregard for human dignity cannot be tolerated. Additionally, the frantic nature of the closure of FCI Dublin reflects a lack of adequate planning and proper safeguards to protect the rights of [prisoners].”

[I have replaced the letter’s use of “AIC” — Peters’s kinder, gentler “Adult in Custody” term — with “prisoner.”  Peters says “AIC” but other BOP employees call them “bitches.” These women are ‘prisoners’ and ‘inmates’ until such a time as BOP line employees start treating them like AICs, or at least treat them like human beings and not like cattle, Director Peters’s “feel-good” relabeling notwithstanding.]

BOP officials have stated that the Dublin closure plan was “carefully considered over months,” an assertion that would have made Pinnochio blush.

The legislators want written answers by July 10, 2024.

Pinocchio160812Meanwhile two advocacy groups last Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the Northern District of California jurist overseeing the class action case against the BOP for Dublin sexual abuse, to unseal court records and preserve public access to hearings.

The legal nonprofit Public Justice and the ACLU of Northern California jointly filed a motion for increased transparency in the case, which is set for trial in June 2025. In the last two months, Judge Gonzalez Rogers has held a series of closed hearings to address the Dublin closure. “These hearings took place without prior notice, and in many instances, the docket does not reflect that they even occurred,” the groups said in a statement.

Letter from Sens Mark DeSaulnier, Laphonza Butler and Richard J. Durbin (and others) to BOP Director Colette Peters (June 13, 2024)

Associated Press, Legal advocates seek public access to court records about abuse at California women’s prison (June 12, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Judge Slaps Additional Reporting Requirements on BOP Dublin Closure – Update for May 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.

‘LOSE WEIGHT AND DRINK WATER’: JUDGE BLASTS BOP OVER FCI DUBLIN CLOSURE

dublinprotest240424U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (N.D. Cal.) last week slammed the Federal Bureau of Prison’s April 15 closure of the FCI Dublin women’s prison in a 15-page order that ripped the agency’s “ill-conceived and, like Swiss cheese, full of holes” action, chronicled BOP violations of inmates’ rights, and ordered close monitoring and care of the incarcerated women who were moved to other facilities.

The Court noted that the Special Master it appointed in March–due to Dublin’s conditions and alleged staff retaliation–arrived at the prison on April 8 only to find that “the extent of FCI Dublin’s internal deterioration” and operational “conditions worse than BOP officials had led the Court to believe.” The BOP decided to close the facility later that week but buried the announced closure in a sealed attachment to an administrative filing provided to the Court on Friday, April 12.

The Judge complained that the BOP “informed the Court of its intention to close the facility over the following week, without specifying when such closure would begin. The BOP’s obfuscation is obvious. Its lack of transparency with the Court resulted in negative consequences. In fact, BOP Regional Director, Western Region Melissa Rios-Marques refused to advise Special Master [Wendy] Still of the impending closure, which would begin the next day, even when asked directly on Sunday, April 14.”

As some inmates could tell the BOP, that kind of lack of candor with government officials can get you locked up.

glasswater240514The Order takes the BOP to task for wantonly destroying inmate personal property, denying prisoners due process in disciplinary hearings, and ignoring administrative remedy and compassionate release requests. The Court gave special attention to inmate medical and mental health care. The Judge, who spent nine hours on an unannounced visit to Dublin in February, observed in March that she “heard a refrain so consistent from so many [inmate]s in different quarters and without prompting to demonstrate its reliability: in response to health concerns, medical staff told them to ‘lose weight and drink water.’” Now, the Court found that

FCI Dublin has repeatedly failed to follow BOP departmental policy related to completing timely health intakes; sick call access was delayed for extended periods; medical needs, including relative to communicable diseases, went untreated or lacked any follow up; and specialty appointments were not timely scheduled. Relatedly, drug treatment programs were not available for the majority of the population that requested treatment, despite drugs being rampant at the facility. Mental health services were also inadequate. By way of illustration, access to psychiatry services was blocked administratively despite repeated requests from the psychology department itself.

The Court ordered the BOP to provide a weekly status update for each transfer to the judge, the special master and attorneys for the incarcerated women who are suing the bureau. Also, the agency must submit a monthly staffing report for each prison where the women ended up, along with details of the mental health and medical health care they are receiving.

Pat Nolan, who helped draft the Prison Rape Elimination Act and served as a commissioner on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, wrote last week in The Hill:

The closure of FCI Dublin is just one more devious attempt by the BOP to make it harder for the inmates to get justice for the assaults they endured. The Bureau of Prisons just cannot be trusted to police itself. Congress is finally moving to impose outside oversight on the runaway agency. The Federal Prison Oversight Act (H.R. 3019) recently passed the Oversight Committee 41-1 and is expected to reach the House floor for a vote by the end of June. Until now the BOP has been able “grade its own papers.” Congress needs to end the cover-ups and pass H.R. 3019 right away.

Noting the timing of the special master appointment and the prison’s closure, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) asked, “So why was this decision made? And was it retaliation in some form or fashion?”

BOPbus240429DeSaulnier and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on April 25, criticizing the fact that “incarcerated people and staff are being transferred away from Dublin with almost no notice, no opportunity to prepare, and no opportunity to debrief or receive support. This is particularly concerning in its implications on the ability of Special Master Wendy Still to complete her investigation into the abuses perpetrated at FCI Dublin. Special Master Still requires full access to identify and speak to all victims, witnesses, and perpetrators in these matters in order to properly deliver justice. Without the ability of a proper staff review to be held, potential abusers are now simply returning back into the system with no accountability.”

Order, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v. BOP (Dkt. 300, May 8, 2024), Case No 4:23-cv-4155 (N.D. Cal.)

Associated Press, Closure of California federal prison was poorly planned, judge says in ordering further monitoring (May 9, 2024)

The Hill, Feds close prison dubbed the ‘Rape Club,’ but accountability is needed (May 7, 2024)

Rep Bobby Scott, Letter to Merrick Garland (April 25, 2024)

HR 3019, Federal Prison Oversight Act

– Thomas L. Root

Court Takes Over FCI Dublin – Update for March 21, 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.

FEDERAL COURT SEIZES CONTROL OF FEDERAL PRISON

master240321Last week, I reported on the FBI raid on the federal women’s prison at FCI Dublin (California). The week started with over a dozen Federales kicking down Dublin’s door. It didn’t end any better.

On Friday, US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ended the BOP’s week with another low. She held:

FCI Dublin is a dysfunctional mess. The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change. Given the record presented and the Court’s personal observations, further magnified by recent events, the Court finds the Bureau of Prison (“BOP”) has proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity. The Court is compelled to intercede.

She did exactly that, announcing that she will appoint a special master, who will oversee 

• a comprehensive audit conducted by an outside agency of all FCI Dublin policies concerning staff sexual abuse, reporting, and retaliation;

•  implementation of policies recommended by the outside auditor and California Coalition for Women Prisoners;

• ensure FCI Dublin’s submission to quarterly site visits and public reports on sexual abuse, retaliation, grievances against facility staff, and use of internal punitive measures;

• end  the use of solitary confinement or punitive segregation until it is determined that such confinement will not be used to retaliate against inmates;

• development of a process for the return of non-contraband items seized from individuals’ cells during searches; and

• implementation of policies to provide “high-quality offsite medical and mental healthcare” for inmate members of the class, among other matters.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ order also certified a class-action lawsuit filed by Dublin prisoners. The special master will be the first in the Bureau of Prisons history.

abouttime240321During Monday’s KQED Forum episode on the raid, a woman incarcerated at the prison called into the program, saying the judge’s decision to appoint a special master is “a godsend.”

Attorneys for the government and the plaintiffs have until Monday to each submit a list of five potential candidates. Two days later, attorneys will have the opportunity to strike three names from the other side’s list. Judge Gonzalez Rogers will select the special master from the list of remaining names. The judge wrote that she plans to issue further orders “narrowly tailored to address ongoing retaliation” at the facility.

Order, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v United States, Case No 4:23cv4155 (N.D.Cal., March 15, 2024)

AP, Judge will appoint special master to oversee California federal women’s prison after rampant abuse (March 16, 2024)

KQED, What Happened at the Dublin Federal Women’s Prison Last Week and What to Expect Next (March 19, 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

It’s a New Year, and BOP Still Has Big Problems – Update for January 8, 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.

IANUS DOESN’T LIKE THE VIEW ON BOP – IN EITHER DIRECTION

ianus240108You no doubt recall from high school Latin class that the Roman god Ianus (“Janus” if you don’t like classic Latinspeak) had two faces, one looking forward into the future while the other gazes into the past. It’s where we derived “January” for the first month of the new year.

Ianus would not be happy at what his backward-looking face sees in the Bureau of Prisons’ 2022 record:

•  sex abuse-related convictions at FCI Dublin in California, FCI Marianna in Florida, FMC Carswell in Texas and FMC Lexington in Kentucky;

•  Dept of Justice Inspector General reports ripping the BOP for $2 billion in past-due maintenance, for cooking its books on the number of inmates with COVID, and for subjecting inmates at FCI Tallahassee to living conditions that the IG himself said were “something you should never have to deal with;” and

• NPR reporting that the BOP has misrepresented the accreditation of its healthcare facilities while compiling a record of ignoring or delaying medical treatment – especially in cancer care – leading to needless inmate disability and death.

Ianus’s forward-looking face isn’t so happy, either. Last week, NPR reported that while the “CDC says natural deaths happen either solely or almost entirely because of disease or old age,” 70% of the inmates who died in BOP custody over the past 13 years were under the age of 65.” NPR found that “potential issues such as medical neglect, poor prison conditions and a lack of health care resources were left unexplained once a ‘natural” death designation ended hopes of an investigation. Meanwhile, family members were left with little information about their loved one’s death.”

The BOP stonewalled NPR, failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for all mortality review reports generated since 2009 and refusing to provide any official to be interviewed on the report. However, the BOP assured NPR that it has “detailed procedures to notify family members after an inmate’s death.”

That makes us all feel much better.

death200330Not NPR. It remained skeptical, citing the case of Celia Wilson. Celia, sister of Leonard Wilson – who died last April – heard from an inmate that he had collapsed on the walking track and had been taken to the hospital. The first call she got from the BOP came two days later from her brother’s case manager. “He said that my brother is communicating and we think he’s going to be just fine,” Wilson said. “We were so relieved at that point.” But the records his lawyer got from the BOP after he died told a different story. “Celia would say they think that there’s signs of life and maybe vitals are getting better,” Lenny’s lawyer told NPR. “And then we would ask for those medical records and they wouldn’t actually say that.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York last week found that conditions at MDC Brooklyn were not just bad: they were “exceptional[ly] bad,” “dreadful” and an “ongoing tragedy.”

calcutta240108Defendant Gustavo Chavez, age 70, entered a guilty plea to drug offenses. After a guilty plea in a case like his, 18 USC § 3143 requires that a defendant be detained unless “exceptional circumstances” within the meaning of 18 USC § 3145 are found by the court.

Judge Mark Furman held that the “near-perpetual lockdowns (no longer explained by COVID-19), dreadful conditions, and lengthy delays in getting medical care” at MDC Brooklyn constituted “exceptional circumstances.” The judge’s 19-page opinion provided a litany of horrors at MDC Brooklyn, including

[c]ontraband — from drugs to cell phones — is widespread. At least four inmates have died by suicide in the past three years. It has gotten to the point that it is routine for judges in both this District and the Eastern District to give reduced sentences to defendants based on the conditions of confinement in the MDC. Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable.

In a class action suit against the BOP by female inmates over sexual abuse, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers began a three-day evidentiary hearing last week in Oakland, California. The plaintiffs claim they endured abuse and sexual assault by BOP staff, including voyeurism, drugging and abuse during medical exams, and rape. Despite being aware of the violence and harassment for decades, the plaintiffs contend, the BOP failed to take action.

Witnesses for the government admitted that “abuse and misconduct… so “rampant” at FCI Dublin that new officials struggled to implement reforms.”

sexualassault211014An FCI Dublin deputy corrections captain said before she took the job in 2022, “here was a lot of misconduct rampant within the institution.” She admitted that before she took the job, multiple prisoners were placed in the SHU (locked up in the special housing unit) after reporting they had been assaulted.

“You say it’s not punitive, but the inmates don’t agree with that,” Judge Rogers said. “If these things were already happening, and you have the same process, how is it any different?”

“I guess we’ve improved as far as what we’ve required,” the BOP captain responded, citing regular meetings and new systems for identifying issues at the prison. She took a tissue to wipe away tears, according to a Courthouse News Service report, saying she wanted to ensure the BOP changed. Of incarcerated women, she said, “They really just want to be heard, they want somebody to listen.”

From cooking the books over inmate deaths to running facilities that mimic the Black Hole of Calcutta to letting rape and sexual abuse run “rampant” in women’s prisons, the BOP is hardly listening to anyone.

NPR, There is little scrutiny of ‘natural’ deaths behind bars (January 2, 2024)

United States v. Chavez, Case No. 22-CR-303, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1525  (S.D.N.Y., January 4, 2024)

New York Daily News, Judge says conditions “too dreadful” at Brooklyn fed jail to lock up 70-year-old defendant (January 4, 2024)

Courthouse News Service, Misconduct ‘rampant’ at California women’s prison, deputy corrections captain testifies (January 3, 2024)

California Coalition for Women Prisoners v. BOP, Case No. 4:23-cv-4155 (ND Cal, filed Aug 16, 2023)

If you have a question, please send a new email to newsletter@lisa-legalinfo.com.

– Thomas L. Root

“Welcome to Legal Hell, Dublin COs:” Justice Grinds on BOP Sexual Abusers – Update for May 18, 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.

‘DIRTY DICK’ LIVES! AND HE’S BEEN INDICTED…

twaindeath230518Last week, I reported that an FCI Dublin inmate who reported she had been sexually abused by a BOP correctional officer had been told to reapply for a favorable BOP recommendation on her compassionate release “after the officer was charged or sentenced.” The inmate’s lawyer complained she could never get relief, because one of the abusive COs, known as ‘Dirty Dick,” had committed suicide after he learned that he was under investigation.

The inmate and Darrell Wayne Smith both received good news last week that the reports of ‘Dirty Dick’s’ death are greatly exaggerated. He is in fact quite alive.

The news was only sort of good for Darrell, because he is identified in a federal indictment both by his legal name and the nickname, “Dirty Dick Smith,” charged Smith with 12 counts including aggravated sex abuse, during his time as a Dublin CO.

In the indictment, ‘Dirty Dick’ is accused of sexually abusing three women identified as S.L.H., C.A.H. and L.J. None of the initials match those of the inmate to whom the BOP denied a recommendation of compassionate release.

Three days earlier, a female former inmate identified only as C.C., filed a civil suit in federal court against the BOP and CO Sergio Saucedo in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging multiple counts of sexual abuse. The complaint filed by her attorney is graphic: she alleges that on May 14, 2021 – her first day in prison – Saucedo addressed all the newcomers by saying: “Welcome to hell, ladies. I am here to make your life a living hell, and to treat you like the pieces of shit you are.” She alleges that she was then “placed in a prison cell alone, leaving her a prime target for Saucedo’s abuse.”

welcometohell230518She claims that Saucedo did not fear being reported, telling her, “No one will believe you because you are a felon and I am a federal agent.”

C.C. is represented by San Diego attorney Jessica Pride, who has filed five sexual abuse cases against FCI Dublin officers and plans to file 10 more by August, according to Oakland TV station KTVU. The station reported, “It’s expected that there will be an even bigger wave of similar suits filed against the BOP this summer as dozens of women have reported being abused by officers at FCI Dublin, where five officers, including the warden, have been charged, four of whom so far have been convicted.”

KRON-TV, Dublin prison guard ‘Dirty Dick’ charged with sexually abusing inmates (May 12, 2023)

KTVU, ‘Welcome to hell, ladies:’ Dublin prison officer sued in sex abuse case (May 9, 2023)

Los Angeles Times, Ex-corrections officer latest charged in sex abuse scandal at California women’s prison (May 15, 2023)

Complaint (ECF 1), CC v. BOP, Case No 3:23-cv-2206 (ND Cal, filed May 5, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root