Bureau of Prisons to close California women's prison where inmates have been subjected to sex abuse
Source: AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) The beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons said Monday it will close a womens prison in California known as the rape club despite attempts to reform the troubled facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.
Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters said in a statement to the AP that the agency had taken unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure and most critical employee misconduct.
Despite these steps and resources, we have determined that FCI Dublin is not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility, Peters said. This decision is being made after ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of those unprecedented steps and additional resources.
The announcement of Dublins closure represents an extraordinary acknowledgement by the Bureau of Prisons that its much-promised efforts to improve the culture and environment there have not worked. Many attempts to stem the problems at Dublin have come after the AP investigation revealed a pattern of abuse and mismanagement that crossed years, even decades.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/federal-prison-dublin-california-sexual-abuse-bureau-of-prisons-17731ecb5d0a14adf6011e853bf7e05d
Mawspam2
(738 posts)Why the hell not?
This place has been a problem for decades. Fire everyone and make working there a blot on every resume.
NBachers
(17,133 posts)happen and heard stories. I've been following this.
I was thrown in the hole and transferred to a higher security institution because of my inmates' - rights activities.
No inmate should be abused, and anyone responsible, either directly or tangentially, should be in prison themselves. The risky structures should be remediated. But I have a couple of concerns about closing FCI Dublin.
1. The prison is located in a place where many prisoners can have visits with kids and family. Many of the inmates come from that part of the country. My family was committed to visiting with my kids and helping us continue our relationship during the years of my incarceration. When I was finally released, I was not a stranger to my four-year-old son. We have continued to maintain a close and loving relationship all through the ensuing years.
FCI Dublin, about 21 miles east of Oakland, is one of six women-only federal prisons and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Scattering these inmates thousands of miles away from their families will destroy family ties, and make re-integration back into society more difficult.
2. The Bureau of Prisons will scatter witnesses and victims throughout the system. This will dilute prisoners' ability to seek justice. There is a policy called "Diesel Therapy" or "Riding the Chain." This means that problematic inmates are bounced from facility to facility for a long time. It's a disorienting series of transit and stops here; transit and stops there; always moving, always a stranger at each location; no stability; losing touch with families and legal teams. The BOP implies that they can't control inmate sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, so they have to close it. This may be true. But there may be other reasons for closing it, too. And those reasons may be less inmate-friendly.