California’s only minimum-security prison for women, Federal Correctional Institute at Dublin, is closing. FCI Dublin currently houses 605 inmates, who will now be transferred to other facilities. Bureau of Prisons Director Colette S. Peters has stated that FCI Dublin failed to meet “expected standards and the best course of action is to close the facility.”
News of the closure comes weeks after a special master, Wendy Still, was appointed to oversee reforms. FCI Dublin has been plagued by sexual abuse and was notoriously nicknamed the “Rape Club.” The prison was under investigation for sexual abuse, but was also found to have substandard conditions, including hazardous mold, asbestos, and inadequate healthcare.
Allegations of sexual misconduct at FCI Dublin go back to the 1990s. The last warden at FCI Dublin, Art Dulgov, was ousted, becoming the third warden to be ousted since warden Ray T. Garcia. A 2021 FBI investigation led to charges for eight FCI Dublin employees for sexual abuse of inmates. In 2022, prison chaplain James Theodore Highhouse was convicted and sentenced to seven years for abusing six women between 2014 and 2019. Recently, five employees pled guilty to the charges, two were convicted by juries, and a third is set for trial in July. Over half a dozen employees have been convicted of sexually assaulting multiple women at the institute. A total of 63 women came forward alleging sexual abuse, but it is expected that the number will surpass 100.
A former inmate and whistleblower stated that the closure of the facilities undermines the hard work that has been done to afford justice to the women who endured the abuse and inhumane conditions. Hundreds of women will be transferred to prisons across the country, with many of them ending up far away from their families and support systems. Advocates have requested that instead of shipping the inmates to other prisons that have similar issues, the women should be sent home on supervised relief. Attorney Amaris Montes stated, “They’re all low-security. Send them home, send them to supervised relief. Let them be productive members of society.”
