By Nate Gartrell
Bay Area News Group
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Dublin federal prison that’s become synonymous with rampant sexual harassment and rape will now be subjected to a new form of oversight unprecedented in the Bureau of Prisons system.
In a 45-page order that didn’t mince words, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered a special master to provide oversight as FCI Dublin attempts to reform itself from the ongoing rape scandals that started in 2021 when the first in a number of corrections officers there was charged with sexual assault. The most recent development came just days ago, when the FBI raided the prison and the BOP announced it had ousted its warden and implemented an interim warden that same day.
“The Federal Correctional Institute Dublin is a dysfunctional mess,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote in her order. “The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change.”
Gonzalez Rogers’ order came in response to a lawsuit filed by numerous women who allegedly faced sexual abuse, retaliation for reporting it, or both while incarcerated in Dublin. She is also the same judge who has sent several former FCI Dublin employees to prison, including the former warden who was convicted of sexual assault and taking lewd photos of incarcerated women.
The next step is for plaintiffs’ attorneys and attorneys for the defendants to choose five potential people to serve as special master. At a hearing set two weeks from now, the lawyers will each be able to veto three of the other side’s five choices. Gonzalez Rogers will then pick one from the remaining four candidates.
The special master will help “ensure compliance” as Gonzalez Rogers issues orders “tailored to address the ongoing retaliation which has resulted from the convictions and sentencings of five prison officials,” she wrote, a clear indication she doesn’t trust the prison to comply on its own.
Some of the women who reported sexual abuse have said they were later transferred to different prisons or kept in solitary confinement.
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