Stop abuse of jailed women in our state

What would you say about a California federal women's prison that, well after the prosecution of a former warden and several former correctional officers, continues to this day to be known as a “rape club” filled with sexual abuse and exploitation of its inmates?

You'd say that the problem is quite clearly systemic, and that vastly more needs to be done by officials to investigate the issue and restore common decency there. That's exactly what a judge did this month by appointing a special master to oversee the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, about 21 miles east of Oakland, where about 600 inmates are housed.

This comes after a 2021 Associated Press investigation found a culture of abuse and cover-ups at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin and brought increased scrutiny from Congress and the Bureau of Prisons.

But the abuse is still going on, the AP now reports: “Last month, when she ordered the special master, (Judge Yvonne Gonzalez) Rogers called the prison `a dysfunctional mess.' She added that the Bureau of Prisons 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 appointment comes after a federal lawsuit filed last August by eight inmates and their advocacy group, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. “Individual prisoners have had to endure rape, groping, voyeurism, forced stripping, sexually explicit comments on an everyday basis and so much more,” attorney Amaris Montes said at the time of the suit.

That comes after a judge sentenced former warden Ray J. Garcia to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing three female inmates and forcing them to pose naked for photos in their cells. Garcia was among eight prison workers, including a chaplain, charged with abusing inmates and the first to go to trial, the AP reported.

A former inmate at the federal facility told the AP she was sexually abused by an officer who manipulated her with promises that he could get her compassionate release. She said she was incarcerated at the prison from 2019-2022 on a drug trafficking conviction. She said she was put in solitary confinement and lost all her belongings after her cellmate reported being abused.

“They were supposed to protect us because we were in their custody, but personally, I was abused and I saw officers abuse women, especially those who had been there longer. I saw them harassing them, grabbing, groping them,” she said in Spanish.

The prison, one of just six federal women's lock-ups, has housed well-known inmates, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin from the Varsity Blues college admissions bribery scandal.

Southern Californians can't pretend it doesn't happen there, too. Last month, KABC reported, “The victims of a sexual extortion plot involving a former Riverside County sheriff's deputy have now filed federal civil rights lawsuits, claiming Riverside County officials engaged in a scheme to cover up the crimes. Last month, Christian Heidecker pleaded guilty to 13 felony charges for threatening women who were under house arrest with punishment unless they sent him sexually explicit material. He was later sentenced to five years in state prison.”

When the Riverside officials knew they were about to be found out, the women's attorney says, “They lied to” one of her clients. “They told her that her ankle bracelet wasn't working; that the GPS system wasn't picking up her location. So they bamboozled her to come back into the station, where they put her in a room with interrogators” and offered her $5,000 to stay quiet.

Incarcerated people in California don't lose their rights to human dignity. The abuse must stop.