Feds Abruptly Close East Bay Women’s Prison Following Sexual Abuse Scandals

This story was updated on April 15, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.

A federal women’s prison in the East Bay plagued by sexual assault allegations for years has been ordered to close, officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons told KQED.

The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, is facing nearly 60 lawsuits from women incarcerated at the prison and a class-action lawsuit alleging sexual assault and retaliation for reporting incidents from guards and other prison officials. Eight former prison staff, including the former warden and chaplain, have been charged and seven have been convicted or pleaded guilty.

“We have determined that FCI Dublin is not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility,” Scott Taylor, a spokesperson for the BOP, said in an email. “The closure of the institution may be temporary but certainly will result in a mission change.”

The most recent series of scandals at FCI Dublin first started unraveling following an investigation by The Associated Press in 2021 that found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the low-security federal women’s prison, which has more than 650 inmates.

The abrupt closure comes shortly after a federal judge ordered an independent “special master” to oversee mandatory changes at FCI Dublin. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed Wendy Still, an expert in the Prison Rape Elimination Act, to the position.

Women currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin will be transferred to a new location. Officials, however, did not share the timing of the relocations and said planning for the facility’s deactivation is ongoing.

No employees are losing their jobs because of the relocation, officials said.

“As we determine placement, each woman will be assessed, and their programming needs will be taken into account,” Taylor said. “We will endeavor to keep them as close to their release locations as possible and ensure that they have access to counsel at their receiving institution.”

Kara Janssen, an attorney representing plaintiffs, said concerns over how the relocations will be handled were discussed in a court hearing on Monday morning.

“It may be that FCI Dublin needs to close or should have been closed a long time ago. Right now, there are more questions than answers in terms of what is happening to the people who are still housed there,” Janssen told KQED, adding that they “want to make sure people are properly assessed” and “don’t just get thrown into other institutions.”

On Monday, the court issued a subsequent order noting that the special master will review all the cases.

Former incarcerated person, Jennifer Davidson, told KQED on Monday she felt the closure was impending.

“I saw this coming; it definitely needed to be shut down,” she said. “They call us snitches; they judge us for speaking out about our experiences, and that’s wrong.”

KQED’s Alex Hall contributed to this report.