Women reach settlement in lawsuit alleging sexual harassment at California prison

Inmates at a recently closed Bay Area women's prison, plagued by scandals known as a “rape club” have reached a landmark settlement that will increase surveillance and protection for about 500 inmates who have been released from the facility and moved to state prisons across the US.

In August 2023, eight inmates held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons on behalf of inmates at the facility, alleging sexual abuse, neglect and medical neglect. revenge on the prison guards.

Now, the Bureau of Prisons has agreed to file a consent decree to protect the rights of nearly 500 class members who remain incarcerated in more than a dozen federal prisons.

The consent decree requires careful monitoring of employee abuse and retaliation, medical care, the use of early release credits and the timely release of inmates from halfway houses. It was submitted to the court on Friday morning, and if approved it will require the court to oversee its implementation for the next two years.

“This place is history. “This is the first time in the history of the BOP that monitoring has been used with consent authorization in different women's prisons across the country,” said Amaris Montes, the attorney representing the class members, in a statement. “This reflects the reality of the class members in this case: FCI Dublin's problems were not confined to that institution, and the BOP failed to protect people across the country.”

Under the settlement, class members will no longer be held in solitary confinement for low-level disciplinary charges and will be guaranteed timely disciplinary action in an effort to prevent retaliatory behavior by prison guards. They will have confidential mechanisms for reporting abuse and violations of the consent decree.

In addition, the Bureau of Prisons will restore early release credits from FCI Dublin referrals and remove invalid disciplinary records from Dublin employees to ensure that class members do not lose early release opportunities.

Colette Peters, director of the Bureau of Prisons, will also issue an apology to survivors of sexual abuse by staff at FCI Dublin, where more than a dozen correctional officers and a former guard have been charged or convicted of sexually abusing prisoners.

In 2022, former prison chaplain James Theodore Highhouse was jailed for seven years for sexually assaulting a female prisoner at FCI Dublin. Prosecutors say Highhouse sexually assaulted six women from 2014 to 2019.

Last year, former FCI Dublin Warden Ray J. Garcia was sentenced to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing inmates and lying to the FBI to try to cover up prison misconduct.

In March, a federal judge issued an order finding that people detained at FCI Dublin face a continuing risk of torture and appointed a special warden to oversee the prison, the first such foreign warden in history.

Days later, Peter announced that the agency would close the facility. At the time, Peters said the closure would likely be temporary.

About 500 inmates were then moved to other state prisons across the country, where class members say brutal conditions continued.

On Thursday, Peters announced that the closure of FCI Dublin would be permanent, citing staff shortages and the staggering cost of repairing the aging infrastructure.

In August, a special supervisor appointed – former Alameda County Chief Probation Officer Wendy Still – issued a scathing report criticizing the brutal conditions that persist at FCI Dublin.

“It is unconscionable that any correctional agency would allow detainees under their control and responsibility to be subject to the conditions that existed at FCI Dublin for so long without correction,” he wrote.

They said the conditions “may be symptomatic of system-wide problems” in women's prisons across the country, including facilities where former Dublin prisoners were taken.

“People currently and formerly incarcerated in Dublin have fought long and hard for this victory,” said Griselda Muniz, the plaintiff in the case, in a statement about the settlement. “Now the BOP must follow the agreement that people are no longer arrested. Finally, we pray that they return home, as they deserved to be healed from these painful incidents with their loved ones.”

Attorneys for the class members had welcomed the consent order, which was the result of months of negotiations between the Department of Corrections, current and former inmates, lawyers and attorneys. But they stressed the importance of ensuring that it is implemented.

“Without monitoring and enforcement, this agreement is just words on paper,” said attorney Kara Janssen in a statement. “The Class Counsel will be watching the BOP, going to the facilities, meeting with our class members, and will be responding to the BOP to make sure these changes reach our class members.”