Federal women's prison in California plagued by rampant sexual abuse to close

A Northern California women's prison that has been under scrutiny and investigation over allegations of systemic sexual abuse will close despite efforts to reform the facility's culture of abuse, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin's planned closure follows a string of criminal indictments of prison employees who exploited their authority and sexually abused inmates in their custody. FCI Dublin, about 39 miles southeast of San Francisco, is one of the nation's 122 federal prisons and one of a few all-female prisons in the federal system.

In a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters said the agency had "taken unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure - and most critical - employee misconduct," at FCI Dublin.

"Despite these steps and resources, we have determined that FCI Dublin is not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility," Peters said. "This decision is being made after ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of those unprecedented steps and additional resources."

An investigation by The Associated Press in 2022 found that FCI Dublin was dubbed the "rape club" by inmates and employees due to the persistent sexual abuse committed by those in power at the prison. For years, inmates had accused members of the mostly male staff of sexual misconduct and expressed fear of retaliation for making allegations against staff.

Plans for FCI Dublin's closure are ongoing, according to Peters, who noted that the closure may be temporary "but certainly will result in a mission change." The women currently housed at the prison will be transferred to other facilities, Peters said, and no employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

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Numerous FCI Dublin employees charged with sexual misconduct

At least eight employees at FCI Dublin have been charged with federal crimes involving sexual misconduct since 2021. A 2022 Senate report detailing sexual abuse of female inmates in federal prisons found that employees at FCI Dublin — including the warden and chaplain — had repeatedly sexually abused numerous female inmates under their supervision.

Last month, former correctional officer Nakie Nunley was sentenced to six years in prison after he admitted to engaging in sexual acts and other misconduct with multiple inmates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Nunley admitted that between March 2020 and November 2021 he engaged in sexual acts and contact with five inmates.

He also retaliated against inmates who spoke out about his misconduct, including threatening an inmate that she could get transferred to another facility and lose her job, according to Nunley's plea agreement.

In January, former recycling technician Ross Klinger was sentenced to five years of supervised release with one year of home confinement after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing inmates, the Department of Justice said. According to the factual statement in support of Klinger's guilty plea, Klinger had sex with three inmates between March and October 2020 who at the time were under his supervision.

Klinger later became a government informant in cases against other prison employees, including the former warden, KTVU reported.

Last November, former federal correctional officer Andrew Jones was sentenced to eight years in prison. Jones had sexually abused multiple female inmates and made false statements while he was a correctional officer at FCI Dublin, according to the Department of Justice. Another former federal correctional officer, John Bellhouse, was sentenced to five years in prison last December, the DOJ added.

The prison's former warden, Ray Garcia, was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2023. Garcia was convicted of sexually abusive conduct against three inmates and making false statements to government agents.

According to the Department of Justice, Garcia abused inmates from December 2019 until July 2021 and attempted to deter his victims from coming forward by boasting that he could "never be fired." Garcia was allowed to retire from his position.

About two months later, former federal correctional officer Darrell Smith was charged with aggravated sexual abuse after he was accused of abusing three female inmates between May 2019 and May 2021. In 2022, former prison chaplain James Theodore Highhouse was sentenced to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to repeatedly sexually abusing an inmate and lying to federal agents about the misconduct, the Department of Justice said.

Enrique Chavez, who worked as a cook supervisor, also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an inmate in 2022, the Department of Justice said. Chavez was sentenced to 20 months in prison in February 2023.

Sexual abuse in federal prisons across the country

Sexual abuse of adult inmates is an ongoing problem in jails and prisons across the United States. Thousands of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate incidents were reported from 2016 through 2018, according to a special report by the Department of Justice released in 2023.

During those three years, adult correctional authorities reported over 2,600 incidents of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization and more than 2,200 incidents by staff, the report states. "Most (62% or 1,643) inmate-on-inmate incidents involved abusive sexual contact, whereas most (69% or 1,549) staff-on-inmate incidents involved staff sexual misconduct," according to the report.

In the 2022 Senate report, officials said female inmates "endured ongoing sexual abuse for months or years" in at least four Bureau of Prison facilities. Four facilities in New York, Florida, and California — including FCI Dublin — had recurring cases of sexual abuse of female inmates by male employees between 2012 and 2022.

Contributing: Tami Abdollah, USA TODAY