Under settlements approved last Tuesday, the federal government must pay an average of 1.1 million to each of 103 women who sued the Bureau of Prison over their treatment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. BOP announced earlier this month that it was permanently closing FCI Dublin, known as the “rape club” because of rampant staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct. The shuttering of Dublin, seven months after a temporary closure in the wake of staff-on-inmate abuse, is seen by some observers as a sign that BOP is “unable or unwilling to rehabilitate its most problematic institutions.”
“We were sentenced to prison, we were not sentenced to be assaulted and abused,” according to lawsuit plaintiff and former Dublin prisoner Aimee Chavira. Ms. Chavira had reported her abuse to a BOP psychologist and a warden at Dublin. But they did nothing. The warden was later convicted of sexual abuse and lying to the FBI. Ms. Chavira was granted compassionate release based, in part, on sexual abuse and retaliation she experienced at Dublin.