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A U.S. district judge Friday ordered the appointment of a special master to oversee the Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, the Bay Area women’s prison with a history of widespread sexual abuse.
The order, declaring the prison a “dysfunctional mess,” came just four days after the appointment of a new warden and a sweep by FBI agents.
“The situation can no longer be tolerated,” federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in the order Friday, citing in part her own observations. “The facility is in dire need of immediate change.”
The blistering order said the U.S. Bureau of Prison “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 Court is compelled to intercede.”
Nancy T. McKinney was appointed interim warden Monday by the Bureau of Prisons. She was the fourth top administrator in a year, after former warden Ray J. Garcia was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison for sexually abusing inmates and lying to the FBI.
The same day that McKinney was appointed, the FBI executed a search warrant at the prison, court documents show. The warden whom McKinney replaced, Arthur Dulgov, and other prison executives plus a captain “were walked off the facility,” according to court papers.
The appointment of a special master is intended “to address the ongoing retaliation which has resulted from the convictions and sentencings of five prison officials, including the previous warden, for criminal sexual abuse and sexual contact,” the judge said in her order. “The special master shall assist the Court to ensure compliance with these orders,” Rogers said.
The judge also granted a motion for class certification of a lawsuit “making every incarcerated person held at FCI Dublin – including anyone sent there from now on – part of the class,” said Alex Mensing, a spokesman for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “Incarcerated people have survived sexual assault, rape, extreme retaliation, threats of deportation, medical neglect and a host of other forms of violence at the hands of Bureau of Prison officials for decades,” Mensing said in a press release Friday.
The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, Rights Behind Bars and the law firm Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP are representing at least eight alleged abuse survivors at FCI Dublin and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners in a federal class action lawsuit filed in August 2023 against the Bureau of Prisons, FCI Dublin officials and several individual officers.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs requested preliminary injunctive relief to address “the current emergency conditions at FCI Dublin.” According to the complaint, “Officers, supervisors, and leadership throughout FCI Dublin were and continue to be aware of the ongoing sexual abuse at the facility, and not only fail to prevent it but also affirmatively take actions that allow abuse to continue.”
“Staff protect their abusive colleagues by failing to investigate claims or respond meaningfully,” according to court documents, “and by retaliating against those who report abuse … It is this system of protection, conspiracy, and obstruction which allows the ‘rape club’ to continue.”
According to court papers, Judge Rogers paid an unannounced visit to FCI Dublin on Feb. 14. She spent nine hours touring the prison and spoke confidentially to “at least 100 inmates.” The facility currently houses about 550 people in FCI Dublin and more than 100 at an adjacent satellite camp. Most of those held at FCI Dublin were convicted of drug offenses, according to court documents, “and more than 90% are survivors of trauma.”