The US Bureau of Prisons has chosen to close a federal prison for women where many prisoners have been sexually abused. Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Colette Peters, said that the Federal Correctional Institution Dublin “was not meeting expected standards” and that closing the prison would be the best thing to do.
The news comes after several trials, one of which included claims that correctional officers at FCI Dublin sexually abused prisoners. Studies revealed that staff and prisoners called the facility the “rape club” because of the high rate of sexual violence by cops there.
According to the director, they took “unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure – and most critically – employee misconduct” before closing the facility.
The director said, “The decision was made after ongoing evaluation of how well those unprecedented steps and extra resources are working.”
In the United States, there are only six jails for women. This is the only one in the West. About 600 prisoners will be moved to other prisons from this one.
The institution may only be closed for a short time, but Peters said, “The mission will definitely change.” Eight employees have been charged with sexual abuse since at least 2021 after the probe. Five of them have pleaded guilty so far, and two were found guilty at trial.
Advocates have said that the accounts given during the cases don’t fully capture all of the bad things that happened to the prisoners while they were locked up there. Many people said that the inmates would also be punished if they spoke out about the sexual misconduct.
Some people were said to have been moved and sent back to their home countries after trying to report the wrongdoing, or they were told they would be sent back if they did.