OAKLAND — A federal judge signed off on a landmark agreement Tuesday guaranteeing protections for hundreds of women formerly housed at the scandal-plagued FCI Dublin federal prison, which housed a notorious “rape club” where guards terrorized inmates for years.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted approval of a consent decree that — for the next two years — will force the Federal Bureau of Prisons to institute widespread reforms for nearly 500 women included in a class-action lawsuit against the agency. All of those changes, right down to the care and conditions offered each inmate, will be overseen by an independent monitor as part of an agreement without precedent in the federal prison system.
“We are just beyond thrilled that this is approved,” Kara Janssen, a lead attorney for the inmates, said. “It is a huge step forward in ensuring the safety of our class members. This is a historic agreement.”
“With this administration as well, it is even more critical that there’s eyes and ears in these prisons to protect our clients, and this consent decree allows us to do that,” added Janssen, in a nod to the recent election of President Donald Trump.
The final approval didn’t come without a dash of last-second intrigue, after a Federal Bureau of Prisons attorney asked the judge for extra time to renegotiate two sentences in the 43-page agreement. The clauses — which pertained to the rights of transgender and immigrant inmates — were “inconsistent with the new administration’s priorities,” the government’s attorney, Madison Mattioli said.
One provision required the prisons system to allow transgender inmates to keep “gender-affirming clothing and other accommodations,” including undergarments, when they are sent to solitary confinement. The other forced the agency not to deny certain credits for time served, nor release from prison, on the basis of immigration status or the existence of only an immigration detainer.
Gonzalez Rogers swiftly batted down those requests, saying simply, “you don’t get two bites of the apple.”
“There’s always an opportunity to want more after a negotiated settlement, and that’s why we get it in writing, and that’s why we get it signed,” Gonzalez Rogers said from the bench.
The approval marks a significant milestone for former inmates of the now-defunct prison, where several guards, a chaplain and a former warden were indicted and sentenced to prison on sexual assault charges. Lawsuits were subsequently filed alleging prison staff abused inmates — leading to a $116 million settlement by the Bureau of Prisons for 103 of the inmates. Dozens of additional lawsuits remain open and ongoing.
One lawsuit in particular, filed in August 2023, accused prison managers of ignoring decades of warning signs and providing insufficient mental and physical health care.
The lawsuit led to the consent decree approved Tuesday, which calls for a federal monitor to oversee nearly 500 inmates and ensure they are protected from being placed into solitary confinement as a form of retaliation for speaking out about prison conditions. In addition, the director of the Bureau of Prisons is expected to issue a formal public acknowledgment of the sexual abuse that happened at FCI Dublin.
The consent decree is expected to take effect March 31, to allow the Bureau of Prisons to train its staff on how to implement it. In the meantime, previous court-ordered protections for inmates will remain in place, Gonzalez Rogers said.
The future of the FCI Dublin complex remains unclear. In April, the federal prisons system announced preliminary plans plans to close the Dublin facility by moving all of the inmates there to other prisons. The process was derided by a court-appointed special master overseeing the facility as “unnecessarily rushed” with a lack of “methodical, planned and thoughtful” practices leading to “mass chaos.”
That same special master will oversee the newly-approved consent decree. Those protections will remain with the inmates removed from FCI Dublin wherever they’re transferred; currently, they are being held at more than a dozen institutions across the country, including in Alabama, Minnesota, Connecticut, Texas and Washington.
In December, federal prison leaders announced plans to permanently close the compound, citing “considerable repairs needed to re-open the facility” and persistent staffing issues.
Yet signs are mounting that the federal government may reopen the Dublin compound.
Speculation has swirled about the Trump Administration turning the shuttered prison into a migrant detention center, as part of the president’s promise to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” by expelling up to 11 million people from the U.S.
Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted conducting an assessment at the shuttered facility, according to a federal prison union leader. A “structural assessment” of the prison was conducted over the summer and later reportedly turned over to ICE, the union official said.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
