US to pay nearly $116M to settle lawsuits over rampant sexual abuse at California women’s prison

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government will pay nearly $116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by more than 100 women who say they were abused or mistreated at a now-shuttered federal prison in California that was known as the “rape club” because of rampant staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct.

Under settlements approved Tuesday, the Justice Department will pay an average of about $1.1 million to each of 103 women who filed individual lawsuits against the Bureau of Prisons over their treatment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California.

The settlement follows one in a separate class-action last week in which the Bureau of Prisons agreed to open some of its facilities to a court-appointed monitor and publicly acknowledge pervasive abuse and retaliation at FCI Dublin.

“We were sentenced to prison, we were not sentenced to be assaulted and abused,” lawsuit plaintiff and former Dublin prisoner Aimee Chavira said.

“I hope this settlement will help survivors, like me, as they begin to heal – but money will not repair the harm that BOP did to us, or free survivors who continue to suffer in prison, or bring back survivors who were deported and separated from their families,” Chavira said.

The Bureau of Prisons acknowledged the settlements in a statement Tuesday.

The agency said it “strongly condemns all forms of sexually abusive behavior and takes seriously its duty to protect the individuals in our custody as well as maintain the safety of our employees and community.”

Tuesday’s settlements cover an initial wave of lawsuits seeking monetary compensation from the Bureau of Prisons after a former warden and other employees at FCI Dublin went to prison for sexually abusing inmates. Subsequent lawsuits have yet to be resolved.

The Bureau of Prisons and lawyers for the plaintiffs said that a neutral, third-party process was used to determine individual settlement amounts.

Last week, in settling the class-action lawsuit, the Bureau of Prisons and plaintiffs’ lawyers filed a proposed consent decree calling for a variety of reforms, including a monitor to scrutinize the treatment of nearly 500 ex-Dublin prisoners now housed at more than a dozen federal lockups across the U.S.

Also under that agreement, agency director Colette Peters “will issue a formal, public acknowledgement to victims of staff sexual abuse at FCI Dublin” as part of the settlement.

The Bureau of Prisons temporarily closed FCI Dublin in April and announced last week that the low-security facility was being permanent shutdown.

The Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that it agreed to “the substantive terms of a proposed settlement to resolve all injunctive claims” in the class-action lawsuit on Nov. 21 and that while that settlement was filed with the district court Friday, “the decision to permanently close (FCI Dublin) is not a result of the agreement.”

Some of the women who alleged abuse at Dublin say they have been the victims of similar misconduct at other institutions, and the AP has found multiple arrests and convictions of Bureau of Prisons staff members for sexually abusing prisoners at other federal lockups.

An AP investigation found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the prison. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison — promises that went by the wayside with Thursday’s closure announcement.

Since 2021, at least eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates.

Five have pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial, including former warden Ray Garcia. Another case is pending.

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