Legal groups nationwide are advocating for the compassionate early release of individuals who were sexually abused by prison staff while in custody in a notorious Califonia penitentiary that a judge ordered closed, NewsNation reported.
A Department of Justice investigation revealed that the abuse at FCI Dublin, located near Oakland and the only women’s federal prison in the Western U.S., was perpetrated by guards, medical staff, the chaplain, and even the warden responsible for training staff on the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The abuse was so pervasive that the facility earned the nickname “the rape club.”
In a July 3 order, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez revealed that many of the punishments for some of the 605 women who used to be incarcerated at FCI Dublin were improperly meted out – something the women have long complained about, FOX 2 KTVU reported. The prisoners formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin have been transferred to other prisons around the country.
Advocates for the prisoners are leveraging the Sentencing Reform Act, a 40-year-old law expanded in 2018, which allows prisoners to petition for reduced sentences based on “compelling and extraordinary” circumstances. Historically, such circumstances included life-threatening, chronic, or irreversible physical or mental illnesses, conditions, or diseases. However, the definition has broadened as prison abuse has gained more visibility.
“Nobody was sentenced to be sexually abused in custody. Sexual abuse in custody is one of the most pernicious abuses of power that can happen,” said Shanna Rifkin, deputy general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), in an interview with NewsNation.
FAMM has represented over a dozen women who were abused in federal prisons. “People who are sentenced to a crime are not sentenced to have their dignity taken away by officers who control their daily lives,” Rifkin emphasized.
In July 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced charges against the seventh and eighth federal prison correctional officers (CO) at FCI Dublin for sexually abusing multiple female inmates. Nakie Nunley and Andrew Jones pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexually abusing female inmates and then lying about the abuse to federal investigators.
Both Nunley and Jones were employed as federal correctional officers at the time of the abuse. Other individuals from FCI Dublin who have been convicted of sexual abuse of inmates include Warden Ray J. Garcia and Chaplain James Highhouse.
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