Feds Are Permanently Closing 'Rape Club' Prison

The federal Bureau of Prisons is permanently closing its "rape club" women's prison in California and will idle six facilities in a sweeping realignment after years of abuse, decay, and mismanagement, the AP reports.

• The agency informed employees and Congress on Thursday that it plans to shutter the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and deactivate minimum-security prison camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida. Staff and inmates are being moved to other facilities, the agency said.

• In a document obtained by the AP, the Bureau of Prisons said it was taking "decisive and strategic action" to address "significant challenges, including a critical staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure, and limited budgetary resources." The agency said it is not downsizing and is committed to finding positions for every affected employee.
• The closures are a striking coda to the Biden administration's stewardship of the Justice Department's biggest agency, which has more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, and an annual budget of about $8 billion. After repeatedly promising to reform FCI Dublin and other troubled facilities, the Bureau of Prisons is pivoting to closures and consolidation, citing inadequate staffing and staggering costs to repair aging infrastructure.
• FCI Dublin's permanent closure represents an extraordinary acknowledgment by the Bureau of Prisons that it has failed to fix the facility's culture and environment in the wake of AP reporting that exposed rampant sexual abuse within its walls. Hundreds of people who were incarcerated at FCI Dublin are suing the agency, seeking reforms and monetary compensation for mistreatment at the facility.

(More Bureau of Prisons stories.)