Caitlin Kelly Henry

[:en]LawVsBOP[:]

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FOIA Case Summary

This page documents the Law v. BOP Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and legal proceedings initiated by freelance journalist and author Victoria Law regarding the Dublin prison scandal. Victoria Law is a freelance journalist, book author, and editor with a decades-long track-record of compiling and disseminating information about the intersection of mass incarceration and gender, and the effect of prison policies and actions on incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, and immigrant communities. Law’s recent work focuses on the legal proceedings related to Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) and the stories of people who survived and are surviving abuses perpetrated by BOP staff..The FOIA suit seeks records about the Dublin prison sex abuse and closure scandal, which is briefly summarized below.

The FOIA suit is the second legal proceeding Ms. Law brought against the BOP, after her first suit successfully won release of records from the BOP. On June 11, 2024 Ms. Law filed a Motion to Intervene for the Limited Purpose of Unsealing Court Records and Protecting Access to Court Proceedings in California Coal. for Women Prisoners v. United States, No. 4:23-CV-4155-YGR, (N.D. Cal. 2023), and a Motion to Unseal Court Records and Protect Access to Public Proceedings. She won the motion and records were unsealed.

Dublin Sex Abuse Scandal & Related Litigation

In 2022 six employees at FCI Dublin, including the warden and chaplain, were arrested for sexually abusing people in custody. Later, two more guards were arrested. Since then, seven employees, including the warden and chaplain, have been convicted or pleaded guilty. The eighth, Darrell Smith is going to trial on 12 counts of sexually abusing three incarcerated people. Another perpetrator committed suicide.  Dublin is the prison with the highest number of staff charged with sexual abuse in the U.S..

In August 2023, survivors at Dublin filed a class action civil rights suit against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for continuing to allow the conditions that fostered “the rape club.” Their suit also demands an end to placing survivors into solitary confinement as well as improved access to off-site medical and mental health care. In December 2023, incarcerated survivors asked federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to appoint a special master to ensure that court ordered changes were implemented. In January 2024, Judge Gonzalez Rogers held a four-day hearing during which high-ranking prison officials testified about the changes the BOP implemented.  During the last day of the hearing, currently incarcerated women testified that these changes failed to stop ongoing harassment, abuse and retaliation. The judge granted a preliminary injunction. Later the BOP moved to dismiss the case, and the judge denied the motion.

In early March 2024, individual lawsuits were filed detailing repeated forcible rapes, coerced sexual activity, inappropriate sexual touching, sexual harassment, voyeurism and retaliation against those who spoke about — or were simply perceived to be speaking about — the abuses. In March 2024, the FBI raided FCI Dublin. The acting warden, the associate warden, a captain and an executive assistant were removed from their positions. FBI agents seized computers, documents, and other evidence from the prison administration. This was the second such raid within months. In March 2024 the CCWP issued a preliminary injunction  after holding a week long evidentiary hearing in which dozens of incarcerated survivors and BOP officials testified.  In mid-March, Judge Gonzalez Rogers appointed a Special Master (the first in BOP’s history) to oversee changes at FCI Dublin. Special Master’s First Report

Criminal Consequences for Abusers

Dublin Temporary Closure and Transfer Debacle

Merely days after the Special Master started work the BOP began transferring people from FCI Dublin and announced its temporary closure, despite a court order that necessitated court approval for transfers. Mercury News. KQUED. KTVU. On April 15, 2024 people at FCI Dublin were brought to a prison town hall where they were told that the prison would be closing by the end of the week and that all incarcerated people would be transferred to other BOP prisons. They were told that they could only bring two boxes of property with them (and could mail an additional box home). Tens of thousands of dollars of property and items with medical, sentimental, and religious value were taken by the BOP.  Many people reported that they were subject to retaliation during their transfers and once they arrived at the new prisons. The Hill. La Times. East Bay Times. NBC Bay Area. AP. Independent News. Mercury News. KTVU Fox 2. KTVU Fox 2. KTVU Fox 2.  

On May 24, 2024 ten US Congress members requested that the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hold a hearing on the closure, transfer, and on “the facility’s past pervasive culture of abuse, and BOP facilities and their treatment of inmates more broadly.” KQUED. The letter reveals that “Following the closure of the facility, several U.S. Senators and Members of Congress have sent letters to BOP Director Colette Peters and Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding accountability for past crimes and answers to outstanding questions.”  

On June 13, Congress Members sent a follow up letter to BOP Director Colette Peters with four pages of questions, and requested a response by July 10, 2024.

Media coverage provided different perspectives and quotes about the ramifications of the unexpected, chaotic, and troubling aspects of the closure. SFist, Los Angeles Times,  Media found that the BOP orchestrated and effectuated the closure with particular tactics to avoid oversight. The Hill. KTVU. Media published accounts of how the BOP retaliated against plaintiffs and others during the transfers and upon arrival at new facilities. Truthout recounted the harrowing and punitive bus ride with C.O.s playing “The Wheels on the Bus” and sexually explicit music at top volume, setting the air conditioning to freezing temperatures, insulting people, driving erratically and causing handcuffed and shackled people to fall from their seats and fear for their lives. Detailing the painful multiple day journeys in chains and in freezing cold conditions, with no opportunity to sleep and denial of medications, pads and toilet paper. Exposing the bruises and cuts from being tightly handcuffed and leg and waist shackled. Reporting a C.O. said “We should just shoot all these Dublin inmates” and pulled people off the bus, pulled out the guns, and acted like they were getting ready to shoot the shackled and exhausted transferees. It further detailed ongoing mistreatment, sexual assault, retaliation, unsanitary conditions, and lack of medical care at new facilities. KTVU described Describing C.O.s not intervening in attacks on the Dublin transferees, retaliatory searches, transfers to solitary, and C.O.s pointing rifles at transferees. Media covered violence and rights violations in the transfer process at new facilities. KTVU reported that reporting that sources felt trauma, chaos, distress, abuse, and neglect.

The CCWP Court’s Quotes on Closure and Transfer

The CCWP Court stated “Shortly after the Court issued a preliminary injunction to protect the constitutional rights…and appointed a Special Master to assist therewith, the BOP announced its decision to shutter FCI Dublin and relocate the population.” CCWP, Order Re Closure of FCI Dublin and Preliminary Injunction, ECF No. 300 at 1, May 8, 2024. Judge Gonzalez Rodgers implied that BOP was not transparent with the Court “BOP had advised the Court that it was considering closure, although no certainty existed, and noted that if it occurred, for security reasons, it would have to be conducted quickly.” Id. The Order critiqued the harm caused by the BOP’s haphazard approach to closure and transfers: “Although it had as much time as needed to prepare, BOP’s operational plan for closure of FCI Dublin was ill-conceived and, like Swiss cheese, full of holes. BOP regional staff worked the prior weekend hastily reviewing AIC case files to recommend placements.” Id. The Court suggested that in its closure and transfer process “BOP ignored other operational issues including the proper movement of the AICs’ property and the appropriate communication and messaging to the AICs and staff who were not advised of the closure until the last minute.” Id. at 2.

The Court highlighted some of BOP’s misrepresentations to the Court and parties: “despite regular and direct email communications with the Court, through counsel, BOP “announced” the closure to the Court by burying it in an administrative filing on Friday, April 12, 2024.” Id. The Court described the harm caused by BOP’s hiding information from the Court and Special Master, “on that Friday, April 12, the BOP filed a notice (in the body of a sealed attachment to an administrative motion) wherein it “informed” the Court of its intention to close the facility over the following week, without specifying when such closure would begin.” Id. at 3. The Court named BOP’s untruths: “The BOP’s obfuscation is obvious. Its lack of transparency with the Court resulted in negative consequences.” Id. at 3. One egregious direct intentional distortion was highlighted: “BOP Regional Director, Western Region Melissa Rios-Marques refused to advise Special Master Still of the impending closure, which would begin the next day, even when asked directly on Sunday, April 14.” Id.

The Court explicitly named the irreparable harm caused during and since the closure, wherein BOP “jeopardized the AICs’ health and safety, due process, access to programming and basic rights.” Id. at 5. It articulated some of the many threats to life and safety BOP caused in its disastrous closure of Dublin: “The effect of these shortcomings was felt acutely by the AICs during the 16-day period leading to the closure…” Id. It pronounced that people had not been properly cleared “To the extent clearances had been obtained…they were nothing more than rubber-stamps…[and] did not meaningfully engage with the fact that many AICs had waited so long for care that even otherwise routine matters may have become more serious given lack of timely treatment in the first instance.” Id. The Court highlighted harms to family bonds “The closure was particularly difficult on those who were being transported farther away from families.” Id. at 4.

The Court conveyed: “Class counsel also alleged that the buses lacked sufficient feminine hygiene products, toilet paper/bathroom facilities, food, and heat, with one particularly egregious case for an AIC on her monthly cycle.” Id. at 7. The Court ordered cataloguing of complaints concerning the conditions during transit, including injuries and “immediate medical examinations upon arrival at new facilities, as well as photographic documentation of any injuries.” Id. at 8. The Court found that threats to safety and life are ongoing “The BOP’s closure of FCI Dublin, especially coming so soon after issuance of this Court’s preliminary injunction, created serious concerns relative to the AICs’ welfare, some of which persist.” Id. at 8. Class counsel represents that “Plaintiffs continued to suffer daily retaliation, lack of access to basic human needs, and risk of sexual abuse in the facilities to which the Defendant officials hurriedly transferred them, in a rush to escape monitoring by the Special Master that began work just days earlier.” CCWP, Joint Case Management Statement, ECF No. 303 at 11, May 9, 2024.

In September, 2024 the Court denied BOP’s motion to dismiss.

Conditions at New Facilities

The approximately 600 people were transferred to facilities including Aliceville FCI (Alabama), Carswell Federal Medical Center (Fort Worth, Texas), Hazelton FCI (West Virginia), Miami Federal Detention Center (“FDC”)(Florida), Pekin FCI (Illinois), Philadelphia FDC (Pennsylvania), SeaTac FDC (Washington), Tallahassee FCI (Florida), Victorville Medium I FCI (California), Waseca FCI (Minnesota).  The conditions at the facilities people were transferred to are described as horrific and people describe continuing to experience sexual misconduct and retaliation, and a lack of access to medical care as well as programs that could facilitate release. KTVU described conditions at new facilities built for short-term incarceration that don’t have yards or access to the outside, or classes that reduce sentences. KTVU describes lockdowns, and in a follow up article documents the inability to access the phone or the computer, to go to programing or work, and the lack of mental health services. Fox 29 described how the CCWP Judge extended the Special Master’s monitoring due to unresolved false disciplinary issues, lack of medical attention  retaliation, and inability to access counsel..

Permanent Closure

On December 5, 2024 the BOP announced the permanent closure of Dublin and minimum-security prison camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida. Congressman DeSaulnier issued a statement on the closure.  The Guardian. The Independent. KTVU. Pleasanton Weekly. Courthouse News. Mercury News.

Civil Rights Litigation Update

On December 6, 2024 the parties in California Coal. for Women Prisoners v. United States, No. 4:23-CV-4155-YGR, (N.D. Cal. 2023) Dublin sex abuse class action moved to approve consent judgment and settle.  The proposed Consent Decree provides for two years of court monitoring BOP’s treatment of. the over 500 class members who are now scattered in 12 facilities across the country.  KTVU FOX 2. ABC News. Daily Journal. Corrections 1.

On December, 17, 2024 plaintiffs in 103 of the individual lawsuits announced the settlement of their cases against the BOP and individual Dublin officials for $115 million, the largest aggregate settlement in BOP history. Additional settlements predated this. More settlements are expected. The individual lawsuits are part of a coordinated effort led by survivors and the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition to expose the abuses at FCI Dublin and hold the BOP accountable. Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition. Washington Post. New York Times. Newsweek The Guardian.. KQUED. Los Angeles Times. East Bay Times.

On December 17, 2024 the Court in in California Coal. for Women Prisoners v. United States class action announced preliminary approval of the settlement, and an opportunity for class members to give input on the process. Judge Gonzalez Rodgers indicated that it is likely that she will supervise the BOP two years and it will be required to report how it is  implementing the agreement’s provisions to prevent sexual abuse and retaliation, ensure access to adequate medical and community-based care, restrict the use of solitary confinement, and address abuses involving the arbitrary denial of release. Plaintiff’s won:

  • Public Acknowledgment of Abuse – The BOP Director will issue a formal public acknowledgment to survivors of staff sexual abuse at FCI Dublin.
  • Monitoring and Public Reporting:  The monitor will have access to class members, BOP staff, facilities, and records and will publish monthly public reports addressing key issues such as staff abuse, retaliation, medical care, and the application of early release credits, as well as timely releases to halfway houses. It is not clear if these reports will be made publicly available.
  • Access to Support Services: Class members will have ongoing, confidential access to the monitor, attorneys, and community-based counselors to report Consent Decree violations.
  • Restrictions on Solitary: Class members will not be assigned to SHU for minor disciplinary infractions unless specific security threats exist. Timely disciplinary proceedings will be guaranteed. Class members in SHU will retain access to the monitor, confidential legal calls, and reporting mechanisms.
  • Due Process Remedies: The BOP will reinstate credits lost due to transfers and expunge invalid disciplinary actions to ensure timely release, especially for people who were entitled to have been released already but are in custody due to BOP misconduct.  The BOP will expedite the release of eligible class members to halfway houses and home confinement and will not deny early release solely based on immigration status or detainers. Class members will be housed in the lowest-security facility possible and as close to their families as practicable. They will no longer be held long-term at pretrial detention facilities or transfer centers.

Courthouse News. Arnold and Porter Firm.  Pride Law Firm. Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld Firm.

As of December 18, 2024 the US has agreed to pay over $130 million to survivors of Dublin staff abuse, when accounting for 30 FCI Dublin victims who obtained pre-suit settlements. Fushberg Firm. Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld Firm.

While the closure of facilities, compensation, monitoring of remedial measures, and the enactment of the Federal Prison Oversight Act in July 2024 represent significant victories and progress, advocates stress that substantial reform and abolition efforts must continue, and that release is the only humane and dignified option.

Press Releases

  • Forthcoming

Documents Released Through Law v. BOP

  • Records will be posted here as they are released. Contact attorney Henry for credentials to access records.

Documents Released Through Victoria Law Motions to Intervene and Unseal

  • Records are posted here.

Law v. BOP Case Filings

  • Case filings will be posted here on an ongoing basis.

Law v. BOP Case Timeline

  • 7/5/2024 BOP acknowledges the date FOIA request received
  • 7/10/2024 BOP grants expedited status
  • 9/20/24 Plaintiff Law Files Complaint
  • 8/16/2024 BOP Fails to meet deadline to make determination and produce records.
  • 10/28/2024 Meet & Confer #1
  • 11/03/2024 Original Date answer due (USA asked on 10/24/2024 to stipulate to postpone)
  • 11/15/2024 Meet & Confer #2 (originally scheduled for 11/13/2024 but USA asked on to postpone)
  • 11/22/2024 Meet & Confer #3
  • 11/22/2024 1st Postponement of Answer Due (after 10/30/2024 stipulation to postpone requested by USA)
  • 11/27/2024 2nd Postponement of Answer Due (after 11/21/2024 request to postpone to the 11/22/2024 deadline to 11/27/24)
  • 12/02/2024 USA asked to stipulate to continue CMC from January 9, 2025 to January 16 or 23, 2025.
  • 12/02/20204 Plaintiff’s Counsel Provided USA Memo Re Exemptions 6 and 7(c).
  • 12/06/2024 Meet & Confer #4 (USA Cancelled meet and confer scheduled for 12/13 and 12/20)
  • 12/12/2024: Deadline to file ADR Certification. (See ADR L.R. 3) ; Deadline to meet and confer re: initial disclosures, early settlement, ADR process selection, and discovery plan. (See F.R. Civ. P. 26(f))
  • 12/20/2024 Release #1
  • 12/26/2024 Deadline to make initial disclosures. (See F.R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1))
  • 12/27/2024 Meet & Confer #5
  • 1/9/2025 Joint Case Management Statement (after Defendant’s request to postpone, court moved 1/2/25 deadline)
  • 1/10/2025 Meet & Confer #6 (Defendant canceled 1/3/2025 meet and confer)
  • 1/13/2024 Court sua sponte files Judicial Referral for Purpose of Determining Relationship of Cases to CCWP case. (ECF No. 22)
  • 1/13/2024 Court issues tentative case management scheduling order proposes following. This order is now void.
    • Status reports due every 60 days starting February 20, 2025 (Plaintiff asked for monthly, Defendant asked for none).
    • Status Conferences: April 17, 2025, 2:00 p.m.; July 24, 2025 2:00pm
    • 1/30/2025 Initial Disclosures
    • 1/25/2025 Last Day to Amend Pleadings
    • 1/30/2025 Deadline for settlement conference with magistrate.
    • 1/23/2026 Discovery cut-off.
    • 2/20/2026 Last day to file dispositive motions
    • 4/28/2026 Last day to be heard.
  • 1/13/2024 Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers reassigns case to herself (ECF No. 23 ). Finds it related to M.R. (4:22-cv-05137) cases (ECF 445). It may also relate to CCWP (4:23-cv-04155)(ECF 273). No determination has issued on that docket.
  • 1/14/2025 Meet & Confer (Defendant canceled)
  • 1/16/2025 Initial Case Management Conference at 2:00 PM in San Francisco – Videoconference Only. (Rescheduled from 1/9/2024)(vacated by YGR order)
  • 1/17/2025 Parties file stipulation requesting CMC
  • 1/21/2025 Clerk Schedules CMC
  • 1/24/2025 Meet & Confer #7
  • 1/24/2025 Release #2
  • 1/27/2025 2pm Case Management Statement Due
  • 1/30/2025 Meet & Confer #8
  • 1/31/2025 Order Vacating Case Management Conference And Referring Parties To Magistrate Judge Tse 2/3/2025 Initial Case Management Conference (YGR)
  • 2/7/25 Meet & Confer #8 – Plaintiff gives Defendant draft of joint letter brief.
  • 2/14/25 Meet & Confer #9
  • 2/21/25 Meet & Confer  (Defendant cancelled)
  • 2/21/25 Release #3
  • 2/24/25 Meet & Confer #10
  • 3/7/25 Meet & Confer #11
  • 3/11/25 Judge Tse Denies Discovery
  • 3/17/25 Meet & Confer #12
  • 3/21/25 Meet & Confer #13
  • 3/28/25 Meet & Confer #14

Law’s Coverage of Dublin

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