Seven months after it abruptly closed following years of abuse allegations and convictions involving staff and a former warden, the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI Dublin) is being shut down for good.
The federal Bureau of Prisons told Congress as well as its employees Thursday that it is closing down FCI Dublin in the East Bay, as well as a group of other minimum-security prison camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida.
As the Associated Press reports, the closure is not related directly to the “rape club” reputation that FCI Dublin earned in recent years, but is part of a “decisive and strategic action” to address “significant challenges, including a critical staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources.”
“As the agency navigates a challenging budgetary and staffing environment, we must make incredibly difficult decisions. FCI Dublin will not reopen,” the agency said.
The agency clarified that it was not downsizing, and that all staff at these facilities would be offered jobs elsewhere. And all inmates at the facilities that remain open would be relocated.
FCI Dublin closed in short order in April, about a month after an FBI raid that ended with the ouster of the current warden and three other officials at the facility. The closure at the time certainly seemed to be a direct result of mismanagement, and new staff put in place for what only turned out to be a month were said to be installed “to enact positive change” at the troubled prison.
The rushed relocation of inmates from FCI Dublin has been the subject of civil rights complaints — some as recent as last month, when lawyers for inmates reported being “horrified” by the conditions they observed at one facility where inmates were transferred, FCI Aliceville in Pickens County, Alabama. Inmates also complained of extremely long, uncomfortable bus rides during which they allegedly weren’t allowed to use the bathroom or receive feminine hygiene products.
Following the temporary closure in April, tbe Bureau of Prisons says that it conducted a security and infrastructure assessment of FCI Dublin. Per the AP, and a document the agency released summarizing the closures, FCI Dublin was under consideration to be revamped, potentially as a different type of facility housing male inmates. But it was determined that the cost of necessary repairs was too high, and the high cost of living for staff in the Bay Area was an additional factor.
FCI Dublin was, infamously, where celebrity inmates Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin served their sentences in the Varsity Blues colleged admissions fraud scandal, as well as Smallville actress turned NXIVM cult leader Allison Mack.
The facility had a reputation as a “country club” prison, however that reputation changed after former warden Ray J. Garcia was indicted two years ago for sexually abusing three female inmates. And, subsequently, a former chaplain and six other officers in the prison were found guilty of abuse charges.
Previously: Scandal-Plagued FCI Dublin Women’s Prison Is Abruptly Closing After Torrent of Sex Abuse Claims