The Bureau of Prisons said in a memo that it was grappling with “a very difficult budget situation along with significant repair and maintenance backlogs.”
The Bureau of Prisons is permanently shutting down an infamous women’s prison in California that was the site of rampant sexual abuse as well as disbanding six other facilities as part of a broader consolidation effort, according to a memo sent to bureau staff on Thursday.
Colette S. Peters, the bureau’s director, said earlier this year that she was likely, but not certain, to close the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, about 30 miles east of San Francisco, which once housed 600 inmates. The announcement followed years of horrific abuse that led to the ouster of many top officials and the prosecution of the facility’s former warden and chaplain. Ms. Peters cited low staffing levels, crumbling infrastructure and the high cost of living in the Bay Area as reasons for closure.
It was packaged with the closure of small, minimum-security prison camps in Minnesota, West Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
The bureau is grappling with “a very difficult budget situation along with significant repair and maintenance backlogs,” a bureau official wrote in a memo explaining the closures to the union that represents prison employees.
The move will eliminate about 400 positions, but employees will have an opportunity to relocate to other locations that have vacancies; they will be laid off if they refuse relocation, the memo said.
The bureau “is not downsizing and we are committed to finding positions for every employee who wants to remain with the agency,” officials said in a statement. The reassignments would “positively impact our staffing levels” and “help alleviate the exhaustion our employees feel” by working mandatory overtime.
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