By MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 Associated Press has learned.
The agency informed employees and Congress on Thursday that it plans to shutter the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and its 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. 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.
The permanent shutdown of FCI Dublin seven months after it was temporarily closed in the wake of staff-on-inmate abuse is the clearest sign yet that the agency, which has more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion, is unable or unwilling to rehabilitate its most problematic institutions.
The Bureau of Prisons and the union representing correctional officers have repeatedly pushed for additional federal prison funding, highlighting what they say is an inadequate amount of money to address pay increases, staff retention and a multibillion-dollar repair backlog.
In a document summarizing the closures, the Bureau of Prisons said it decided to close FCI Dublin after a security and infrastructure assessment following its temporary closure in April. At the time, it appeared the agency was set on closing the low-security prison, but officials held out the possibility that it could be repaired and reopened for a different purpose, such as housing male inmates.
The assessment identified considerable repairs necessary to reopen the FCI Dublin, the agency said. Low staffing, exacerbated by the high cost of living in the Bay Area, also contributed to the decision to close the facility, the agency said.
“As the agency navigates a challenging budgetary and staffing environment, we must make incredibly difficult decisions. FCI Dublin will not reopen,” the agency said.
FCI Dublin’s permanent closure represents an extraordinary acknowledgement 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.
The closures at FCI Dublin and across the federal prison system come amid an AP investigation that has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. AP reporting has disclosed rampant criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency after AP reporting shone a spotlight on its many flaws.
Sisak reported from New York.
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