Dublin Déjà Vu? – Update for April 3, 2026

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

IS THE BOP TEEING UP THE NEXT INMATE SEX ABUSE SCANDAL?

The FCI Dublin “rape club” may not be a ‘one-off’.

You may recall that the BOP finally had to close FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California (28 miles east southeast of San Francisco), in 2024. The closure came not only because staff-on-inmate sexual abuse was rampant, but because prison management systematically punished female inmates who dared to complain about the harassment.

Lesson: When the warden gets convicted of criminal sexual abuse, you can figure you might have a systemic problem.

Then-BOP director Colette Peters made all the right noises that the agency would not tolerate such abuse, would fully investigate such allegations, and would not immediately disbelieve inmates just because they were inmates.

Last week, a joint NBC News-The Marshall Project investigation reported in detail on FPC Bryan, a Texas minimum-security women’s facility, concluding that inmates and some staff whistleblowers alike “say the minimum-security facility conceals a sinister secret: inescapable sexual misconduct, and punishments for those who try to report the abuse.”

In all, the women interviewed by NBC/TMP reporters accused five staff members of sexual misconduct. Two of the accused still work at Bryan. Three others are no longer BOP employees, including a chaplain accused of sexual abuse against one of the accusers. Reporters reviewed sexual misconduct reports, court records, emails and memos to BOP officials – obtained through Freedom of Information requests – and spoke with staff members and other inmates to corroborate the women’s accounts. Several of the accusers say they have been retaliated against. One was transferred from the camp to Houston FDC. Others say that they fear retaliation.

None of the sexual abuse reports, even by staff members turning in other staff members, has resulted in action.

The warden at Bryan refused to speak to reporters but sent an email saying that the BOP has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse: “We take seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted to our care as well as maintain the safety of correctional employees and the community,” she wrote.

Uh-huh.  Heard that one before.

BOP spokesman Donald Murphy said in an email that he could not discuss individual allegations or any related investigations, but the bureau “thoroughly investigates all credible allegations to ensure the safety of inmates.”

Uh-huh.  Heard that one before, too.

These general denials and blandishments should sound familiar to anyone who remembers BOP statements made in response to media reports of the FCI Dublin “rape club” and the $116 million in damages the agency agreed to pay inmate sexual abuse victims there. And the latest accusations from Bryan should not surprise anyone who recalls the Trump Administration’s attempt to renege on the settlement, an effort U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (E.D. Cal.) promptly and unceremoniously shut down.

It is unlikely that we have heard the last of sexual abuse at Bryan.

NBC, A women’s prison conceals a sinister secret: Staff sexual misconduct, accusers say (March 27, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root