Washington (AP) According to information obtained by The Associated Press, the federal Bureau of Prisons is permanently closing its California Rape Club Women’s Prison and will idle six other institutions in a comprehensive realignment following years of mistreatment, deterioration, and poor administration.
The Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, as well as its deactivated minimum-security prison camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida, will be closed, the government told staff and Congress on Thursday. According to the agency, staff and prisoners are being transferred to other prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons stated in a document that the AP was able to obtain that it was taking strategic and decisive action to solve major issues, such as a severe staffing shortfall, deteriorating infrastructure, and a lack of funding. According to the agency, it is not shrinking and is dedicated to finding jobs for all impacted staff members.
The closures represent a dramatic conclusion to the Biden administration’s management of the largest agency within the Justice Department. Citing insufficient manpower and the exorbitant expenses of repairing ancient infrastructure, the Bureau of Prisons is turning to closures and consolidation after making repeated pledges to modernize FCI Dublin and other problematic institutions.
The most obvious indication yet that FCI Dublin, which employs over 30,000 people, houses 158,000 inmates, and has an annual budget of roughly $8 billion, is incapable or unwilling to rehabilitate its most troublesome institutions is the agency’s permanent closure, which came seven months after it was temporarily closed due to staff-on-inmate abuse.
The correctional officers’ union and the Bureau of Prisons have advocated for more government financing for correctional facilities on numerous occasions, pointing out what they claim is a lack of funds to deal with staff retention, pay raises, and a backlog of repairs worth billions of dollars.
The Bureau of Prisons stated in a document outlining the closures that it made the decision to close FCI Dublin following a security and infrastructure evaluation after its temporary closure in April. Although officials hinted that the low-security jail might be rebuilt and reopened for a different use, such hosting male offenders, it seemed at the time that the administration was determined to close it.
According to the organization, the evaluation found significant modifications required to reopen the FCI Dublin. The organization stated that the decision to close the institution was partly influenced by low personnel, which was made worse by the high cost of living in the Bay Area.
We have to make really tough choices as the agency works through a difficult staffing and fiscal climate. FCI Dublin has announced that it will not reopen.
In the aftermath of AP reporting that revealed widespread sexual assault within the facility’s walls, the Bureau of Prisons has made an astonishing admission with the permanent closure of FCI Dublin that it has failed to improve the facility’s environment and culture. FCI Dublin is being sued by hundreds of former inmates who want financial restitution and improvements for the abuse they endured there.
The FCI Dublin closures and those throughout the federal prison system coincide with an AP investigation that has shown serious, until unreported problems at the Bureau of Prisons. According to AP research, there has been widespread employee criminal behavior, scores of escapes, ongoing violence, fatalities, and acute staffing shortages that have made it difficult to respond to emergencies, such as inmate assaults and suicides.
After AP research exposed the agency’s numerous shortcomings, President Joe Biden signed a measure in July that strengthened oversight of the agency.
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News from New York was reported by Sisak.
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