Two advocacy groups have taken legal action to unseal court records and ensure public access to hearings in the class action lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons concerning the sexual abuse of incarcerated women at the now-closed FCI Dublin in California.
The Bureau's decision to close FCI Dublin and relocate approximately 600 women came abruptly on April 15, following revelations of widespread staff-on-inmate assaults exposed by an Associated Press investigation. Efforts to reform the facility had been ongoing prior to its closure.
Public Justice and the ACLU of Northern California jointly filed a motion to increase transparency in the case, scheduled for trial next June. They raised concerns about closed hearings held by the federal district court without prior notice, some of which were not documented in the court docket.
Furthermore, the court has approved multiple motions to seal records, with some motions themselves being sealed, leading to a lack of information available to the public and the press.
The advocacy groups argued that previously sealed documents should be made public now that FCI Dublin is no longer operational, asserting that security concerns are no longer relevant.
While the prisons bureau did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the unsealing of records, they have consistently refrained from commenting on ongoing court matters.
Angelica Salceda, director of the Democracy and Civic Engagement program at the ACLU of Northern California, emphasized the importance of transparency in holding government officials accountable for the conditions at FCI Dublin. She stressed the need for the public to be informed about the systemic sexual misconduct at the facility and the events leading up to its closure.
Prison officials have maintained that the decision to close FCI Dublin was carefully deliberated over several months. Inmates at the facility had filed a lawsuit against the prisons bureau last August, alleging a failure to address sexual abuse within the institution.
