Incarcerated women who spoke out about pervasive sexual abuse they endured at the hands of guards in a federal prison located in California are pleading with the Biden administration to grant them clemency.
Their calls come after Joe Biden last week carried out the largest act of presidential clemency on a single day in modern US history, pardoning 39 people and commuting the sentences of almost 1,500 others.
Advocates are now pushing him to go further in his final weeks in office and help an overlooked population of incarcerated people who say they urgently need relief.
Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin, a women’s institution, was the site of one of the largest US prison abuse scandals in recent history.
Staff sexual harassment, assaults and retaliation for reporting misconduct was so routine at the facility east of Oakland that the institution was known internally by workers and residents as the “rape club”.
The abuses have repeatedly been substantiated. A special master overseeing the prison described a “cascade of failures” and “unconscionable” conditions. A federal judge said the “constitutional violations” that occurred at the institution were “shocking”, and that residents had limited to no access to adequate healthcare or any programming.
Seven former staffers, including the warden and chaplain, have been convicted of sexual crimes. More than 20 former employees were placed on leave and remain under investigation. The US justice department recently announced the permanent closure of the institution, and residents have been transferred to other prisons.
The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) settled a class-action lawsuit this month on behalf of hundreds of incarcerated people, entering a consent decree meant to protect former Dublin residents from abuse and retaliation. It also agreed to pay $115m to 103 plaintiffs.
Some plaintiffs and class members have been released, but many remain incarcerated. “I just need somebody to see that after everything I’ve been through, I deserve to be protected,” said Roberta Bell, 53, in a call from prison. Bell was a lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit against the BOP, which outlined how she and others were repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted by Dublin officers, then punished for reporting the abuse. “I’m asking for the opportunity to make a difference in society,” she said.
Lawyers for the abuse victims say they’re particularly vulnerable because some are known whistleblowers facing ongoing retaliation risks, and because they remain incarcerated in the same system where they endured horrific crimes, making trauma recovery impossible, their lawyers say.
“The Biden administration can say, all this extrajudicial punishment is beyond the pale, we don’t condone it and there has to be consequences for it,” said Alison Guernsey, director of the University of Iowa’s federal criminal defense clinic, who has represented Dublin victims.
FAMM’s Compassionate Release Clearinghouse, a group that helps incarcerated people seek reduced prison terms, has helped 19 Dublin abuse survivors obtain compassionate release, which are sentence reductions approved by judges, according to Shanna Rifkin, the group’s deputy general counsel. But advocates say there are many barriers to obtaining compassionate release, including a high bar to prove their abuse and a narrow definition of what constitutes a “sexual act”.
Clemency grants are a quicker path to freedom, say lawyers. A coalition supporting Dublin victims has highlighted 23 pending clemency applications of survivors. Susan Beaty, senior attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, and co-counsel in the class-action suit, said incarcerated survivors include at least five people who were victims in US prosecutors’ criminal cases, more than a dozen people with ongoing sexual abuse civil lawsuits and roughly 50 people who have filed formal abuse reports with the prison system. Many have pending clemency or compassionate release cases.
The recipients of Biden’s recent commutations had all previously been released from prisons due to the Covid-19 pandemic and were finishing their sentences in home confinement. The nearly 40 people who received a pardon were all convicted of non-violent crimes, including drug offenses.
‘We deserve an opportunity’
The abuse survivors left behind say they face a daily struggle within BOP, living with intense fear, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
Bell, who was transferred from Dublin to a Minnesota prison, has been fighting for years for clemency. She has spoken out about enduring prolonged childhood sexual abuse, leading to her imprisonment. She was convicted in federal court of witness tampering, a firearm charge and other offenses in a 1992 murder case despite previously being acquitted of the offenses in state court. Her co-defendant convicted of the murder had abused her, she said.
Bell has spent nearly 30 years in BOP custody, and inside Dublin, she became a leader supporting victims of guards’ abuse.
“I see a bunch of young me’s who feel like they owe something to these men who have control over their lives,” she said. “I tell them to speak up and don’t be afraid. And when they were afraid, I came forward for them … These [officers] are people we’re supposed to trust – they say serve and protect, then let’s hold them to that.”
In her class-action, she alleged that one officer pushed his genitals on her in 2021 and that another shined a light on her while she was naked and dealing with a medical issue in 2023. She said she repeatedly witnessed harassment and abuse of others and after she was subpoenaed to testify for the US government against the former warden, she lost her prison job.
Bell said she has been denied medical care, mocked and berated by guards and sent to solitary confinement after speaking out: “These are my basic rights as a prisoner that I didn’t get because I didn’t keep my mouth shut. I have suffered a great deal and lost a lot that I will not be able to get back.”
She said she’s been unable to get any basic mental health support in BOP and that at her new prison, she’s been branded a “snitch”.
“I made it my business to want to protect others, and it came at a great cost,” she said.
Bell said she hoped Biden would look at her clemency application in the context of how far she has come over decades in prison: “Some people may have charges that contain violence, but they are not violent people.” She noted that taxpayers have spent significant money keeping her imprisoned all these years: “Give me a chance to prove to you that the investment you made in me was worth it.”
Bell has five granddaughters she has never met in person: “To hear their voices, their laughs, to see them in person, to hug them, to smell them – I can’t even imagine. It would mean the world to me.”
Lawyers say non-US citizens who were victims of abuse face compounding risks.
Leslie, a former Dublin resident in her 30s, said a guard sexually abused her for nearly two years. She is now facing deportation to Mexico, despite having lived in the US since she was a teenager. “These officers knew we were immigrants and thought that they could do whatever they wanted to us, because we were going to be deported,” said the woman, who asked not to use her full name for fear of reprisal and spoke in Spanish. “Biden needs to grant clemency to survivors who deserve to come home. Biden needs to stop our deportations. Give us a chance to stay in the US with our kids and heal.”
Survivors suffer in silence when they think there is no recourse, and clemency for victims could motivate others to speak out, said another former Dublin resident who reported being sexually abused. She is also at risk of deportation and requested anonymity: “We have to show the other people that somebody is going to help … Everybody deserves a second chance, a second opportunity.”
Now in a Florida BOP prison, she said she suffers from nightmares: “I still dream about Dublin and think I’m still there.” She said she struggles with suicidal thoughts and is desperate for therapy: “I feel like I’m going crazy … and sometimes I want to give up.”
The justice department did not respond to inquiries. Randilee Giamusso, a BOP spokesperson, said in an email: “The [BOP] is dedicated to appropriately addressing the consequences of sexually abusive behavior at FCI Dublin. The [BOP] remains committed to rooting out unlawful behavior and holding accountable those who violate their oath of office.”
An Ice spokesperson said Leslie was facing deportation due to a drug conviction.
Advocates note that abuse is a systemic problem within the US prison system. The US Senate reported in 2022 that in at least two-thirds of federal women’s prisons, staff had sexually abused incarcerated residents over the last decade.
Aimee Chavira, a Dublin abuse survivor granted compassionate release last year, said that therapy outside prison has helped her get back on track, but that she suffers flashbacks when she hears the sounds of keys jingling and can’t sleep with her door closed because it reminds her of experiences while incarcerated. The way survivors were dismissed inside has had a lasting impact, she said: “This is a federal government official telling you you’re a criminal, we are the officers, and your word is nothing. That sticks with you and you believe it deep down.”
“We were sent to prison to pay for the crime we committed, not to face this horrific abuse,” she said.
