Prison oversight bill inspired by FCI Dublin sexual abuse, corruption heads to Biden

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons where reporting from The Associated Press exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and reporting from KTVU highlighted the intense sexual abuses at the all-women's prison in Dublin, Calif. 

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced the bill in 2022 while leading an investigation of the Bureau of Prisons as chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations. It passed unanimously Wednesday without a formal roll call vote, meaning no senator objected.

Ossoff led off his statements by referencing the unprecedented sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, where seven correctional officers, including the warden, have been sentenced to prison for molesting, abusing and raping dozens of women. The BOP shut down FCI Dublin in April and now the 600 women are at other prisons across the country. 

"How did it come to pass that in a nation whose founding document guarantees due process, civil rights and prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, a federal prison in Dublin, California would become so notorious for the endemic sexual abuse of female inmates by prison staff that it would be known as ‘Rape Club,’" Ossoff said. 

"Rape club," he reiterated. 

The Federal Prison Oversight Act, which the House passed in May, now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. 

Advocates for incarcerated people also praised the bill’s passage.

"After all the headlines, scandals, and controversy that have plagued the Bureau of Prisons for decades, we’re very happy to see this Congress take action to bring transparency and accountability to an agency that has gone so long without it," said Daniel Landsman, the vice president of policy for the advocacy group FAMM.

Shanna Rifkin, an attorney with FAMM, said she had tears in her eyes watching Ossoff give a "rousing speech."

"Because of this bill, for the first time, we will have independent oversight of federal prisons," Rifkin said in a Thursday interview. "And this bill will help ensure that there's actually someone watching from the outside about what is going on inside of federal prison. This bill will bring independent oversight to federal prisons. And that's incredibly significant." 

It establishes an independent ombudsman for the agency to field and investigate complaints in the wake of rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff, chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile deaths.

It also requires that the Justice Department’s Inspector General conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections.

The Department of Justice will have to dedicate between .2 and .5% of its annual appropriations to carry out the investigations and inspections. 

In response, the BOP in a statement to KTVU said the agency "welcomes Congressional oversight." 

"As I've said many times, I believe in accountability, oversight, and transparency," BOP Director Colette S. Peters said in November 2023. "I know we cannot do this work alone. The only thing I would ask is that when you consider additional oversight in legislation, we then receive the appropriate resources, so that I'm not left flat-footed with additional requests and additional oversight for information, and then we don't have the staff and resources to respond in a timely and efficient manner."

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More FCI Dublin women complain of retaliation, including having rifles pointed at them

Women who were transferred away from the now-shuttered federal prison in Dublin are continuing to complain they're being retaliated against at their new facilities in Texas, Minnesota, Miami and Philadelphia, where they say they are not being given jobs that could reduce their sentences and, in one case, had rifles pointed at them to scare them.

Ossoff and the bill’s two other sponsors, Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., launched the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group in February 2022 amid turmoil at the Bureau of Prisons, much of it uncovered by AP reporting. Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., and Lucy McBath, D-Ga., backed the House version of the bill.

In a statement, Ossoff called Wednesday’s passage "a major milestone" and that his investigation had "revealed an urgent need to overhaul Federal prison oversight."

The oversight can't come soon enough. 

 Many of the women who were transferred from FCI Dublin to other prisons around the country told KTVU that there are similar, if not worse, issues at prisons across the country.

Laura Denise Russell was bused from California to Atwood Camp in Lexington, Kentucky.

She wrote KTVU a long letter saying how hot and humid the prison is and incarcerated people are suffering without air conditions.

Like the now-shuttered FCI Dublin, Russell also said there is mold and asbestos where she is.

"This place is FILTHY," she wrote in a letter. "Judge Gonzalez-Rogers called the Dublin camp ‘deplorable.’ If she were to come here and see how we are ‘existing,’ her head would explode. Dublin would be viewed as a palace." 

Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.