FCI Dublin Special Master Report

Following Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ historic appointment of Special Master Wendy Still to oversee the conditions and treatment of adults-in-custody (AICs) at FCI Dublin, a “Special Master’s Report” has been submitted to the Court detailing the full extent of deficiencies within FCI Dublin and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) generally. The report was scathing in its critique of the low-quality of care and mis-treatment of AICs at the facility, stating that “in addition to the dysfunction noted by the Court, the [Special Master’s Team] found numerous operational, policy, and constitutional violations” plaguing the facility, leading to institutional failures and the ultimate shuttering of the scandal-plagued correctional institution.

While Special Master Still focused on a wide-range of issues within the BOP, she was quick to highlight the lack of standardized Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) protocols across BOP facilities. Whenever an inmate reports an instance of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse, they are required to follow the Administrative Remedy Process so the allegations can travel through the proper channels within the BOP for an investigation and formal review to be conducted. However, inmates at FCI Dublin were subject to immense intimidation for simply requesting these forms, and were oftentimes forced to justify to staff why they needed to complete the form in the first place. Even if an inmate was brave enough to speak up about why they were submitting an administrative claim, Still noted that claims were oftentimes subjected to arbitrary denials with little-to-no investigation conducted. Consequently, reports of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse were never elevated through the proper channels, and sexual abuse of inmates was able to run rampant through the facility undetected for years-on-end.

The retaliation experienced by AICs willing to report their abuse was central to Still’s report, noting the lack of due process inherent in the disciplinary programs across the BOP. For example, Still notes that many inmates were incorrectly charged for minor offenses, resulting in unjustifiable, excessive sanctions that served no purpose but to retaliate against inmates. Of note, countless inmates at FCI Dublin were placed in the Solitary Housing Unit (SHU) under “investigation” following their reporting staff-on-inmate sexual abuse. In most circumstances, it would be months before inmates were finally released from this restrictive housing, oftentimes without any explanation or proof of investigation being conducted. Not only did the disciplinary structure within FCI Dublin violate BOP policy and program statements designed to shepherd the protection and fair treatment of inmates, it exacerbated the culture of silence surrounding PREA violations at the facility.

Finally, Special Master Still spent a great deal of her report explaining the deficiencies within the medical and psychiatric departments of FCI Dublin and the BOP more-broadly. As Still notes, “…given the high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), SUD, and trauma related to sexual and other personal violence present, a more integrated program with the on-site psychology would have been warranted, but was non-existent”. Not only was there a lack of mental health resources (i.e. psychiatrists, medication management programs) available to inmates who were sexually abused, the sexual predation was so pervasive that mental health staff were overwhelmed with the amount of PREA allegations requiring documentation and reporting. As a result, this created a lower quality of care for both victims of sexual abuse and AICs who were in need of general mental health/ medical care as the already limited staff were spending all their time attempting to address PREA related issues. Even if an inmate was not a direct victim of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, they were inevitably impacted by the culture of abuse at the facility.

In order to address these inadequacies across the BOP, Special Master Still offered a handful of recommendations to prevent such failures from occurring in the future. Not only was increased training for staff recommended, Still noted there needs to be a better mechanism to collect comprehensive data on AICs with both accuracy and frequency to aid in the policy-making decisions by leaders at the BOP. Still addressed the staffing crisis across the BOP, recommending better systems to address staffing deficiencies, increase outreach to prospective employees, and develop new methods to streamline hiring. In regard to the inadequate medical and psychological care provided to inmates, Still acknowledged that better systems needed to be put in place so that requests for medical/ psychiatric care could be tracked and timely addressed, and that ongoing competency training for medical staff was required. But, most importantly, it was made abundantly clear that better oversight was needed across all BOP facilities nationwide to ensure that the atrocities of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse that occurred at FCI Dublin will never be repeated.

While the BOP and federal government fought tirelessly attempting to prevent the historic appointment of Special Master Still, it is clear that her work investigating the inherent inadequacies of our nations federal prison system will result in positive change nationwide.