‘RAPE CLUB’

California Federal Prison Sexual Abuse Victims File Lawsuit

The plaintiffs say assaults have persisted even after the former warden’s prosecution.

Survivors of sexual abuse at a women’s prison in California filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons on Wednesday alleging that exploitation has continued at the facility even after its former warden and multiple ex-officers were prosecuted. Eight inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin—dubbed the “rape club” by both prisoners and staff—accuse the bureau and staff at the facility of failing to prevent abuse dating back to the 1990s. “Individual prisoners have had to endure rape, groping, voyeurism, forced stripping, sexually explicit comments on an everyday basis and so much more,” said Amaris Montes, an attorney at Rights Behind Bars representing the plaintiffs. Montes said she had heard “additional stories of recent sexual abuse” even after former warden Ray J. Garcia was sentenced to 70 months in prison in March for sexually abusing three prisoners and making them pose naked for photographs in their cells.