The United States Bureau of Prisons has gained control over more incarcerated American citizens than any other prison or jail in the country. The wardens of these prisons are laws unto themselves, usually allowed to control the investigation of crimes that occur in their own facilities, punish prisoners without effective recourse, and deny medical care to patients, even those dying from cancer. While these actions may be against the rules, those have never been properly enforced. When the government’s war on drugs introduced the concept of “collateral damage”, usually reserved for the battlefield, to the American public, things got much worse.
The difference between the police and the military is that the police are supposed to ensure civil rights and safety for ALL citizens and residents, while the military is tasked with destroying the enemies of a nation by force, accepting collateral damage to achieve its mission. But even during warfare civilians are supposed to be protected, and one thing you absolutely should not do, is torture or abuse those held captive during a conflict. Right now the world is outraged at the sexual abuse of captives by Hamas and Russia, but few Americans would believe that the exact same treatment has been tolerated in the war on American citizens who use drugs.
Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, California, has existed since 1974. This was a low-security prison for female inmates with an adjacent prison camp for minimum security. There are about 725 women in the prison and 115 in the camp. For decades, women being held in these facilities reported being subjected to horrendous sexual abuse, being forced to strip and put on sex shows, for those who had absolute control over their lives. Few who have not been to prison understand what absolute control over your life the authorities have when you are incarcerated.
Citizens have been murdered and buried in unmarked graves in this country without prosecution or even investigation. A prisoner was recently put into a freezer until he died, then allowed to warm up with his limp body being carried to an ER and presented to the doctor with the story that he was walking around and just fell over. A lie disproven by video tapes and a body temperature of 72 degrees. Inmates have been boiled alive, starved to death, beaten to death, and devoured by insects and rats allowed to run rampant through the prison. If animals were treated this way heads would roll. But these are prisoners, and they have no rights.
They can take away all contact with your family, denying you visits and phone calls. They can put you into segregation where you stay locked in a tiny cell 23 hours a day, with a chance to walk to a different cell with an opening to the outside far above, one hour a day. This is called “recreation.” They can even throw away your legal documents and not let you see or speak to your attorney. They do this through what is called “diesel therapy”, putting you on buses or planes for weeks or even months at a time, taking your property from you and discarding it, claiming, “Oh, your legal papers didn’t make the trip, don’t know what happened to them…”
Some of the women who were brave enough to speak out and 63 lawsuits were filed. These documented a horrible culture of absolute disregard for the most basic human rights. Guards named as perpetrators were rarely prosecuted or even investigated, and many were left in positions of power over the very women who had tried to seek justice against them. Women who were not US citizens were threatened with deportation, and all faced retaliation, harassment and continued abuse. This is possible because while the federal government is quick to call out misdeeds of the state, they very rarely take any action against themselves.
Until now. On 11 March 2024, history was made, when the FBI raided a federal prison, ousting the warden, and perhaps, finally, ensuring a modicum of federal accountability. The Associated Press has reported that a warden, associate warden, and a “captain” were removed from the facility while computers and documents were seized. There was no report of personal phones of guards being seized but I would argue this is where the most damning evidence would be. A new warden, Mr. McKinney, has been appointed as interim warden saying, “this new team has been charged with developing a plan for the future of the facility.”
My plan would be to raze the place to the ground and erect a monument in homage to the suffering of thousands of women over decades that went unacknowledged and uninvestigated by a government that was completely uncaring to those it incarcerated. The prison had cycled through five wardens in just three years, proving that far too great a number of those allowed to be wardens are unwilling or unable to effectively manage these facilities within a framework pretending to call itself humane. In fact, complicit wardens were allowed to place prison guards charged with overseeing adherence to policies “on leave” for months at a time.
Eight staff members, from a warden to guards and even a chaplain, had been charged with sexually assaulting inmates in what was called “the rape club” by prison staff. Former Warden Ray Garcia was the first federal warden in the United States to be charged and convicted of sex crimes. At his trial Mr. Garcia confessed to the crimes, saying that he was ashamed of himself and couldn’t be more sorry. I blame Mr. Garcia less than I blame the federal government itself. For decades they were told of Garcia’s and other officers’ terrible crimes but did nothing to correct the very violations of human rights that made his actions possible.
But don’t think this is a story about justice. Mr. Garcia was sentenced to only six years behind bars. It could have been life. Dr. Steven Hanson got life. For trying to help patients deal with severe life limiting chronic pain. Sharanda Jones, prisoner number 33177-077 got life for a first offense crack cocaine charge. She was granted clemency by President Obama. Craig Cesal got life for a first-time marijuana offense. Later granted clemency by President Trump. Which is how we know their names. But how many tens of thousands of others remain nameless in the federal bureau of prisons? Equally deserving of a second chance?
And what will those left behind in these dark places be like when they eventually come home? From these hell holes that the federal government has funded, built, and allowed to operate on American soil? Exactly what those places are designed to produce. Bitter, broken, people. Traumatized by what they have experienced and rehabilitated by lack of education and family contact. People are more likely to find themselves locked up again, assuring an endless supply of convicts to feed back into the federal system. If I sound bitter, it is because I am.
These crimes against humanity have been ongoing for decades, but those that care don’t have the power to effect change, and those that have the power, seem to like things exactly as they are. There will be no justice in this country until civil rights enforcement is taken away from the agency that brought us COINTELPRO and “the Chemist’s War”, and give it instead to an independent agency with equal power to the Department of Justice. Let’s call it the Department of Civil Rights. Give it the power to wiretap and send in undercover agents, not into civil rights meetings but into the FBI, DEA, and BOP themselves.
Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum, Let there be justice, though the heavens fall, was penned by a Roman citizen of African origin in the 2nd century BC. Make that the motto of this new agency.
