BOP to Shut Seven Federal Facilities, Including Troubled California Prison
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is closing seven facilities in a sweeping realignment as the agency deals with staffing shortages, budgetary limitations, aging infrastructure, and years of neglect and mismanagement.
On the closing list is the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, which has been the center of a sexual assault scandal, and was dubbed the “rape club.” The former warden and other employees were sent to prison for sexually abusing inmates. The women’s facility is also embroiled in a lawsuit filed by inmates over the assaults.
FCI Dublin was temporarily closed in April, and BOP said that too many repairs were needed to reopen the facility or use it for a different purpose such as housing male inmates.
Also closing are minimum security camps at FPC Pensacola (Florida), FPC Morgantown (West Virginia), and FPC Duluth (Minnesota). Those prisons, with little fencing and dormitory style housing, have been the site of frequent escapes and contraband challenges.
A few satellite prisons, located in the shadow of other prisons, are also closing. Those are FCI Oxford (Wisconsin), FCI Englewood (Colorado), and FCI Loretto (Pennsylvania). Employees there will be assigned to the nearby prison.
In a statement obtained by the Associated Press, BOP said the closures are designed to address “significant challenges, including a critical staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources.” It said it is not downsizing and will try to find new positions for every affected employee, which number about 400 in total. In fact, BOP pointed out that reassigning employees to remaining facilities will boost retention and cut down on mandatory overtime.
Labor Groups React
Federal labor groups, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), are not optimistic.
“While the agency says it will attempt to place employees in other jobs, the reality is that most Bureau of Prisons facilities are in isolated locations far from each other, so many if not most employees affected will face disruptive relocations to remain employed,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “And with the looming possibility of further cuts to the federal workforce through hiring freezes and forced relocations, retaining work at agencies outside the Bureau of Prisons will be difficult if not impossible.”