Prison Sex Abuse Survivor Speaks on FCI Dublin’s ‘Cultural Rot’ After Record Settlement

When Darlene Baker entered FCI Dublin in April 2022, she had heard about the sexual abuse allegations that plagued the prison. The month before she arrived, the Bureau of Prisons had been there promising to improve reporting protocol, and the warden and a chaplain were facing criminal charges.

But Baker said that after she was forced into a back room of the medical building and assaulted by an officer who was supposed to be administering care, she discovered just how pervasive the culture of sexual misconduct, retaliation and cover-up at the East Bay facility was.

“It was a cultural rot,” Baker, 60, told KQED.

On Tuesday, the federal government acknowledged the damage done at FCI Dublin, granting a $116 million settlement — the largest for sexual assault survivors in U.S. prison history — to 103 women, including Baker, who were formerly incarcerated at the now-shuttered facility.

For much of her 11 months in the prison, Baker faced retaliation for reporting her abuser. She was denied visits with her family; her phone and commissary access were cut off; she was barred from speaking with her lawyer.

She was also forced to return to the medical office and interact with the officer who she said had assaulted her to receive necessary care or medications. She said the final words he spoke to her, the day before she was scheduled for early release, were: “he knew where I lived, and he would be up to have a drink with me at some point.”

“My release was canceled the next morning,” Baker said.

More than 100 women have come forward with experiences like Baker’s since a 2021 Associated Press investigation revealed that the facility, dubbed the “rape club” by workers and women imprisoned there, had a long history of enabling sexual abuse.

“This is an affirmation that sexual abuse of female prisoners will not be tolerated in this society,” attorney Jessica Pride, who represents plaintiffs in the case, said of this week’s settlement. “The Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice now have 116 million reasons why they will make sure that prisoners will not be sexually abused under their watch.”

In a statement, the Bureau of Prisons said it condemns all sexually abusive behavior and “takes seriously its duty to protect the individuals in [its] custody.”

The bureau “remains committed to rooting out criminal behavior and holding accountable those who violate their oath of office,” the statement continues.

The global settlement was divided among the women based on in-depth interviews with two former judges, who listened to their accounts of abuse and reviewed their treatment records. Individuals received $500,000 to $1.6 million each, Pride said.

The settlement is the latest legal victory for women who were incarcerated at FCI Dublin, which the Bureau of Prisons said this month will close permanently after it was abruptly cleared out and shuttered in April. The women are also in the process of settling a class-action lawsuit aimed at protecting women who remain incarcerated elsewhere.

Eight former FCI Dublin employees, including the warden and chaplain, have been charged with sex crimes since 2021; seven have already been sentenced, and the eighth is set to go to trial in March on 15 charges that could carry a potential life sentence. More than 20 others who have been accused of sexual misconduct and retaliation, including the medical officer Baker said assaulted her, are being investigated, according to Pride.

“It just was top-down, from the warden, the chaplain, safety officers, recycling officers. It just was a pervasive culture,” Baker said.

Many women did not come forward for fear of retaliation. Those who did were often sent to the solitary housing unit or lost privileges, like those taken from Baker. Without adequate mental health care, they struggled to recover from the trauma of their assault.

“Officers carry keys all the time. If you heard the keys coming, there would be your heart — that kind of a heart attack feeling — and just fear because you’re not safe,” Baker said.

In April, shortly after the FBI raided the prison, the BOP appointed a special master to oversee operational changes. Just over a week later, the facility was ordered to close, and more than 600 inmates were transferred to a handful of other federal institutions, many far from their families and legal teams.

Earlier this month, the BOP announced it would make FCI Dublin’s closure permanent, saying a staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources made reopening it unfeasible.

Still, the attorneys representing those who say they were abused at FCI Dublin are committed to ensuring that there’s meaningful change at the remaining federal women’s prisons. There have been reports that some of the women transferred have faced similar abuse, and many aren’t receiving the resources they need.

“You have to have a safe place to try to begin to heal, and inside the confines of a prison like that, you’re not safe,” Baker told KQED. “The women who went to other prisons when the facility was closed in April, they’re still suffering sexual trauma, and they don’t have a safe place to try to heal.”

She said that the settlement agreement reached last week on behalf of nearly 500 incarcerated women who were transferred from FCI Dublin in April includes a two-year consent decree meant to protect and oversee their care. That will be subject to approval by a judge in February.

In the coming months, attorney Pride expects that 50 to 100 more civil cases will be filed against the BOP.

“The bottom line is that when we’ve accepted responsibility for our crimes, accepted plea agreements, the punishment does not include rape and sexual assault within the prison confines,” Baker said. “We weren’t sentenced to that particular punishment, and nobody should have to experience that.”

KQED’s Dana Cronin contributed to this report.