DUBLIN — Federal prisons officials are promising not to re-open the infamous — and now mothballed — FCI Dublin women’s prison as a new detention facility. But not everyone is buying it.
East Bay Congressman Mark DeSaulnier said Friday that Federal Bureau of Prisons officials assured him the sprawling grounds — which once housed a notorious “rape club” of guards and prison leaders who ruthlessly terrorized inmates — will never again be used as a detention facility. The pledge came during a tour the Democratic lawmaker received Friday morning of the moldy and decrepit former prison, which was permanently closed in 2024 after years of scandals and poor maintenance.
The future of FCI Dublin became the subject of intense speculation this year with the re-election of President Donald Trump and his vows to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted conducting an assessment there in February, stoking concerns among immigrant and inmate rights groups that the deteriorating facility could be used to house migrants as part of Trump’s crackdown.
On Friday, DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, said the prisons bureau’s leaders “told me that their orders are to shut it down.”
“They believe it’s not a viable place for any kind of detention facility, for ICE for anyone else,” he said, adding that prisons officials told him that ICE leaders also toured the facility and came to the conclusion that “they don’t want it either.”
The Bureau of Prisons’ apparent promise comes despite sightings of plumbers and other crews showing up at the Dublin complex within the past few weeks, according to John Kostelnik, a federal prison guard union leader. He voiced deep concerns about prisons officials misleading DeSaulnier, and implored him to press the bureau’s western regional director more for answers.
“If it’s shutting down, why do we have plumbing companies coming in?” Kostelnik said.
Susan Beaty, an attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, also voiced serious skepticism about the bureau’s vows. She warned that ICE and the Trump administration could still move to detain migrants at the aging property.
The prisons system “spent years lying about the abuse that was happening in this facility, the medical care that was being provided, the health and safety conditions inside the prison,” Beaty said. “The public has a lot of reasons not to trust BOP.”
In a statement, the Bureau of Prisons’ communications team reiterated that “FCI Dublin remains under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice and there are no plans to reopen it.” An email to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned.
Prison officials first moved to close FCI Dublin in spring 2024 amid a torrent of lawsuits from inmates claiming to have been sexually assaulted and retaliated against by prison guards. Their claims led federal prosecutors to indict eight former prison officials — including a former warden and a chaplain — on a slew of charges. Seven have pleaded guilty to a range of sexual crimes, while an eighth defendant is awaiting trial.
More than 100 inmates also have received more than $100 million in settlement payouts from the federal government for the abuses they endured.
Even the prison’s initial closure in April 2024 was “unnecessarily rushed,” leading to “mass chaos” as inmates were scattered to other prisons across the country, a special master appointed by a federal judge to oversee the facility wrote in a report. That special master ultimately excoriated prison leaders for allowing inmates to live in such “unconscionable” conditions.
California Congressional District 10 Rep. Mark DeSaulnier. (Photo courtesy Mark DeSaulnier)
DeSaulnier, whose district includes parts of Dublin, toured the facility on Friday for the first time since officials made the closure permanent in December 2024. Inside, he found a sprawling complex that was utterly empty, devoid of even the locks on inmates’ former cells. He saw no signs of any attempts to refurbish the facility, which is infested with mold.
“It’s a dump — there’s nothing in it,” DeSaulnier said. “Physically what you see — that was reassuring to me — is all the kitchen equipment has been ripped out, the locks on the doors have been ripped out. It’s just bare bones.”
He stressed that officials need to raze the entire complex and never allow anyone to be held there again, particularly given the “horror” of a prison culture where inmates were repeatedly raped by their guards, then punished for reporting the abuses.
But DeSaulnier remained concern that the Trump administration could switch course and order the facility to be re-opened, given how “they don’t seem to be rational when it comes to bankrupting the federal budget for political purposes.”
The congressman said the “best possible outcome for taxpayers, employees and the community is to sell that valuable real estate.”
“Its not just like a little mold — you have to bulldoze the place,” DeSaulnier said. “It’s a huge liability for whoever would try to operate it.”