FCI Dublin

If you searched for FCI Dublin, you are probably one of three people. A woman who served time there. Someone who loves a woman who did. Or a person who was told the name Dublin and found that the prison no longer exists. This page is a record, written in the past tense, because FCI Dublin closed in April 2024. Most directories simply delete a prison the day it shuts down. We kept this one, sourced and factual, because the women who were held here and the families still tracing what happened to them deserve a page that does not vanish.

What FCI Dublin was

FCI Dublin was the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, in Alameda County, about 20 miles east of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a low-security federal prison with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp, and it had housed only women since 2012. For years it was one of a small number of federal prisons for women in the country, which is part of why so many people from California and the West were sent there.

At the time the Bureau of Prisons announced its closure, Dublin held roughly 605 women (Associated Press). That number matters because it is the scale of the disruption that followed. When a facility that size closes, every one of those women is moved, often across state lines, along with their medical care, their programming, their release planning, and their contact with family.

What happened: the abuse scandal

Dublin became nationally known for a documented pattern of sexual abuse by the staff who ran it. A 2022 investigation by the Associated Press described a permissive and toxic culture of sexual misconduct by predatory employees, and reported that women who tried to report abuse were threatened or punished. In coverage and inside the prison, Dublin came to be called the “rape club.” That phrase describes the conduct of staff, and it is used here as major outlets have used it, to name what the record shows rather than to sensationalize it.

The criminal cases were real and specific. Since 2021, at least eight FCI Dublin employees were charged with sexually abusing women in their custody. Several pleaded guilty and others were convicted at trial (Associated Press). The most senior was the former warden, Ray J. Garcia. A jury convicted him in December 2022 of eight counts of sexual abuse and one count of lying to federal agents, and in March 2023 he was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender. He was the first Bureau of Prisons warden convicted of sexually abusing people in his custody (U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of California).

Prisonpedia keeps a fuller institutional record of the facility and the criminal cases at FCI Dublin on Prisonpedia.

The court oversight and the April 2024 closure

In January 2024, a 60 Minutes report and FBI activity at the prison brought a new wave of scrutiny. In a class-action lawsuit brought by women held at Dublin, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers moved in March 2024 to appoint a special master to oversee conditions at the prison. Legal advocates described it as the first time a special master had been ordered over a federal prison (Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld; Washington Times).

Within weeks, on April 15, 2024, the Bureau of Prisons announced it was closing FCI Dublin. BOP Director Colette Peters said that despite added resources, the facility was not meeting expected standards, and that the best course of action was to close it. The bureau said the women would be transferred as near as possible to their release locations and that staff would not lose their jobs (Associated Press; PBS NewsHour). The transfers that followed were widely reported as abrupt and chaotic, and there was litigation over how quickly the women were being moved out from under the court’s oversight.

The consent decree and the settlement

Two separate legal tracks came out of Dublin, and it helps to keep them apart.

The first is about conditions. The class-action case, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v. Bureau of Prisons (N.D. Cal., 4:23-cv-04155), was filed in August 2023. After the closure, the parties negotiated a consent decree that was filed on December 6, 2024, finally approved on February 27, 2025, and took effect on March 31, 2025. Because Dublin’s women had been scattered, the decree follows them. It puts a court-appointed monitor over conditions at the facilities that now hold former Dublin class members, reported as 17 facilities as of May 2025, and it addresses staff abuse, retaliation, medical care, case management, and access to counsel (Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld).

The second is about money. In December 2024, the Justice Department agreed to pay nearly $116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by 103 women who said they were abused or mistreated at Dublin, an average of about $1.1 million each (NPR; National Women’s Law Center; Associated Press). That settlement resolved the claims of a specific group of women who had already sued. It was not a general fund open to everyone who passed through the prison.

Where the women went, and how to find someone

The Bureau of Prisons said it would place Dublin’s women as close as possible to their release locations, but many were sent far from home, and reporting described part of the population being redistributed to women’s facilities across the country. If you are trying to locate someone who was at Dublin, use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator at bop.gov, which is searchable by name or register number and reflects a person’s current facility. If the locator shows nothing, the person may have been released, and the release date and any halfway-house placement can be confirmed through BOP or the attorney on the case.

Because the consent decree monitor now covers the facilities that hold former Dublin class members, conditions at those facilities are under ongoing court oversight. That does not change where an individual is, but it is worth knowing that the oversight followed the women rather than ending with the building.

How to request records from a closed facility

A prison closing does not delete its records. Your Bureau of Prisons central file, medical records, and disciplinary records still exist within BOP, and you have a right to request your own.

• Start with the Bureau of Prisons FOIA process at bop.gov/foia, which is how you request your own records in writing.
• Include your full name, your register number if you have it, and the specific records and dates you want. Be as precise as you can, because a narrow request moves faster than a broad one.
• Keep a dated copy of everything you send and every response you get.
• If your records are needed for a legal matter, the attorney handling it can request them as part of that case, which is often faster than an individual FOIA request.

The settlement and legal help

If you were abused or mistreated at Dublin and you are not sure where you stand, talk to the organizations that brought and are enforcing the litigation before you assume anything about deadlines. The legal team on the class-action and consent-decree case includes Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, Rights Behind Bars, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

• Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP: 415-433-6830, and their FCI Dublin case page.
• California Coalition for Women Prisoners: Dublin Prison Solidarity.

These are the people closest to the record. Even if your situation is different from the plaintiffs who settled, they can point you toward the right help, and asking costs nothing.

For the woman who lived it, and the family beside her

If you served at Dublin, what happened there was documented, prosecuted, and acknowledged in court. Believing your own memory of it is not in question. What you may need now is practical: your records, a clear picture of where you or your loved one landed, and people who understand this specific history. Our guide to staying safe and reporting abuse under PREA covers your rights inside any federal facility, and for the period after release, see support groups for women after federal prison and the first weeks home. Dublin is closed. The women who came through it are not a closed file.

Frequently asked questions

Is FCI Dublin still open?

No. The Bureau of Prisons announced the closure of FCI Dublin on April 15, 2024, and transferred the roughly 605 women held there to other facilities. It is not a current federal designation. If your court or legal paperwork still names Dublin, confirm where the person actually is by contacting the Bureau of Prisons or the attorney handling the case.

Why was FCI Dublin closed?

The Bureau of Prisons closed Dublin after years of documented staff sexual abuse and a failure to fix the culture. Eight employees, including the former warden, were charged with sexually abusing women held there. In January 2024 a 60 Minutes report and FBI activity brought national attention, and in March 2024 a federal judge appointed a special master to oversee the prison, the first such order for a federal prison. BOP Director Colette Peters said the facility was not meeting expected standards and that closing it was the best course of action (Associated Press; PBS NewsHour).

What was the FCI Dublin 'rape club'?

'Rape club' was the name used inside the prison and later in reporting to describe the culture of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse at Dublin. A 2022 Associated Press investigation documented a permissive and toxic culture of sexual misconduct by staff, and reported that women who spoke up were threatened or punished. The label is widely used in major-outlet coverage. It describes a documented pattern of criminal conduct by staff, not the women held there.

Where were the women at FCI Dublin sent?

The Bureau of Prisons transferred the roughly 605 women to other federal women's facilities, saying it would place them as near as possible to their release location. In practice, many were moved far from home, and the transfers were widely reported as rushed and chaotic. Under the later consent decree, a court-appointed monitor now oversees conditions at the facilities that hold former Dublin class members, reported as 17 facilities as of May 2025 (Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld).

I was held at FCI Dublin. Can I still get money from the settlement?

In December 2024 the Justice Department agreed to pay nearly $116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by 103 women, an average of about $1.1 million each (NPR; Associated Press). That settlement resolved the claims of a specific group of women who had already sued. We cannot confirm from public sources whether any separate claims process is open to others. If you were abused or mistreated at Dublin, contact the legal organizations listed on this page to ask about your own situation rather than assuming a deadline has or has not passed.

How do I get records from FCI Dublin now that it is closed?

A facility closing does not erase its records. Your Bureau of Prisons file, medical records, and disciplinary records still exist within BOP. You can request your own records through the BOP's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process, and an attorney can request records as part of a legal matter. Start at the Bureau of Prisons FOIA page and keep copies of everything you send.