07-04-2023, 11:36 AM
Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Thu 6 Apr 2023 11.00 BST
In early 2022, Cristal came forward about the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of multiple guards at the federal prison in Dublin, California – one of dozens of victims to speak up about misconduct.
Today, rather than being reunited with her family after completing her sentence, she’s in immigration detention, awaiting deportation to Mexico – a country she left as a baby.
......
Cristal’s nightmare is not an anomaly, but a common experience across the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), east of San Francisco. Indictments against five officers show that guards systematically victimized women in their custody, intimidated them into silence, lied to cover up crimes and often targeted non-citizens.
......
26 of those survivors are now facing deportation, including several who directly testified in court. At least eight victims have already been deported.
......
Cristal said she was eventually contacted by a BoP investigator looking into abuse claims at the facility, and while terrified to speak up, she told him what she’d endured. She later also spoke to the FBI.
She became one of many women who reported abuse at Dublin, an institution that, according to an Associated Press investigation last year, was widely known by staff and residents as “the rape club” due to its culture of rampant sexual violence. (The Associated Press report on Rape Club is here: https://sgtalk.net/Thread-The-Rape-Club-...#pid157103 )
In December, a jury convicted Ray Garcia, the FCI Dublin warden at the time of Cristal’s incarceration, of sexually abusing three incarcerated women; forcing women to undress and taking their photos; and lying to the FBI.
......
Three other officers, including one named as an abuser in Cristal’s complaint, have pleaded guilty to similar crimes. A fourth is awaiting trial. Three officers identified in Cristal’s claim have not faced charges.
......
The criminal cases scratch the surface of the daily misconduct in Dublin, which has decades of documented sexual abuse cases, said Beaty. The advocacy coalition has interviewed more than 140 survivors of abuse and retaliation at the facility, they said.
......
When women tried to resist, guards fiercely retaliated, Cristal said. After her cellmate stopped having sex with one guard, he placed Cristal in solitary confinement for a month and fired her from her kitchen job, she said. Without wages from her kitchen job, she couldn’t buy essentials or snacks, she said; some days she’d go without food. When she returned from solitary, all her belongings had been trashed, including photos of her children, she said: “That hurt me the most, because I couldn’t replace them.”
Much better to read full report at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023...nia-mexico
Thu 6 Apr 2023 11.00 BST
In early 2022, Cristal came forward about the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of multiple guards at the federal prison in Dublin, California – one of dozens of victims to speak up about misconduct.
Today, rather than being reunited with her family after completing her sentence, she’s in immigration detention, awaiting deportation to Mexico – a country she left as a baby.
......
Cristal’s nightmare is not an anomaly, but a common experience across the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), east of San Francisco. Indictments against five officers show that guards systematically victimized women in their custody, intimidated them into silence, lied to cover up crimes and often targeted non-citizens.
......
26 of those survivors are now facing deportation, including several who directly testified in court. At least eight victims have already been deported.
......
Cristal said she was eventually contacted by a BoP investigator looking into abuse claims at the facility, and while terrified to speak up, she told him what she’d endured. She later also spoke to the FBI.
She became one of many women who reported abuse at Dublin, an institution that, according to an Associated Press investigation last year, was widely known by staff and residents as “the rape club” due to its culture of rampant sexual violence. (The Associated Press report on Rape Club is here: https://sgtalk.net/Thread-The-Rape-Club-...#pid157103 )
In December, a jury convicted Ray Garcia, the FCI Dublin warden at the time of Cristal’s incarceration, of sexually abusing three incarcerated women; forcing women to undress and taking their photos; and lying to the FBI.
......
Three other officers, including one named as an abuser in Cristal’s complaint, have pleaded guilty to similar crimes. A fourth is awaiting trial. Three officers identified in Cristal’s claim have not faced charges.
......
The criminal cases scratch the surface of the daily misconduct in Dublin, which has decades of documented sexual abuse cases, said Beaty. The advocacy coalition has interviewed more than 140 survivors of abuse and retaliation at the facility, they said.
......
When women tried to resist, guards fiercely retaliated, Cristal said. After her cellmate stopped having sex with one guard, he placed Cristal in solitary confinement for a month and fired her from her kitchen job, she said. Without wages from her kitchen job, she couldn’t buy essentials or snacks, she said; some days she’d go without food. When she returned from solitary, all her belongings had been trashed, including photos of her children, she said: “That hurt me the most, because I couldn’t replace them.”
Much better to read full report at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023...nia-mexico
![[Image: 201806us_family_separation.jpg]](https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/styles/embed_xxl/public/multimedia_images_2018/201806us_family_separation.jpg)