WASHINGTON (AP) – As the federal Bureau of Prisons faces increased scrutiny over its latest scandal – allegations staff and even a warden sexually abused inmates at a women’s prison known as the “rape club” – people striving to hold it accountable say they’re being attacked for speaking up.
Whistleblower employees say high-ranking prison officials are bullying them for exposing wrongdoing and threatening to close the women’s lockup if workers keep reporting abuse, and members of Congress say they’re being stonewalled as they seek to bring greater oversight to the beleaguered bureau.
The Bureau of Prisons’ proclivity for silence and secrecy has endured, workers and lawmakers say, even after an Associated Press investigation revealed years of sexual misconduct at the women’s prison – the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California – and detailed a toxic culture that enabled it to continue for years.
After that reporting, which included accounts of inmates being sent to solitary confinement or transferred to other prisons to silence them, workers and union leaders at the Bay Area lockup and other federal prisons say they’re also being threatened for raising alarms about misconduct.
At Dublin, union president Ed Canales says the acting warden, Bureau of Prisons Deputy Regional Director T. Ray Hinkle, shared Canales’ confidential emails and home address with the staff after Canales complained to bureau leaders about abuse, corruption and safety issues.