Chaotic prison closure in Northern California leads to fighting, crying, cutting, inmates say

“I understand they’re closing down the prison,” inmate Margarita Rosales said. “I understand that we’re criminals. I can totally understand that. But we’re still human beings.”

Benjamin O’Cone, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, declined Monday to answer a list of questions about the inmates’ concerns or the status of the shutdown.

Instead, he reissued a statement from Bureau of Prisons Director Collette Peters saying that despite efforts to address employee misconduct, aging infrastructure and the culture of the prison, the Dublin facility “is not meeting expected standards” so must be closed.

The low-security federal prison has played host to a who’s who of female inmates, from Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss to convicted SLA bankrobber Patty Hearst, heiress of the William Randolph Hearst media empire, who was later pardoned by then-President Bill Clinton. Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford, were housed there, and more recently, actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, for their roles in the Varsity Blues colleges admissions scam.

An inmate rights group, California Coalition For Women Prisoners, filed for an emergency temporary restraining order Friday attempting to halt the transfers, but inmates said that a majority of the prisoners had already been cleared out by Sunday.

It’s unclear how many inmates remain behind Tuesday. Over the course of the scandal, prisoners have filed some 60 civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault.

Removing 600 inmates within a week, the motion said, has “wrought chaos” on a population already at risk of “imminent and serious medical injury, including lack of treatment for serious medical ailments, psychological distress and risk of suicide.”

As part of prison policy, officials said they would attempt to keep inmates “as close to their release locations as possible.”

But Thuy Nguyen of San Jose says her sister, inmate Trang Nguyen, was shipped 3,000 miles away from her three young children who live in the Bay Area. They visited her nearly every weekend and played together on slides in a prison playground.

Her youngest, a 2-year-old son who has been raised by his father since he was 6 months old, was just starting to connect with her.

“He found a bond and was comfortable with her,” Nguyen said. “And then now all of a sudden it’s not happening.”

On Thursday, Nguyen said her sister was sent by bus from Dublin to Nevada, then flew with about 60 other prisoners to Georgia, then traveled by bus with about half of them another 12 hours to Miami.

“Her hands were tied. Her legs were tied,” Nguyen said of her sister. “Imagine sitting like that for about three days.”

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