ICE Wants to Reopen Notorious California Prison. Locals Are Fighting Back.

FCI Dublin was shut down in 2024 after revelations of abuse against prisoners. Residents want it to stay closed.

On December 16, 2025, the Dublin City Council in California unanimously passed a resolution formally opposing reopening or reusing the notorious FCI Dublin prison for detention of any kind, including as an immigration jail. The resolution also urged the relevant federal agencies to “engage in open and transparent communication with the City regarding any decisions affecting the site.”

The resolution comes after months of organizing by local and regional residents and a coalition of faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, and those who were imprisoned in FCI Dublin.

That includes Darlene Baker, who was incarcerated at the Dublin federal prison camp from 2022 to 2023. There, she was sexually assaulted by then-medical officer Jeffrey Wilson.

Read full story from Truthout here .

Event Details

This year, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) celebrates 30 years of organizing across the walls of California’s women’s prisons. Since 1995, CCWP has played a unique role in developing an abolitionist feminist vision that is centered around the voices and power of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. We have continuously visited women’s prisons and jails in California, fought for and won freedom campaigns, and welcomed those returning home into our community and leadership roles within the organization.

The challenges we are up against now in 2025 are unprecedented. The racist law and order, anti-immigrant furor and the escalating attacks on women and TGI people directly threaten our work and our community. Your help is critical to fortify our commitment to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in women’s prisons! Join us to honor three decades of collective work & build for the future.

*Help us raise $300K, $10K for every year of CCWP’s legacy, by purchasing the ticket that you can afford. If these options are not accessible to you please reach out to us at: courtney@womenprisoners.org.

*There is no formal dress code for this event. We invite you to dress up and express yourself if you enjoy that!

*Please note that the fair market value of your ticket purchase is $15. Any amount paid over this amount is considered a charitable contribution.

For more information check ou this link. 

CLOSURE IS POSSIBLE! FREEDOM IS NECESSARY! 

CLOSURE IS POSSIBLE!  FREEDOM IS NECESSARY!

Thank you Morgan Vicki Todd and MOVITO Design for creating a logo that breathes life into our campaign. Two flowers represent the two remaining state women’s prisons in California. Almost 4,000 women and TGI people are incarcerated there. We can bring them home. 

Women sue prison gynecologist over ‘horrific, sadistic’ exams, sexual abuse in California

By Julia Marnin

February 5, 2025

If women needed gynecological care at an all-female prison in southern California, their only option was to see the sole gynecologist on staff — a doctor now accused of sexually and physically abusing scores of patients.

Dr. Scott Lee performed abusive, invasive and unnecessary exams on pregnant women and others incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, a new federal class-action lawsuit says.

Lee’s patients endured harmful pelvic examinations, pap smears, sexualized digital penetration, physical restraint and retaliation, along with being denied medical care at the facility, where he was the only gynecologist from 2016 to 2023, according to a complaint filed Feb. 2. The lawsuit was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

To read the full article in the Sacramento Bee, click here.

I helped care for FCI Dublin victims. Trump’s plan to reopen the prison for ICE is horrifying

By Douglas Yoshida

June 12, 2025

As the child of Japanese Americans who were detained for years by the U.S. government, I have witnessed the violent suppression of protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement with shock and anger. ICE’s brutal tactics, separation of families and demonizing rhetoric are reflective of a system that is fundamentally flawed and inhumane. That’s why people in California have been organizing for decades to get ICE out of our communities — and are currently filling the streets in protest.

Here in the Bay Area, there’s one disturbing Trump administration plan in particular worth fighting: making sure the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin — a former Bureau of Prisons facility — does not reopen as an ICE detention center.

In April of 2024, FCI Dublin closed amidst rampant abuse. From 2019 to 2021, at least eight employees at the prison, including the former warden and chaplain, were charged with sexual misconduct. Seven of the employees were found guilty and an eighth will go to trial this fall. In many instances, noncitizens incarcerated at the prison were specifically targeted for abuse by staff, who threatened to turn them over to ICE or made false promises that they could help them stay in the United States in exchange for sexual acts.

Read the full article from the SF Chronicle here.