THE CLOSING OF FCI DUBLIN WILL
CAUSE MORE HARM UNLESS THE BOP SENDS WOMEN HOME
BOSTON, April 16,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Council for
Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls understands
the BOP has decided to close FCI Dublin. The only humane and
ethical way to atone for the atrocities perpetrated there is to let
the women who suffered go home. At the very least, the BOP should
file compassionate release for everyone who has been sexually
abused; they are eligible under the new guidelines from the U.S.
Sentencing Commission. BOP policy 5050.50 allows it to seek the
release of women home who are elderly and/or seriously ill. The BOP
must seek release for mothers of young children at Dublin like Sara
Gallegos, who is doing 20 years for sending two money orders
in a drug conspiracy. Michelle
West should go home after serving more than 30 years for a
murder committed by her then-boyfriend, who did not spend a day in
prison for the offense.
This is an incredible opportunity that the
BOP is using to create more, rather than less, harm. - Andrea C. James
We are alarmed, however, at the BOP's plan of moving the entire
incarcerated population to other prisons. "This is an incredible
opportunity that the BOP is using to create more, rather than less,
harm," said Andrea James, the
Executive Director of The National Council. "Being uprooted and
sent to a new prison hundreds of miles away will only add to the
trauma these women have already suffered." This movement
will separate women from their families who live in proximity to
the prison, destroy bonds that women have forged over years of
shared suffering that enable them to survive, as well as complicate
the lawsuits seeking compensation for the victims. The mass
movement will cause women to lose their possessions, have
programming interrupted, and delay necessary medical care.
According to Danielle Metz, the
National Council's Director of Clemency, "President Biden should
immediately grant clemency to any woman who was sexually abused at
FCI Dublin. It is unconscionable that the BOP's 'solution' to the
Dublin scandal is to make
incarcerated women suffer more."
The National Council calls upon the BOP to work with advocates
to develop a strategy to close the prison in an orderly, fair way
that uses decarceration as a primary tool. The BOP will continue to
compound harm at FCI Dublin until it listens to the expertise of
formerly incarcerated women.
For media inquiries, contact:
The National Council
Ari Goode
agoode@thecouncil.us
About The National Council:
The National Council is a 501c3 organization founded in
2010 by a group of women incarcerated in the federal prison in
Danbury, CT. Most were mothers,
separated from their children. The mission of The National Council
is to end incarceration of women and girls and create the
infrastructure for the systems in support of building healthy,
thriving people and communities. The National Council also
organizes against the incarceration of women globally through its
International Network.
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SOURCE The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly
Incarcerated Women and Girls