Survivors of sexual abuse in Dublin Prison, including a victim of the prison chaplain, speak out

OAKLAND – For months, sometimes years, female inmates at Dublin Federal Prison remained silent while they were sexually abused by their guards.

Who could they tell when the warden himself, who was in charge of investigating abuse cases in the prison, sexually abused three of them? Who would believe that the prison chaplain they had sought out for spiritual guidance was quoting Biblical parables to coerce and manipulate them into sex? How could they reveal it when their tormentors had the power to make life in a prison cell even more unbearable?

“All of us who were victims were completely helpless once we were inside,” said Darlene Baker, whose attacker has still not been charged.

On Saturday, more than two dozen former inmates who were victimized during the all-women's prison's “rape club” culture gathered at an Oakland church to tell their harrowing stories of abuse and explain how they finally found the courage to come forward. Their brave actions over the past two years — and the efforts of lawyers, relatives and members of Congress who took up their cause — led to criminal convictions of the warden, chaplain and six other prison guards, a class-action lawsuit and, ultimately, the prison's abrupt closure in April. Twenty-nine other prison employees are on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues. A special prosecutor found that so many prison guards were furloughed that the facility could only operate with half its staff at the time of its closure. A federal judge called the prison a “dysfunctional mess.”

Saturday's gathering, sponsored by the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition, whose members filed the class-action lawsuit, featured former inmates who traveled from as far away as Seattle and Arizona to attend the emotional reunion, beginning early in the day with a private healing circle.

“Coming together in a group of other women who have been through the same thing I have brings us closer together,” said former inmate Windy Panzo. “It allows us to share this pain and empower each other.”

By Saturday evening, at least four of them were ready to tell their stories publicly – and give their names.

“My name is Windy and I was raped by the chaplain,” she told the more than 100 people crowded into a conference room at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Oakland, including relatives of the victims and other advocates.

She was serving a 25-year prison sentence for drug offenses and was “emotionally devastated. I was mentally devastated. I was physically devastated.”

She turned to Chaplain James Highhouse in search of hope and was instead “raped multiple times.”

She found her breath caught as she described her name being called over the prison's PA system to meet the chaplain. “He did everything he could to get me to go to the chapel,” she said. “And I had to go. You couldn't say no. You couldn't walk away.”

Former prison inmate Windy Panzo speaks as he sits with a group of survivors of sexual abuse by staff at the now-closed Federal Correctional Institution Dublin Prison during a survivor support event at the Unitarian Church of Oakland in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. The event is sponsored by a group called the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

When she asked for a transfer and told her prison counselor about the abuse, he turned her down: “I'm retiring,” Panzo recalls the counselor saying. “I don't want to hear that.”

“Who do you tell when the director, the chaplain, the guards, the kitchen staff, all are dirty,” said Panzo, “and if they are not directly dirty, do they hide it from everyone else?”

As other victims came forward with stories of rampant abuse at the hands of prison guards, Panzo finally spoke out about her own. She testified against Highhouse, who is now serving a seven-year sentence for sexual abuse. During the sentencing, the judge noted Highhouse's “persistent predatory behavior toward traumatized and defenseless women in prison.” Panzo also found the strength to testify before a congressional committee on a video call.

Former prison warden Ray J. Garcia was sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison in 2023 for sexually abusing three inmates. Garcia, who was promoted from deputy prison warden to the top management position in the midst of the abuse case, had boasted to his victims that he could “never be fired.” The chaplain and the prison warden were two of eight correctional officers charged. Seven were convicted.

No charges have been filed against the doctor who, according to Darlene Baker, locked the door to the doctor's office and sexually assaulted her, she said.

“He pushed me into the back of the hospital room and sexually assaulted me. And I said, 'No.' I said, 'Stop,'” Baker told the group. “And then I realized very quickly that I was completely helpless, completely helpless.”

She told a prison psychologist, who said, “We don't have any mental health services.” If she was suicidal, he told her, she could go into solitary confinement. “And that was the end of my conversation with him.”

When her abuser found out she had complained, he retaliated by withholding her prescription medication for two months.

Baker's family contacted then-U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier of San Mateo, who helped bring the scandal to light.

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, part of the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition, filed a class-action lawsuit in August 2023 demanding fundamental reforms at the prison and systemic changes at the federal bureau of prisons. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed a special counsel, Wendy Stills, to oversee reforms there. Stills and her team had been on site for little more than a week last April when bureau of prison officials announced the impending closure — a move inmates said was a brazen attempt to cover up the scandal and obstruct investigations. The special counsel immediately turned her attention to the chaotic transfer of 603 inmates to other federal prisons for women across the country — most on the East Coast. In her report last month, in which she called conditions there “unacceptable,” Stills described how she prevented a number of buses from leaving on the first day. Some inmates were left on a parked bus for four hours while she ensured that transfers were properly tracked and that anyone close to release was held back. Several inmates, including victims of sexual abuse, were released on humanitarian grounds.

After the closure, the Bureau of Prisons filed a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit, arguing that the prison was closed and the issues raised in the lawsuit were moot. Last week, Judge Gonzales Rogers dismissed the lawsuit. A trial is scheduled for next year.

The women who gathered Saturday are still waiting for justice for the other correctional officers who remain on paid leave and plan to continue to advocate for prison reform.

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