Feds push back against judge and say troubled California prison should be shut down without delay

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal officials are pushing back against a judge’s order that would delay the planned closure of a troubled women’s prison in California where inmates suffered sexual abuse by guards, according to court documents.

Following the Bureau of Prison’s sudden announcement Monday that FCI Dublin would be shut down, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered an accounting of the casework for all 605 women held at the main lockup and its adjacent minimum-security camp.

In response, the bureau has filed court papers questioning the authority of the special master appointed by the judge on April 5 to oversee the prison, who’s now tasked with reviewing each inmate’s status.

The judge’s order amounts to “a de facto requirement” for the bureau to keep the prison open, U.S. attorneys wrote in Tuesday’s filing. But plans for the closure and transfer of inmates “cannot be changed on the fly,” especially because the facility faces a “significant lack of health services and severe understaffing,” according to the filing.