The woman in the ABC 10 News story is identified only as Dinhora, then 38. She said she was sexually abused while incarcerated at FCI Dublin from 2018
The woman in the ABC 10 News story is identified only as Dinhora, then 38. She said she was sexually abused while incarcerated at FCI Dublin from 2018–2022. Her allegations included that the former warden coerced her into sexual acts and required her to dance naked during his rounds. She also described threats involving visits, phone calls, seeing her children, and solitary confinement. Her individual claim was settled for $1.4 million.
FCI Dublin became known as the “rape club” amid widespread allegations of sexual abuse by staff. Eight Survivors and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners filed a class action in 2023 alleging rape, sexual assault, coercion, voyeurism, retaliation, degrading sexual comments and other abuse.
In December 2024, the federal government agreed to pay $115.8 million to 103 current and formerly incarcerated women who brought sexual-abuse claims. A separate class-action settlement required institutional reforms. The prison itself was permanently closed in 2024.
And Dinhora’s interview contains something directly connected to what we’ve been developing. She described living with continual fear and threats while the people controlling her confinement also controlled access to things such as phone calls, visits and her children.
We have been talking about women who doubt themselves because they knew the man, froze, drank, stayed afterward, reassured him, or didn’t immediately call what happened rape. FCI Dublin lets us examine something adjacent but critical: what does sexual consent mean when one person possesses enormous institutional power over the other?
An incarcerated woman cannot simply walk away from a correctional officer. She cannot leave the building. She may depend upon the institution for food, medical care, communication, movement, privileges and access to family. Federal law specifically prohibits sexual acts between federal correctional employees and people under their custodial authority; consent is not a defense under that statute. That power relationship changes the analysis profoundly.