FCI Dublin sex assault survivors share stories of abuse at Oakland church

Powerless in Prison: The fallout of FCI Dublin

In April, the Bureau of Prisons abruptly shut down the troubled FCI Dublin. KTVU interviews dozens of women and explains what led up to the closure, questioning whether this was retaliation for outside oversight over the prison, which has been riddled with sex abuse for decades.

OAKLAND, Calif. - More than 100 people gathered this weekend to hear women formerly incarcerated at the now-shuttered FCI Dublin prison share stories of sexual abuse and how they're fighting to change the system by speaking out.

Windy Panzo was one of four panelists at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland on Saturday evening discussing what happened to her at the all-women's prison, which shut down in April after eight correctional officers – including the former warden and chaplain - were charged with sex crimes. Seven have been sentenced.

Panzo said this gathering, organized by the Dublin Prison Solidatory Coalition, was the first time she'd been at church in years.

"I was raped by the chaplain," Panzo said, wiping away tears, disclosing for the first time that she was one of his victims.

After being sentenced to 25 years on drug-related crimes, Panzo said she was broken spiritually, and she went to the church at prison to heal.

"I was so low and so rock bottom," Panzo said. "And what I got was a pastor that groomed me and came at me. I didn't think I could get any lower than I was. And then I met the chaplain. I was raped multiple times."

In September 2022, former Chaplain James Theodore Highhouse was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Highhouse had formally been charged with having sex with one woman, but prosecutors say he engaged in predatory conduct with at least six women from 2014 to 2019.

At his sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. told Highhouse that he agreed that the women were raped.

"This was sustained predatory behavior against traumatized and defenseless women in prison," the judge said.

Other women, including a woman identified as Loren, Aimee Chavira and Darlene Baker, who were also incarcerated and released from FCI Dublin, told the crowd their stories of sexual assault.

Chavira became the first of the survivors to be released on "compassionate release," where her attorneys argued that she should be let go from prison early because of the harm she suffered being held at FCI Dublin.

One of the officers who allegedly assaulted her, Darrell "Dirty Dick" Wayne Smith, has pleaded not guilty and is headed to trial next spring.

But the women were not there to dwell in the past.

They had come together from San Diego, Washington state, Oregon and other places to meet for the first time and figure out what to do next.

Earlier in the day, they held a healing circle. Later, they urged each other and community members to write letters to Congress, urging lawmakers to make changes in the Bureau of Prisons system.

In fact, Panzo had testified over the phone before a U.S. Senate committee hearing while she was incarcerated at FCI Dublin and her bravery was lauded with claps at the church event.

Coming foward wasn't easy.

"I've been called a snitch for speaking out," Panzo said.

Baker also was a congressional whistleblower to then-U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, and Loren is one of the eight plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the BOP, which sparked the unprecedented appointment of a "special master" to oversee reforms at the prison.

In response, the BOP shut the prison down in April.

BOP Director Colette Peters said she had tried her best to enact reforms and spent resources on making those changes, but it was too much, and her only choice was to close down the facility.

Several women at the church gathering had been released in the days surrounding the prison closure.

But 600 others were transferred to prisons across the United States, many of them still complaining that their treatment is even worse than it was at FCI Dublin.

Baker, who went to take pictures on Sunday outside the prison to get some closure, said that the situation for many of these transferred women has been "awful."

But on a larger scale, Baker said many of the FCI Dublin transfers have become whistleblowers and mentors at their new prisons, standing up for themselves, teaching others to speak up and demanding that their constitutional rights be adhered to.

That advocacy is now spreading around the country.

"So, in the big picture," regarding the prison closure, Baker said, "it's awesome."