April 22, 2025

Chapter 101: Voices From The Inside-The Dublin Prison Scandal w/ Tess Korth

Chapter 101: Voices From The Inside-The Dublin Prison Scandal w/ Tess Korth

Today, I sit down with Tess Korth, the whistleblower who exposed rampant abuse and systemic corruption at FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison in California once dubbed “the rape club” by those who lived and worked within its walls. Tess shares her...

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Interviews

Today, I sit down with Tess Korth, the whistleblower who exposed rampant abuse and systemic corruption at FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison in California once dubbed “the rape club” by those who lived and worked within its walls. Tess shares her firsthand experiences working inside a prison where the power dynamics turned predatory and silence was enforced through fear. Throughout her 25-year career, she witnessed not only the abuse of incarcerated women by staff but also the institutional cover-ups that followed. Tess faced retaliation, ostracization, and threats when she decided to speak out, but she didn’t back down. In our conversation, Tess walks us through the moment she knew she had to blow the whistle, the emotional toll of breaking the silence, and the slow grind for justice in a system stacked against transparency.

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Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.

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Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book

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of the Dead. With me today I have a very

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special guest. Test Courth is a former Federal correctional officer

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and nationally recognized prison reform advocate with over twenty five

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years of service at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California.

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Throughout her career, she was known for her compassion, integrity,

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and on wavering commitment to the rehabilitation and dignity of

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incarcerated women. When whispers of abuse, both physical and sexual,

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started floating through the prison, tests started reporting what was

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happening now, she was retaliated against but that didn't stop

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her voice, and she looked for outside help before resigning

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due to test taking. A stand action was taken and

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not only was Dublin closed, but countless offenders and the

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warden have been prosecuted. One of the worst Darryl Smith,

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whose trial ended with the jury being hung, although a

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new trial date has been said, Tess, thank you so

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much for joining me today.

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Well, thank you for inviting me.

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So before we get into what happened at Dublin with

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these reports of abuse and you reporting everything, I wanted

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to start with, you know what led you to going

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to work in the Department of Corrections. You know, was

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that something you always wanted to do or did you

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kind of just think this was like a good place

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to work kind of thing.

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Well, originally, when I started college in high school, I

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always wanted to like own a chain of luxury hotels.

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That was my thing. I wanted to be in hotel management.

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I started college with doing the hospitality management and stuff,

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and then I kind of changed. Actually, I got kicked

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out of the community college over in San Francisco that

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was running I mean, they had a really good program

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because I had kind of a bad boy boyfriend at

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that time, and it was preventing me from going to

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class a lot. So because he was kind of a jerk,

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it made me change my whole trajectory. And when I

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went to actual college like sax State, got into well okay.

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So when I went to another community college, I thought, oh,

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this criminal justice stuff looks okay. And so I actually

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got my AA in administration of justice and I decided

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I don't want to go do that in management. And

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I think it was because I had this bad boy boyfriend,

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and you know, I was so young and naive and

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really dumb. You know, I was into that, Oh I'm

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going to change the kind of thing which never works.

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Never girls, never, it doesn't work. So I wanted to

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get into like FBI or something like that, which I'm

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so glad I didn't. The quickest way to get hired

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into the government was the Bureau of Prisons. I mean

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they as long as you were warm body, you weren't dead,

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they would hire you. So that to me, the Bureau

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Prisons was just going to be a stepping stone, my

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foot in the door, Go get my job, and then

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transfer to another agency. But then when I started, I thought,

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oh my gosh, when you get in there, you realize

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it's a city in there. It's like a little city.

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They have health department in their education and case management

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unit team, which that's where I wanted to go. It's

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just a whole it's its own city, a facilities department,

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a food service, all that, and I thought, ah, you know,

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I could do okay in here. So I was there.

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I did end up quitting for a little bit for

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ten months. I went to probation because I loved probation,

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but it was over a county probation and they were

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having like union dispute. So I went back because still

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I was a warm body. So they took me back

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at the Bureau of Prisons and I told them I

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specific I want to be a case manager. That's what

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I'm coming back for. So they took me back as

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a secretary unit secretary, and I learned what I had

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to do. I learned all the case management stuff while

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I was a secretary, and because I was in the

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unit learning all of it and worked my whip from

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secretary to warden's secretary, to case management to re entry

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coordinator to unit manager and also a lot of collateral

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jobs like disciplinary sharing officer, planning section team leader, a

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lot of filateral duties you can do in there, so

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always learning stuff. So it was good run until the

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last couple of years. You know, they make it sound

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like if you read interviews or you listen to the

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directors of prison or the unions, they always say, oh,

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we're so short staffed. You know, they take nurses and

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they take case managers and that the most needed people

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and they have to be officers. Blah blah blah. We

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all are officers. We all go say through the same training.

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We all get paid for law enforcement because every single

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one of us is a frictional officer first and then

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we have our jobs. So you know, it just makes

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it sound more dramatic when they're asking for money and

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that the union's trying to make things sound worse than

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they are kind of thing. Or the director just wants

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my money money kind of stuff, instead of like trying

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to be format how they're set up and how everything

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is managed. You know, they just want more money and

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then continue to waste the way that they do.

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That's fascinating. I think a lot of people like don't

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realize that that, you know, the people that work in

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a prison, like they are correctional officers.

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Now in the state prisons, it's different. Like I worked

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for a very short time in the state prisons, California's

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state prison, and they are separate, so they have the

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correctional officers and then everybody else that works in there

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are either civilian or contractors, so like they are not

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law enforcement. If something happens, they don't go running to

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help like we would, so they're separate. They're totally different

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than what the bureau prisons are.

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You know, everyone gets the same training. What is the

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training involved, like what is what is that like? Is

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it like really rigorous or is it no?

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We go well some some did. During COVID there was

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really no no hardcore training or anything for those officers

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because they couldn't travel. They put a freeze on traveling.

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But at the time when I went through, we went

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to they call it FLETSE, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

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It's in Georgia, and we went for about two and

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a half week. And the physical requirement is different now

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than it was then. They've actually lowered the requirements now

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then back then, and they changed the standards. They've made

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it easier now, but you you do a lot of

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training for shooting because when you go out on medical escorts,

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you need to be armed. If you work in the OSP,

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which is outside patrol, your truck is armed, your arms,

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you have on a side arm which is semi automatic firearm,

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you have an M sixteen, and you have a shotgun

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in the truck with you. And then at the higher

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security prisons they have towers, so they have the M

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sixteen's in there, so we need to be able to

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shoot all those and qualify for them. So a lot

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of people like me, I had never a shot before,

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so you have to learn from the basics, and we

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had to shoot a completely different range than they do now.

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Now they stand really close and it's really easy, but

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back then we had to stand like, I don't know,

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fifty yards way or you know, far back and qualify.

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So that's part of it. You have to learn, like

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all the policies you have. What else we oh god,

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we had, I think we were doing jiu jitsu at

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that time. We have to do some self defense thing

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and that was like it was fun. But now they

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just they train them like in realistic stuff like how

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to get away from from somebody charging you, how to

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get out of like if someone's choking you, how to

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get out of that. More practical things than you know,

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putting it kobiyashi or whatever. This is something that we're

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not going to remember. And then there's the physical agility.

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I don't know what they do now. We had a

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dummy drag. We had to drag this heavy dummy like

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all the way around and around and around and physical

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things like that running the track. And then the funniest

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part was which a lot of people didn't like, but

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I loved it. We were in the classroom and they

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had a fake They had a mock scenario they call

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it that some guys came in, you know, with their

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guns and all that, and they you know, it was serious,

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and took us hostage. And I mean they were yelling

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at us and took people out, pretending like they raped

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them and stuff and shot and killed them. And I

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mean when they do scenarios, they do scenarios, they hire

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actors and all that stuff because they want to see

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how you react. And it is interesting. So a lot

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of people didn't like it. They it spooped them. So

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it's interesting. They have little jails set up, so they

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have a lot of scenarios you have to do.

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That's so interesting. I could see some people getting really

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spooked by that though. That sounds like it's incredibly intense.

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Yeah, oh yeah. They cush you out, they swear, they

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call you know, they'll call you racial names, they'll do whatever.

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I mean, just like an inmate would take you hostage.

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They won't care.

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So you you said that, you know, they just kind

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of as long as the body's warned, they'll they'll hire you. Literally,

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were they doing psychiatric evaluations.

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So they should. But nope.

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That's interesting because when you go out to like you know,

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you go into like the police force, and you know

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they do the psycho bowls, but this which is I mean,

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you're coming into someplace where there's that power and balance

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and you're in control of all of these people with

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you know, some of them that are very volatile depending

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on you know, where you are in the prison or

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whatever prison you're in. There's no psychic house. No.

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They started doing some kind of little computer thing, but

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it wasn't a psyche vl. I mean when I went

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to work at probation, there was a psyche val and

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then they have you talk to somebody before they hire you,

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and all this stuff based on your evaluation, and because

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we were armed, we were deputy probation officers. No, they

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need to. And that's why we had so many problems.

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We had some crazy people working there, crazy crazy.

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That's mind boggling to me, Like that's mind boggling.

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Scary people. We had some scary people there.

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That's terrifying. And we're going to go into this that

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what was a typical day like for you working at

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the prison before things started going really bad? You know what?

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What did your day to day kind of look like?

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My day to day? You never know? It was always

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something different because sometimes I would get there before I

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needed to be because once the day started going, the

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inmates days started, and our days started at six am.

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Once six am hit, it was non stop, non it

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was like boom boom, boom, boom, boom boom, inmates at

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my door, people calling me, just non stop. So I

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would get it to my office, which was in the

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housing units, so I lit. My office was inside where

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the inmates lived, so I loved getting there and getting

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there when they were still sleeping. So I would get

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there like maybe four thirty ish five o'clock where it

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was still nice and quiet, and start doing like work

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because there was always tons of work. I'd have to

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run rosters see what was due. The regional office always

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wanted dumb stuff. God, you know. The sad thing is

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that the management, whether it was the regional or central

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or our wardens, the aw's their secretaries. We had an

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aw secretary, a warden secretary, a captain's secretary. See, they

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can do away with those. You got three officers. They

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all wanted the same stuff, you know, and nobody knew

249
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it was already done. I read, you know, so and

250
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so told me to send it to that email box.

251
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It's done. Oh okay, And then I get a request

252
00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.640
for the same exact thing from so and somebody else

253
00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:23.400
and it's like, it's done, it's in that mailbox. Well,

254
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who told you to send it to that that person, Well,

255
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we can't get access to that box, so can you

256
00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:32.720
send it to I mean, it was like the same

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stuff over. We wasted so much time doing that that

258
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kind of thing, and we're doing the same paperwork fifty

259
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times because somebody didn't like that comma there, and so

260
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we would have to redo and reroute something because it

261
00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.720
was all a power trip because that secretary didn't like

262
00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:02.960
that comma, so they kick it back. We'd route it

263
00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.799
it get past that secretary and then that aw didn't

264
00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:10.359
want that comma there, so then it gets kicked back again.

265
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And it's like, why don't you realize, why don't you

266
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look at the mission? You are defeating the mission of

267
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the Bureau of Prisons. Plus you're wasting a lot of

268
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paper and time. I mean, everyone just had a power trip. God, yeah,

269
00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:34.839
look at it. My heart is like boo boom boom,

270
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boom boom, just getting so irritated. So that's I would

271
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get there early so I can get stuff done because

272
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they would want everything walked through because now all the

273
00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:52.279
things that we did early but way before deadline is late,

274
00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:57.799
so we'd have to walk stuff through. So that was

275
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my typical day. It was different all the time.

276
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:06.920
So I know, you were really pivotal in reform and

277
00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:11.240
rehabilitation and you created a program. What was that like?

278
00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:14.079
And you know, how did the inmates respond to you?

279
00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:23.920
Inmates love female females love programs. They love programs. I

280
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I'm not going to say to jamates loved me, but

281
00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:32.359
they loved the programs. I had no problems coming up

282
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with programs. The wardens had no problems approving my programs.

283
00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.559
They loved my programs. I would just pick up the

284
00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:48.799
phone or email different agencies and say, hey, how do

285
00:20:48.839 --> 00:20:51.440
you feel about coming out here? I want to do this.

286
00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:55.000
I think the inmates need that. We don't have any

287
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.640
programs to do that. And they would be like, yeah,

288
00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:00.200
that sounds cool. What do you you know, what do

289
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.119
we need to do and we'd come up with the program.

290
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:09.720
And then when this awful aw came she wasn't even

291
00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:15.680
there a year. She the Second Chance Act thing came along,

292
00:21:16.759 --> 00:21:20.759
and oh god, what is the other thing? I don't know.

293
00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:26.880
It was just alful. It's just she decided to interpret

294
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that they were like programs like for health, like pre

295
00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:37.680
release health education, you know, all the same categories that

296
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we've been dealing with forever. And they had evidence based programming.

297
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:49.680
And so they decided they would pick which that bop

298
00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:56.720
was gonna tell us what programs we can do, and okay,

299
00:21:56.759 --> 00:22:01.759
well whatever, and then they said, oh, and by the way,

300
00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:06.839
you can't do any other programs except for these, Well

301
00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:11.680
those programs were stupid. You know, I have evidence based

302
00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:15.880
programming because I know some of my inmates because they

303
00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.559
would call and tell me how they were doing because

304
00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:21.519
they were allowed to because I was re entry. They're

305
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:27.359
doing great, so to me, that's evidence based. But they

306
00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:32.799
then they decided because I had we used volunteers. We

307
00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:38.079
had like over two hundred volunteers, so we had volunteers

308
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:42.759
that would teach the classes. And these were like professional people,

309
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:44.960
so they knew what they were talking about and they

310
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.200
would follow the outline and you know, they and they

311
00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:51.680
sleved them. They would come at night, they would come

312
00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:58.519
during the day. Then this aw interpreted it, Oh, only

313
00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:02.440
staff can do these classes. Well there you go that

314
00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.960
she ain't going to be done then, and only these

315
00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:12.359
staff members can do it, like counselors, certain staff department

316
00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:19.279
individuals can do it. Well, we have lazy staff and

317
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:24.079
some people are not very educated, and now they're going

318
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.119
to do evidence based programming with the inmates. It's not

319
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:32.240
going to happen. And these inmates are supposed to take

320
00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:37.279
these programs because it gets them extra time off. So

321
00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:44.279
when she said that, no programs got done, none and

322
00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:49.039
they all were on waiting lists. So then all of

323
00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:51.680
a sudden, as long as they're on a waiting list,

324
00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:55.240
they're earning credits to get their time off. Who cares

325
00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:59.000
if they're learning anything. They just they'll get days off

326
00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:05.160
as soon as they're on the waiting list. So why

327
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:09.440
did we have to stop actually teaching them things and

328
00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:14.480
have them actively programming? You know, when they were actually

329
00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:17.480
learning stuff, I was doing a pre released three day

330
00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:21.640
program having an ex offender come in and do it

331
00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:26.920
with probation and just it was like really interactive and

332
00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.359
they loved it and it wasn't optional. They all had

333
00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:33.440
to do it. And now they're sitting and doing nothing,

334
00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.559
but they're getting time off and they're not prepared. You know,

335
00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:42.599
they didn't have any pre release stuff done. They didn't

336
00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:48.400
have any just nothing. But we're sending them out early,

337
00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:55.319
so nothing they do makes sense. That's fascinating to take away,

338
00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:58.680
like because that's in essence is what you're doing. Like

339
00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:01.319
even though like the like you're taking it away, you're

340
00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:06.240
taking away something that's benefiting them. Oh yeah, we did

341
00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:10.880
a program and that they are geared specifically for females.

342
00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.359
We did a program called Foundations. We're always the first

343
00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:19.759
because I was like, we're doing it and it was

344
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:25.440
a long program and we were the only one that

345
00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:30.319
did it in the BOP and one of my aw's

346
00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:34.880
the good one that retired. She would have her AW

347
00:25:34.920 --> 00:25:39.359
friends from other prisons call me and I would explain

348
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:44.720
how to do it. And Central Office sent somebody out

349
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:49.640
to watch us do it because they used this as

350
00:25:49.640 --> 00:25:54.839
a best practice. And even the company, the Change Change

351
00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:58.680
or change company or something, the one that put the

352
00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:04.440
program together, they came out and filmed our program to

353
00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:09.000
use on their DBD for how to run the program.

354
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:18.079
We couldn't do that. It was like, you're stupid. We

355
00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:22.039
had a summer camp inside the prison for the kids.

356
00:26:22.680 --> 00:26:25.680
I partnered with the Catholic charities and one of the

357
00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:31.240
colleges in southern California, and they used art therapy, so

358
00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:35.240
there were art therapists in there the whole week. And

359
00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:41.000
Holy Names College, which now they closed it. But one

360
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:43.680
of the nuns who was very young, I'm like, I

361
00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:46.279
can't believe you're a nun, but she was like full

362
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.640
of energy and everything. They stayed up at Holy Name's

363
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:53.559
College and after they would leave, they would go like

364
00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:57.400
swimming or to the movies, and then at night they'd

365
00:26:57.400 --> 00:27:01.480
have like campfires and songs and things.

366
00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:02.759
So it's amazing.

367
00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.480
Couldn't do that anymore or children. I got with it,

368
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:14.279
get on the bus, and they would go and pick

369
00:27:14.359 --> 00:27:19.279
up kids, like in the buses anywhere. I mean, not

370
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:27.480
like cross country or anything, but as far as Arizona, Utah,

371
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:32.759
like the western states, and they would help them. I mean,

372
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:36.839
if they needed ID, they'd help them get ID. If

373
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:40.319
they needed a bus ticket to get out to the

374
00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:44.519
spots where the buses were leaving from, they'd pay for that.

375
00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:49.559
They'd get it. They would help get things notarized for them.

376
00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:53.319
If power of attorney had to get done. I mean,

377
00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:58.319
they'd like bent over backwards. They told us we couldn't

378
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:02.359
do that because it was free. All this stuff was free,

379
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:08.279
and the person that was the department head in the

380
00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:14.640
central office, she loved it. She loved it, so she said, yes,

381
00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:19.000
do it all, do it all. And then the ethics

382
00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:22.559
department said we couldn't do it after we had done

383
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:26.880
it for three years. And I'm like, why, it's already

384
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:29.920
been approved, we've been doing it, and they said, well,

385
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:34.640
it's free, and we don't know who's backing it. And

386
00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:35.839
I'm like, are you serious?

387
00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:41.799
Oh my god, I already know the answer, but I'm

388
00:28:41.799 --> 00:28:46.359
going to ask anyway. Obviously, it wasn't just female corrections. Officers.

389
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:51.160
You know, there were male officers were some of the

390
00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:56.880
issues that came of it prior to the major incidents

391
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:57.720
that were going on.

392
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:04.839
Since I was there. Since for the last twenty five years.

393
00:29:05.079 --> 00:29:10.680
When I worked there, you know, every so often we'd

394
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:14.359
have what we call staff walked out, the male staff

395
00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:18.920
walked out, and that means they were doing stuff they

396
00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:24.759
shouldn't have been doing, and they would they would clear

397
00:29:24.839 --> 00:29:29.079
the yard. Everybody knew. They all knew all somebody came

398
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:33.359
in with the suit on and they just cleared the yard,

399
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:35.960
and everybody would go to the windows to watch who

400
00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:40.720
was getting walked out, and they would walk somebody out.

401
00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:45.880
They were allowed to resign, and sometimes they'd get prosecuted.

402
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:50.519
Sometimes they wouldn't. And that's just how it happened. It

403
00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:56.880
was every once in a while, and I learned right

404
00:29:56.920 --> 00:29:59.759
from the get go when I was still a rookie

405
00:29:59.799 --> 00:30:03.720
off sir, you gotta report everything. This is what they

406
00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:08.119
pounded in our head from the get go. Pounded it

407
00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:12.920
in our head that if you hear something, if you

408
00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:18.400
think something, whatever, you send a little note to SIS,

409
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:24.160
which is our internal investigation step. So you send us

410
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:27.880
a note of what you heard or what you observed

411
00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.880
or whatever, and they teach us. Every year we have

412
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:36.240
annual refresher training where we're re taught the same step

413
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:42.119
over and over again, the red flags, you know, every

414
00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:47.480
year for we have training for a week. So I

415
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:50.000
was taking that. When I was an officer, I was

416
00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:55.720
taking two inmates out to medical and one was Heidi

417
00:30:55.799 --> 00:31:01.640
Flice and she was she was the Hollywood matter and

418
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:06.799
she was her and the other one we're talking and

419
00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:10.599
they were talking about an officer that put his hands

420
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:13.839
down someone's pants and stuff like that, and so I

421
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:18.319
was listening to him talk and I didn't I you know,

422
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:21.519
I didn't even think anything about it. And I came

423
00:31:21.559 --> 00:31:24.720
back to work and the next day I got called

424
00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:29.640
to the sis lieutenant who is now my friend, and

425
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:34.480
she and I was like all nervous, and she called

426
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:37.640
me in and she said, do you understand that you

427
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:41.680
can be prosecuted. I'm all what, I didn't do anything.

428
00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:50.000
I'm like scared, gitless, And she's all, were you at

429
00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:54.000
the rear gate yesterday? And I'm like, yeah, did you

430
00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:56.720
take you know, so and so out? And I'm all, yes,

431
00:31:57.119 --> 00:31:59.960
I understand you heard something that they were talking about.

432
00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:03.599
I'm all, oh, yeah, that some you know, so and

433
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:08.279
so put his hands down someone's pants and she's all, yeah,

434
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.960
why didn't you report it? Well, well, I didn't see

435
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.720
it or anything. And she's all, you need to report

436
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:22.759
anything you hear or see or anything, or you can

437
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:29.559
be prosecuted. I'm all, oh shit, So I like send

438
00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:36.799
anything and everything to SIS. So we're told that that

439
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:42.200
failure to report, we can be prosecuted for that. Well,

440
00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:46.839
they need to start doing that because there was a

441
00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:50.880
period I think it was when Trump was president last

442
00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:54.519
time we had a hiring freeze. We couldn't hire anybody

443
00:32:55.079 --> 00:33:01.319
except for military and veterans. We can hire them, and

444
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:06.400
we could hire active military also because you know, they

445
00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:09.240
come and go, you know, they'll be on active duty

446
00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:13.599
doing stuff, you know, deployed, and then they come home.

447
00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:18.400
So we had you know, active duty and then they

448
00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:20.680
work for a while, they say, they come and they

449
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.200
take a break, and then they go back out on

450
00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:27.799
active duty. We would get them and we didn't bother

451
00:33:28.599 --> 00:33:32.319
you know, asking them if they need assistance with anything.

452
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:36.640
Because we had one guy, nice guy, very nice guy.

453
00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:41.000
But we had a shooting range right next to us

454
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:45.920
at the Sheriff's office, and sometimes he would like freak

455
00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:52.000
out and step and and you know she I think

456
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:55.839
she was one of the guys too that there's an

457
00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:02.920
article about him. So we get we got a whole

458
00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:10.079
different kind of officer than we had before, and there's

459
00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:14.639
big camaraderie with that, and you know they're not gonna

460
00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:18.000
tell on people and they have their backs and all

461
00:34:18.039 --> 00:34:21.960
that kind of stuff. And then we had a lot

462
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:29.960
of those transfer over to Dublin from penitentiaries, male prisons,

463
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:35.920
and they didn't care inmates or inmates. They didn't care

464
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:39.519
to learn how to deal with female inmates or anything.

465
00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:46.039
So for the last I don't know, you know, like

466
00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:53.199
maybe the last seven years that I was there, it

467
00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:57.480
was more like the inmates were being treated like it

468
00:34:57.559 --> 00:35:01.320
was a prison camp or like they were prisoners of

469
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:05.039
war kind of thing right out in the open. You know,

470
00:35:06.599 --> 00:35:10.800
these bitches this, and and you know that they would

471
00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:14.159
come up ask for something that they had coming to

472
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:20.039
them and they would the officers would respond like so disrespectful.

473
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:26.679
And you know it wasn't just the officers, because everyone

474
00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:29.239
was an officer at one time, and they moved their

475
00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:34.840
way up so it could be a manager or whatever,

476
00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:37.800
and they would do it right out in the open,

477
00:35:38.039 --> 00:35:42.840
in front of the aw in front of the captain.

478
00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:46.679
Captain thought it was funny. In front of the warden.

479
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:51.320
Of course, you know what happened to the warden and us,

480
00:35:51.480 --> 00:35:53.880
the people that had been there for years, they call

481
00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:00.239
them the homesteaders, were like, what is going on? What

482
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:02.440
is going on? I mean I would go talk to

483
00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:05.440
the captain. I'm like, you need to put your officers

484
00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:09.000
in check. I said, this one right here is doing this,

485
00:36:09.239 --> 00:36:12.119
and that one right there is going into rooms tearing

486
00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:14.480
them up because they're not flirting back with them. And

487
00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:19.360
then his friend's writing these inmates up. And his little girlfriend,

488
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:23.280
who is an officer, goes in and starts telling those

489
00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:28.280
inmates that her boyfriend likes bitch, you better stay away

490
00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:31.719
from my man. I'm all, get your officers in check.

491
00:36:32.679 --> 00:36:36.000
And he would just laugh about it. It's like, what

492
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:40.960
is going on here? And I went into the special

493
00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:45.000
housing unit one time. I went down the hall because

494
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:48.239
I would go talk to the inmates. And I went down.

495
00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:51.559
He opened up the gates, say one, and I'm a

496
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:57.239
holy shit, it's hot. It was so hot. And the

497
00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:02.599
officer said, this court, don't say anything. I'm all, what

498
00:37:02.639 --> 00:37:05.480
are you talking about it. It's so hot. You need

499
00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:08.119
to get someone in here to fix this. So I

500
00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:10.800
went down and the inmates, you know, they all had

501
00:37:10.840 --> 00:37:16.199
their tops off, their little sports prop things on. I'm like,

502
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:19.480
it is hot. I'm going to find out what's going on.

503
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:23.760
So I went out again and he's all, there's nothing

504
00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:27.239
wrong with the with the air, and he said they've

505
00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:31.199
been acting up, so piss on them, and he had

506
00:37:31.199 --> 00:37:34.719
turned the heater away up. I said, oh no, no, no, no, no,

507
00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:37.639
put the air on. And I went and told the

508
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:40.039
captain and he just he said, well, they shouldn't be

509
00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:40.599
acting up.

510
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:41.719
I'm like.

511
00:37:44.199 --> 00:37:47.320
No, And so I told the adew I'm like, hell

512
00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:51.159
is going on here? Do you want somebody to fall

513
00:37:51.199 --> 00:37:53.599
out and die in there on your watch? I said,

514
00:37:53.679 --> 00:37:56.960
I'm not, uh uh uh. I just signed the books

515
00:37:56.960 --> 00:37:58.719
that I walked through there, and this sh ain't gonna

516
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:03.559
happen with me walking through. I'm like, oh hell, So

517
00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:07.679
just stuff like that was crazy, and they thought it

518
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:14.400
was funny and it was. It was just crazy there,

519
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:15.679
just crazy.

520
00:38:18.039 --> 00:38:21.039
That's a vile that's vile.

521
00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:23.199
Oh.

522
00:38:23.239 --> 00:38:28.079
Obviously things go really bad and there's sexual abuse going on,

523
00:38:28.159 --> 00:38:30.960
the physical abuse going on. You know, was there a

524
00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:33.800
catalyst for this, you know, were there any signs that

525
00:38:33.880 --> 00:38:37.880
this was happening or did it all come to ahead? Yes?

526
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:42.760
Oh yeah. Well the one that just got the mistrial,

527
00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:46.119
he worked for me for a little bit. I got

528
00:38:46.119 --> 00:38:51.760
a temporary promotion at the end of twenty fifteen. I

529
00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:54.280
think it was either the end of twenty fifteen or

530
00:38:55.079 --> 00:39:01.639
beginning of twenty sixteen. I wrote a memo too then

531
00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:06.840
the acting or the associate warden and the warden and

532
00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:13.039
I gave it to the prosecution and he didn't use it.

533
00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:16.519
It's a very long memo because we I was working

534
00:39:16.559 --> 00:39:20.480
on a weekend and he was there. He's very scary.

535
00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:24.199
He would go out of his way to do things

536
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:31.239
to me, like very passive aggressive, and so he didn't know.

537
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:35.599
I was working on a Saturday morning and we were

538
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:38.920
getting ready for the regional director to come in. So

539
00:39:39.079 --> 00:39:42.119
you know, everybody's shining. I always say they're trying to

540
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:46.599
shine a turd. So the warden was there, that aw's

541
00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:51.079
were there, everybody was there. Well, he didn't do what

542
00:39:51.159 --> 00:39:54.360
I asked him to do the day before, and so

543
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:57.239
he was in my office and I wish I had

544
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:00.920
called the awn. I wish I did, because I could

545
00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:03.519
have swore I smelled alcohol on him, and at that

546
00:40:03.719 --> 00:40:06.239
time he was kind of new. I didn't know that

547
00:40:06.519 --> 00:40:09.800
he had a history of drinking and stuff. So I

548
00:40:09.840 --> 00:40:12.960
have a very sensitive note. So I thought, maybe it's

549
00:40:13.559 --> 00:40:16.880
maybe there's hooch, because I always found hoos in the unit,

550
00:40:17.039 --> 00:40:22.039
which is you know, alcohol. So he got mad at

551
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:24.360
me about something I don't even remember, and he threw

552
00:40:25.239 --> 00:40:27.960
he crunched up some paper and threw it at me,

553
00:40:28.800 --> 00:40:31.360
and I said, that's that's it. And so I wrote

554
00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:34.800
a memo. I said, I don't feel safe with him

555
00:40:34.840 --> 00:40:38.159
in the unit. When he gets mad at me, he

556
00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:41.000
takes it out on the inmates. He gets on the intercom,

557
00:40:41.079 --> 00:40:43.679
he starts yelling at him. He goes in their rooms,

558
00:40:43.679 --> 00:40:49.239
he tears up their rooms. He's racist, he has made

559
00:40:49.400 --> 00:40:53.760
racial comments. Two inmates that I had to move from

560
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:56.760
his side right next to my room so I can

561
00:40:56.800 --> 00:41:01.079
watch him. She you know, I said that he has

562
00:41:01.840 --> 00:41:07.239
moved the young cute Hispanic girls over in front of

563
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:10.519
his office and tells them to keep their doors open

564
00:41:11.360 --> 00:41:14.480
so he can watch him. I had NonStop have inmates

565
00:41:14.519 --> 00:41:18.239
coming to my office crying because they say that he

566
00:41:18.360 --> 00:41:20.920
walks by and looks in the windows while they're going

567
00:41:20.920 --> 00:41:27.639
to the bathroom or undressing. I hear him yelling at

568
00:41:27.679 --> 00:41:33.880
them on the intercom something else. I said, I do

569
00:41:33.960 --> 00:41:36.599
not feel safe. I don't think the inmates are safe

570
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:40.639
with him in the unit. He acts as if he

571
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:46.000
has no respect and doesn't like women, and I don't

572
00:41:46.039 --> 00:41:48.920
think that he should be in this unit or any unit.

573
00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:51.880
I gave that to the prosecution and they never even

574
00:41:51.960 --> 00:41:57.000
used it. That was like ten years ago, so yeah,

575
00:41:57.039 --> 00:42:00.599
there were red flags as red as you can get.

576
00:42:01.480 --> 00:42:08.039
He was horrible, horrible, and I told the prosecution, I said,

577
00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:12.239
get with the Camp Parks police. Because we are on

578
00:42:12.280 --> 00:42:18.920
a military base, an army base, and he lived on

579
00:42:19.159 --> 00:42:23.840
base and his wife worked with us. The police would

580
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:27.800
always get called up to his house, which again that's

581
00:42:27.840 --> 00:42:30.880
not supposed to happen with us, you know, that's a

582
00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:35.639
violation of our employment. The police were called up there

583
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:40.719
for some kind of domestic thing, and he ran from them,

584
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:44.119
and he ran into the prison camp where there's inmates

585
00:42:44.320 --> 00:42:49.639
and just hid out in there. Again, he still worked

586
00:42:49.679 --> 00:42:59.880
for us, but he remembered. The prosecution didn't bother doing

587
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:02.079
any of that. They could have got all that stuff

588
00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:02.639
for the trial.

589
00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:05.000
Of course they could have. Of course they could have.

590
00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:09.719
Yeah, I mean all this stuff was stuff that they

591
00:43:09.719 --> 00:43:14.400
could have presented instead of not objecting to irrelevant questions

592
00:43:14.440 --> 00:43:16.119
asked by the defense.

593
00:43:17.239 --> 00:43:23.920
So when you started reporting everything after everything got worse,

594
00:43:23.960 --> 00:43:25.679
and you know, these women are being raped and they're

595
00:43:25.719 --> 00:43:31.119
being you know, abused, what did what did the warden do?

596
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:33.320
What did the union do? Like, what did anyone do?

597
00:43:34.679 --> 00:43:35.559
But what did they say?

598
00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:38.400
Like, what was the reaction? You come stuff with this information?

599
00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:44.960
And they did nothing? They did nothing? Well, Okay, So

600
00:43:45.079 --> 00:43:48.639
we had another warden at the time when I had

601
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:54.199
him Smith working for me, and I would, like I said,

602
00:43:54.199 --> 00:43:57.119
the wardens like me, and I was never in the military,

603
00:43:57.159 --> 00:43:59.159
so I didn't give a shit about that rank thing.

604
00:43:59.639 --> 00:44:01.760
I would just walk right into the warden's office and

605
00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:08.599
go to chat with them. And at that time he

606
00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:15.039
had me so stressed out, so stressed out, and something

607
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:23.039
happened after the fact between we had an HR manager

608
00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:27.519
that actually quit the Bureau of Prisons because of an

609
00:44:27.559 --> 00:44:31.000
incident with him, and she had to get a restraining

610
00:44:31.119 --> 00:44:38.440
order from him between him and her daughter. I don't

611
00:44:38.440 --> 00:44:43.280
know what was going on with him, but yeah, and

612
00:44:43.800 --> 00:44:50.840
I totally remember that and the article that the union

613
00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:54.079
president lied on the stand about. He brought that up

614
00:44:54.360 --> 00:45:00.599
about HR manager letting his daughter letting her daughter read

615
00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:05.039
personnel files or something, which wasn't probably not true because

616
00:45:05.039 --> 00:45:09.880
this HR manager was like by the book and they

617
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:14.199
probably didn't like that. So she actually left the bureau

618
00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:18.000
and then a couple of years later she went to

619
00:45:18.039 --> 00:45:23.880
a different prison. But that's how scary he is. So

620
00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:27.519
I would go and I would tell this other warden

621
00:45:27.639 --> 00:45:34.960
he's retired now. God, this guy was crazy crazy. He

622
00:45:35.360 --> 00:45:41.199
call us racist and this warden with nuts, although he

623
00:45:41.239 --> 00:45:44.599
did like me, so I was, you know, I tried

624
00:45:44.639 --> 00:45:47.440
to keep him calm, but I would tell him about

625
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:54.119
this guy. And this warden was like a total male chauvinist.

626
00:45:54.880 --> 00:45:58.800
She was not from the United States. He was just

627
00:45:59.760 --> 00:46:02.960
he he's just so astonished when he walked into Dublin

628
00:46:03.639 --> 00:46:11.480
and saw women working, like writing the lawnmower. We had

629
00:46:11.480 --> 00:46:14.840
writing lawnmowers. She had never seen that before. He was

630
00:46:14.920 --> 00:46:19.599
just so astonished that women can do that. And he'd

631
00:46:19.639 --> 00:46:23.519
said that in front of a central office person and

632
00:46:23.559 --> 00:46:26.920
we all looked at each other and we're like and

633
00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:29.960
the central office lady said yeah, we've been working for

634
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.360
a long time, and so he's like that kind of person.

635
00:46:34.119 --> 00:46:38.639
So I told him about him, and he said, overly,

636
00:46:40.440 --> 00:46:43.920
I've always thought he good guy. He comes in every morning,

637
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:49.039
we drink coffee, we chit chat. And I said, oh, no,

638
00:46:49.320 --> 00:46:53.840
he's not. She's awful. And I told him some stiff

639
00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:57.519
and he's like, we're gonna get well, we're gonna get

640
00:46:57.519 --> 00:47:03.239
down to the bottom of this. And so the warden

641
00:47:03.719 --> 00:47:07.320
hated my boss via w because she was a woman.

642
00:47:08.239 --> 00:47:12.679
So if he said something, she would tell me to

643
00:47:12.719 --> 00:47:15.320
do it the right way, and then he would call

644
00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:18.400
me and say, oh, you do that, and I would say,

645
00:47:18.480 --> 00:47:21.920
the aw don't do that, and it was like, you know,

646
00:47:22.519 --> 00:47:26.480
parents pitying each other. It was the most stressful time.

647
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:31.400
So he would want to handle it. You know, we're

648
00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:33.599
gonna get down to the bottom. And then the next

649
00:47:33.719 --> 00:47:37.239
day I would have to do the same thing because

650
00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:40.880
the smith would have gone during the day to the

651
00:47:40.920 --> 00:47:45.199
warden with his coffee and sit down and chit chat

652
00:47:46.400 --> 00:47:49.639
and talk about how bad I was, and it was

653
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:57.880
just awful. So nothing, nothing would get done. But this

654
00:47:57.880 --> 00:48:05.159
this same warden he used to go after after the

655
00:48:05.239 --> 00:48:10.400
four o'clock count He would go watch this particular female

656
00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:15.960
and mate teach jazz, the jazzer size, the aerobics class.

657
00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:18.159
He would just sit there and watch.

658
00:48:18.320 --> 00:48:23.519
So, you know, birds of a feather, Yeah, exactly.

659
00:48:25.400 --> 00:48:29.840
You can't write this stuff like I mean.

660
00:48:31.159 --> 00:48:34.119
Now, it it's quite literally stranger than fiction.

661
00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:37.000
It is, it is. But you know, the stuff still

662
00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:41.320
goes on because I have the other I have people

663
00:48:41.480 --> 00:48:48.719
from other female institutions send me messages in Facebook asking

664
00:48:48.760 --> 00:48:54.480
me through Messenger that I don't even know that asked

665
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:59.000
me what should they do? Oh, it's still it still happens.

666
00:48:59.039 --> 00:49:04.440
They don't learn their life. I always have said, you know,

667
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:09.880
throughout the twenty five years the BOP, they just make

668
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:15.679
lawsuits for themselves. You know, they just they just can't

669
00:49:15.719 --> 00:49:21.360
help themselves. You know, they just do stuff that they

670
00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:25.400
can prevent and they don't. They don't. They'll just say

671
00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:33.559
whatever with everything. You know, they're stupid. And I loved,

672
00:49:33.960 --> 00:49:40.320
you know, I was like all gung ho. I was

673
00:49:40.360 --> 00:49:44.800
in management. I was I loved that job. I loved

674
00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:49.639
that job up until I really saw what was happening

675
00:49:49.840 --> 00:49:55.840
and it really sucked, really sucked.

676
00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:01.000
That's terrible that they just they they took something that

677
00:50:01.079 --> 00:50:03.400
you loved to do, and they just they was ended

678
00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:07.440
up warped and twisted and terrible and then they retaliate

679
00:50:07.480 --> 00:50:08.079
against you.

680
00:50:10.159 --> 00:50:16.519
Yeah, and the bad thing what really sucked was, you know,

681
00:50:17.280 --> 00:50:22.000
I took them to I guess court because I had

682
00:50:22.039 --> 00:50:26.159
to go to the MLSB, which is a merit Labor

683
00:50:27.480 --> 00:50:32.719
Systems board or something. And the way they dicked me around.

684
00:50:34.639 --> 00:50:37.360
I warned the people that I used to work with,

685
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:41.559
because you know, everybody was like, oh they you know,

686
00:50:41.639 --> 00:50:45.760
nobody wanted to talk or you know anything. They just

687
00:50:45.880 --> 00:50:48.800
you know, lay down and do nothing. And I said,

688
00:50:48.880 --> 00:50:51.599
you know what if they did it to me, because

689
00:50:51.599 --> 00:50:55.119
they always acted like I was a little their little

690
00:50:55.159 --> 00:50:57.840
star and stuff. I said, they're going to be doing

691
00:50:57.880 --> 00:51:00.239
this shit to you guys, And sure, shit they did.

692
00:51:01.280 --> 00:51:05.039
And I get email our little messages you know, what

693
00:51:05.119 --> 00:51:07.440
did you do? And I thought, it's like, don't ask

694
00:51:07.480 --> 00:51:10.480
me for help. I haven't found a job yet and

695
00:51:10.519 --> 00:51:13.840
it's been almost three years, so don't be asking me

696
00:51:13.960 --> 00:51:20.960
for shit. At least they're offering you guys jobs. They

697
00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:27.599
blacklisted me or something, but they treated me so bad.

698
00:51:28.199 --> 00:51:35.159
They acted like I was a terrible employee. They in

699
00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:39.360
court I had on the witness list so I can

700
00:51:39.400 --> 00:51:45.519
cross examine them, the regional director who lied, the deputy

701
00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:51.480
regional director who lied, my aw who lied and falsified

702
00:51:51.519 --> 00:51:58.039
a document, and it was like it didn't it still

703
00:51:58.079 --> 00:52:02.719
didn't matter. Nothing happen to them. I proved that they lied.

704
00:52:03.880 --> 00:52:08.239
I had the original document I brought up, which you know,

705
00:52:08.320 --> 00:52:10.199
I knew was not going to be relevant, but I

706
00:52:10.239 --> 00:52:13.639
just wanted to get get it in on them that

707
00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:18.840
they had criminal records. You know, right before this is

708
00:52:18.840 --> 00:52:22.320
how the bop is, how you screw up to move

709
00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:27.719
up the aw right before she came to Dublin, how

710
00:52:27.719 --> 00:52:32.400
to duy. So I showed the mugshot and I said

711
00:52:32.920 --> 00:52:35.199
when she when she first came out, and I said,

712
00:52:36.159 --> 00:52:38.679
have you been drinking this morning? She said, oh no.

713
00:52:40.840 --> 00:52:45.960
I said, is it true that you got a DUI

714
00:52:46.360 --> 00:52:51.159
and miss year and then right before you came to Dublin.

715
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:53.920
And they're all, that's irrelevant. I said, no, it's not,

716
00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:58.079
because it would explain your erratic behavior at the institution.

717
00:52:59.079 --> 00:53:02.519
So I did prove that she retaliated against me, So

718
00:53:02.599 --> 00:53:06.559
that was proven, and I proved a lot of the stuff,

719
00:53:06.599 --> 00:53:14.039
but I was trying to prove constructive termination, and they

720
00:53:14.079 --> 00:53:20.360
said no. But the other guy, the regional deputy director,

721
00:53:22.280 --> 00:53:25.119
he came in like a bad out of hell and

722
00:53:25.320 --> 00:53:29.039
acted like I was, you know, not qualified for the job,

723
00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:35.719
all this crap, and she right before he got promoted,

724
00:53:37.360 --> 00:53:42.760
he pled guilty to a misdemeanor for speeding. He was

725
00:53:42.840 --> 00:53:46.639
like doing a hundred and something, and so I brought

726
00:53:46.760 --> 00:53:51.639
that up and they're all irrelevant, but he was one

727
00:53:51.679 --> 00:53:59.599
of the original cowboys. They would they handcuffed African American

728
00:54:00.599 --> 00:54:03.440
prisoners and beat them up and call them racial names

729
00:54:03.480 --> 00:54:06.199
and stuff. That was one of our leaders. And then

730
00:54:06.239 --> 00:54:10.199
the regional director said, she never met me before. It's

731
00:54:10.280 --> 00:54:16.719
like are you serious? At you many times? So I'm thinking,

732
00:54:16.840 --> 00:54:20.519
if this is how they treat me, imagine how they

733
00:54:20.639 --> 00:54:26.519
do the inmates. Imagine how they lie about stuff. So

734
00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:29.960
the inmates are like doomed.

735
00:54:31.519 --> 00:54:33.840
So you we talked about this a little bit before

736
00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.239
we started recording, but you were at the trials for

737
00:54:36.320 --> 00:54:39.920
these men. You know, what is that like, especially considering

738
00:54:40.039 --> 00:54:43.000
what happened with Daryl Smith's trial and you know, it

739
00:54:43.320 --> 00:54:45.920
ending in the jury being hung. You know what what

740
00:54:46.039 --> 00:54:46.599
was that like?

741
00:54:47.159 --> 00:54:51.239
I think that the prosecution doesn't really want to work

742
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:56.519
that hard to convict them. These guys are you know

743
00:54:56.559 --> 00:54:59.280
with the warden I sat through that she could have

744
00:54:59.360 --> 00:55:04.880
been convicted and sentenced a lot harder. Oh. Part I

745
00:55:04.920 --> 00:55:07.400
didn't get to tell you about. For the warden's trial

746
00:55:08.320 --> 00:55:15.039
was the FBI agent that was there. I don't know

747
00:55:15.079 --> 00:55:21.519
if she was just either lazy or incompetent. She when

748
00:55:21.519 --> 00:55:24.760
they went into his house, you know, he had naked

749
00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:30.639
pictures on his government phone, so I can't remember if

750
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:33.840
it was on his phone or his computer at home.

751
00:55:34.599 --> 00:55:37.119
But you know how you can make your own little

752
00:55:37.920 --> 00:55:41.159
locked file or whatever on your computer. Well, he had

753
00:55:41.199 --> 00:55:46.559
a locked file and they couldn't get into it, and

754
00:55:46.880 --> 00:55:50.440
it's the FBI, so they don't know what was in it.

755
00:55:51.400 --> 00:55:55.519
And the judge said, but I love this judge. She's

756
00:55:55.639 --> 00:56:01.039
very tough. The judge said, wait a minute, didn't you

757
00:56:01.119 --> 00:56:06.000
don't you have an IT guy? And she said, well

758
00:56:06.039 --> 00:56:08.320
it was that night we didn't want to call him.

759
00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:13.079
And she said, you are the FBI, and you guys

760
00:56:13.079 --> 00:56:18.679
didn't open this private folder. You don't know what was

761
00:56:18.719 --> 00:56:23.039
in this private folder. And she says no. And then

762
00:56:24.599 --> 00:56:29.639
because you know the SIS guy, the SIS lieutenant and

763
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:33.920
the warden are good friends. So that's why nothing happened.

764
00:56:34.960 --> 00:56:43.320
So the FBI asked the sis lieutenant for video of

765
00:56:43.559 --> 00:56:50.079
the warden and this one inmate, and the judge said,

766
00:56:50.079 --> 00:56:54.039
did you get it? And she says, well, no, because

767
00:56:54.079 --> 00:57:00.199
he went on vacation and the judge said, well he

768
00:57:00.280 --> 00:57:03.840
returned from vacation. She said, well, he was on leave

769
00:57:04.159 --> 00:57:05.840
or extended leave.

770
00:57:06.960 --> 00:57:09.360
And the.

771
00:57:11.559 --> 00:57:17.559
Judge said, why didn't you subpoena and she said, well,

772
00:57:17.920 --> 00:57:21.639
usually he just gives it to me, and I judge

773
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:28.440
is all, you didn't subpoena something that the warden has

774
00:57:28.480 --> 00:57:32.360
access to because the only people that have access to

775
00:57:32.519 --> 00:57:36.280
video is a warden and the sis lieutenant who is

776
00:57:36.280 --> 00:57:41.119
his friend and so because they worked together for years

777
00:57:41.239 --> 00:57:45.400
and they always are like buddy Betty, and she's all no.

778
00:57:47.400 --> 00:57:49.920
So he she said when did he come back? And

779
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:52.199
she saw, oh, he was out for a few months.

780
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:55.079
So she said when he got back, did you get

781
00:57:55.079 --> 00:57:57.960
the video? And she says, and I'm thinking in my

782
00:57:58.039 --> 00:58:03.039
head no, because it tapes a like every few days,

783
00:58:03.079 --> 00:58:06.679
and so she's all known. And the judge asked, or

784
00:58:06.679 --> 00:58:10.440
why not, Well, because it's tapes over each other, like

785
00:58:10.679 --> 00:58:16.639
every recycled every week, and she said, and the judge

786
00:58:16.719 --> 00:58:23.719
just says wow. So in the trial for Smith, I

787
00:58:23.880 --> 00:58:27.920
just had to leave in this one part because again

788
00:58:29.199 --> 00:58:34.880
the prosecution just was allowing the defense to ask questions

789
00:58:34.920 --> 00:58:42.159
of a sexual abuse victim that you can't ask. I mean,

790
00:58:43.239 --> 00:58:47.679
you're not supposed to be asking these irrelevant questions, and

791
00:58:48.280 --> 00:58:52.840
they just don't object. And that happened in the warden also. Finally,

792
00:58:53.360 --> 00:58:57.440
an abuse victim said is that relevant? Are you allowed

793
00:58:57.480 --> 00:59:00.440
to ask me that? And the judge had to butt

794
00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:04.559
in and say, do you want to object? And they objected,

795
00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:08.719
and she said on what grounds? And he said the

796
00:59:08.719 --> 00:59:12.480
grounds and she said, no, that's not right, and he

797
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:18.639
switched to another thing. And it's just like they it's

798
00:59:18.679 --> 00:59:24.880
like they want to convict, but not so bad because

799
00:59:24.920 --> 00:59:28.480
they're all Department of Justice. It's like a big family

800
00:59:28.639 --> 00:59:32.400
kind of thing. And on Smith, I think they don't

801
00:59:32.440 --> 00:59:36.119
really want to convict because that will open them up

802
00:59:36.119 --> 00:59:42.239
again for a multimillion dollar lawsuit, just like it did

803
00:59:42.239 --> 00:59:49.360
with the warden. And also the warden, the judge said

804
00:59:49.519 --> 00:59:54.400
the pre sentence report they did there were additional victims

805
00:59:54.719 --> 00:59:59.199
that were interviewed that were far worse than the ones

806
00:59:59.239 --> 01:00:05.639
that actually we were named in the prime that he

807
01:00:05.800 --> 01:00:10.119
was convicted for and she was surprised that she didn't

808
01:00:10.239 --> 01:00:16.039
see indictments for those ones. And she said, I'll give

809
01:00:16.079 --> 01:00:21.119
you time. If you want to do some super superseding indictments,

810
01:00:21.320 --> 01:00:23.920
I'll give you time to do them. And they said, no,

811
01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:29.519
you weigh those. And I was sitting in the in

812
01:00:29.599 --> 01:00:32.039
the you know, I was sitting in the courtroom with

813
01:00:32.079 --> 01:00:35.960
the reporters and with like the advocates and with the

814
01:00:36.119 --> 01:00:41.360
inmates attorneys and stuff, and we're like, what the hell.

815
01:00:43.360 --> 01:00:44.559
I'm saying, what the hell?

816
01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:51.159
And you know, I gave him evidence, he didn't use it.

817
01:00:52.079 --> 01:00:55.400
I told him I would get up there as a

818
01:00:55.480 --> 01:01:00.480
rebuttal witness and explain that, you know, things that they were.

819
01:01:01.039 --> 01:01:07.840
That defense was like questioning and making that inmate sound

820
01:01:07.960 --> 01:01:11.960
like she was lying and she really wasn't, because you know,

821
01:01:12.079 --> 01:01:15.880
during that time it was COVID and all that, so

822
01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:20.280
to the jurors it probably made it sound like she

823
01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:23.760
was lying and she really wasn't. And no, he didn't

824
01:01:24.599 --> 01:01:28.000
didn't even get back to me, just to know.

825
01:01:29.760 --> 01:01:35.280
I his new trials in like September a thing, so hopefully,

826
01:01:35.960 --> 01:01:40.360
but what a mess, What a mess. And but it's

827
01:01:40.400 --> 01:01:46.119
I mean, thankfully you you spoke out because I can

828
01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:48.199
only imagine what had been what would have been going

829
01:01:48.280 --> 01:01:49.159
on like now.

830
01:01:50.159 --> 01:01:53.360
I was kind of sad that they closed it because

831
01:01:53.400 --> 01:01:56.559
you know, there's a lot of good people, the ones

832
01:01:56.639 --> 01:02:02.480
that lived, the homesteaders, the ones have been here for

833
01:02:02.760 --> 01:02:07.159
you know, as long or longer than me that that

834
01:02:07.280 --> 01:02:10.719
were like me, I'm just I'm not picking up. And

835
01:02:11.039 --> 01:02:14.960
they knew I wasn't going to move and leave this area,

836
01:02:15.159 --> 01:02:18.000
which now, respect maybe I should have because now I

837
01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:23.199
can't find work. But they knew I wasn't going to.

838
01:02:24.360 --> 01:02:28.039
I mean, I've had people offer me jobs and other

839
01:02:28.119 --> 01:02:32.840
places that I've turned down in the central Office and

840
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:36.159
I've turned down. So no, I'm not going to go

841
01:02:37.039 --> 01:02:40.880
take the same job I have at this prison that

842
01:02:40.920 --> 01:02:46.639
they're having problems with up in Oregon. No. So, and

843
01:02:46.679 --> 01:02:49.639
they knew I wasn't going to, so I retired. I

844
01:02:49.639 --> 01:02:55.519
didn't want to retire at forty nine the Hill. So yeah,

845
01:02:56.599 --> 01:03:00.039
So I am kind of sad because I did. I

846
01:03:00.079 --> 01:03:02.880
did love that place, you know, I did love that job.

847
01:03:03.760 --> 01:03:08.840
And I mean some of the inmates actually a lot

848
01:03:08.840 --> 01:03:11.719
of the inmates I kind of grew up with, you know,

849
01:03:12.239 --> 01:03:15.599
I saw them get old. I've seen their kids grow

850
01:03:16.599 --> 01:03:19.199
and now they're shuffled all over the place too.

851
01:03:20.639 --> 01:03:25.440
So that is sad because they took something that you

852
01:03:25.800 --> 01:03:29.159
loved and heard about so much, you know, doing all

853
01:03:29.199 --> 01:03:32.159
these good things for the women there, and they win

854
01:03:32.280 --> 01:03:36.599
day completely and that's really sad.

855
01:03:37.320 --> 01:03:41.079
Yeah, Pisces me on and I know all the the

856
01:03:41.199 --> 01:03:44.280
other ones that I worked with feel the same. I mean,

857
01:03:44.920 --> 01:03:47.840
you're not supposed to get friendly or to you know,

858
01:03:48.039 --> 01:03:51.119
attached inmates and stuff which were not attached to them.

859
01:03:51.159 --> 01:03:56.920
But female inmates are different, you know, you have to

860
01:03:57.800 --> 01:04:02.440
you have to relate to them different. That's why we

861
01:04:02.599 --> 01:04:08.000
have a whole training on female offenders and there's a

862
01:04:08.039 --> 01:04:12.880
whole branch in Central Office on female offenders because they're

863
01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:18.960
just different. And the problem was that these people coming

864
01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:22.440
in they didn't want to learn it. A lot of

865
01:04:22.480 --> 01:04:26.199
the ones that came in, you know, they they had

866
01:04:26.280 --> 01:04:30.400
like they filed something with the union against somebody, so

867
01:04:32.159 --> 01:04:36.480
they in order for them to drop it, they get

868
01:04:36.480 --> 01:04:39.320
to pick where they want to go, and so they

869
01:04:39.360 --> 01:04:42.800
want to go to Dublin because they hear, oh, female,

870
01:04:42.920 --> 01:04:47.360
that's the easy job, and we get paid the highest

871
01:04:47.880 --> 01:04:51.079
pay in the Bureau of Prisons. And then they come

872
01:04:51.119 --> 01:04:53.840
out here and they see why. It's because it's expensive,

873
01:04:54.880 --> 01:04:59.760
and they're the ones that they're the ones that screw up.

874
01:05:00.199 --> 01:05:06.159
Everybody that was convicted. They came from somewhere, they were

875
01:05:06.199 --> 01:05:14.159
not they were not homesteaders, so they ruin it. And

876
01:05:14.239 --> 01:05:16.199
there's still a lot more. I don't know if they're

877
01:05:16.239 --> 01:05:19.639
still doing investigations. But that was just the tip of

878
01:05:19.719 --> 01:05:20.400
the iceberg.

879
01:05:22.960 --> 01:05:23.719
Oh I'm sure.

880
01:05:24.480 --> 01:05:30.519
I'm I have like big flashes of people, but yeah,

881
01:05:32.519 --> 01:05:33.119
a lot more.

882
01:05:34.559 --> 01:05:37.320
I have one more question for you, and it's what

883
01:05:37.840 --> 01:05:41.159
advice would you give to someone that's going into working

884
01:05:41.719 --> 01:05:44.599
with in prison or you know, being a corrections officer.

885
01:05:44.719 --> 01:05:47.800
What what advice would you give them?

886
01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:57.599
Don't don't do it. Don't do it. It is it

887
01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:08.159
is not it's very toxic. I would say, don't do it. No,

888
01:06:08.239 --> 01:06:16.280
not anymore. Everybody, the ones that I think that did

889
01:06:16.320 --> 01:06:25.840
it right have retired. Because I'm still on the Facebook

890
01:06:25.880 --> 01:06:32.880
page for Bureau Prisons and all that, so I read

891
01:06:33.119 --> 01:06:36.599
what the one the officers and the staff that still work.

892
01:06:37.599 --> 01:06:40.079
I read their little comments and stuff, and it's like,

893
01:06:40.159 --> 01:06:44.320
oh god, yeah, it's never going to change, never going

894
01:06:44.360 --> 01:06:45.639
to change.

895
01:06:45.880 --> 01:06:46.559
I'm that sad.

896
01:06:47.199 --> 01:06:50.440
Mm hmm. It is it is.

897
01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:54.159
But you know, hopefully enough people out there like you

898
01:06:54.239 --> 01:06:57.760
and actually speak up about what's going on in any

899
01:06:57.880 --> 01:06:59.000
prison that they're at.

900
01:07:00.159 --> 01:07:03.440
I would hope so, But really it's they don't. They're like,

901
01:07:04.440 --> 01:07:07.079
I just mind my business. I just you know, and

902
01:07:07.119 --> 01:07:14.280
it's like, you can't, you can't. And the thing that

903
01:07:14.360 --> 01:07:19.079
pisses me off is every year we have training, they

904
01:07:19.239 --> 01:07:23.800
train us in red flags if you notice this, you know,

905
01:07:23.960 --> 01:07:27.679
blah blah blah, and then they when we report the stuff,

906
01:07:27.719 --> 01:07:30.719
they don't do anything. Why are you telling us this stuff?

907
01:07:30.760 --> 01:07:33.440
Then they do it just to cover their ass.

908
01:07:33.639 --> 01:07:36.400
Yeah, because at that point there's no point in reporting

909
01:07:36.440 --> 01:07:37.880
anything because nothing's going to happen.

910
01:07:37.639 --> 01:07:45.159
Any exactly, Egg exactly. I reported the chaplain. The chaplain

911
01:07:45.599 --> 01:07:48.960
was it had an office right next to us, and

912
01:07:49.079 --> 01:07:56.039
me and my mentor, me and my partner, we right

913
01:07:56.079 --> 01:07:59.719
off the bat reported him. We said he's gonna be

914
01:07:59.760 --> 01:08:03.519
a problem. We already talked to him about what he's doing.

915
01:08:03.840 --> 01:08:07.239
It's not right. They're going to compromise you. You need

916
01:08:07.280 --> 01:08:10.840
to knock that off. He didn't care. He's like, this

917
01:08:10.880 --> 01:08:13.960
is how I do it. Okay, Well you're gonna get it.

918
01:08:14.320 --> 01:08:19.560
You are gonna de walked out you and we reported

919
01:08:19.640 --> 01:08:22.199
him to his boss. She didn't do anything. We reported

920
01:08:22.239 --> 01:08:25.279
him to SIS over and over again. They didn't do anything.

921
01:08:25.760 --> 01:08:29.079
He was on probate, you know, first year. When you're

922
01:08:29.119 --> 01:08:32.399
on probation, you can get fired for whatever. They should

923
01:08:32.439 --> 01:08:38.119
have got rid of him and this other guy. They

924
01:08:38.199 --> 01:08:40.720
I told them, get rid of him while he's on probation.

925
01:08:41.359 --> 01:08:45.079
He's gonna he's gonna be a mess if he did

926
01:08:45.159 --> 01:08:47.680
that while he was on probation. Get rid of them.

927
01:08:47.800 --> 01:08:53.600
They didn't, And so they just walk themselves into trouble.

928
01:08:54.840 --> 01:08:58.560
But they need warm bodies, that's why they do.

929
01:08:58.600 --> 01:09:02.680
They need warm bodies, and they should be screening them properly,

930
01:09:02.680 --> 01:09:03.079
and they're not.

931
01:09:03.439 --> 01:09:07.119
Yes they should, Yes, they should because and then after

932
01:09:07.199 --> 01:09:12.560
the fact, Oh yeah, so and so he molested somebody

933
01:09:12.600 --> 01:09:16.960
and he had problems at his lash job. You didn't

934
01:09:17.000 --> 01:09:19.640
know that, And they get it and we get an

935
01:09:19.680 --> 01:09:24.079
FBI background cheeck. Oh yeah, he's got a history of

936
01:09:24.199 --> 01:09:27.479
domestic violence and when he was in the army, this

937
01:09:27.560 --> 01:09:30.880
and that and that. Oh you didn't know that either.

938
01:09:32.399 --> 01:09:37.760
It's like, what kind of background check do we do? So?

939
01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:41.039
Oh yeah, there's histories of everything.

940
01:09:42.239 --> 01:09:42.960
Unbelievable.

941
01:09:43.239 --> 01:09:45.239
I know. I'm sorry. I thought we were supposed to

942
01:09:45.279 --> 01:09:49.039
have a clean conduct. I should have gotten into those

943
01:09:49.079 --> 01:09:54.600
bar fights in your time being good, I did waste

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01:09:54.640 --> 01:10:00.399
my time being good. Damn Tess.

945
01:10:00.479 --> 01:10:02.359
Thank you so much for joining me today. I really

946
01:10:02.359 --> 01:10:04.000
appreciate it. Oh you're welcome.

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01:10:04.520 --> 01:10:05.079
Thank you.

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01:10:06.560 --> 01:10:10.359
For everyone listening. Thank you so much. As always, I

949
01:10:10.399 --> 01:10:12.880
hope you have a wonderful week, and I will see

950
01:10:12.920 --> 01:10:16.359
you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys,

951
01:10:17.800 --> 01:10:22.800
Another page closed. But the story isn't over for the

952
01:10:22.840 --> 01:10:26.600
families left behind. The pain doesn't end when the headline's fade.

953
01:10:27.279 --> 01:10:30.239
And for the victims, we owe them more than silence.

954
01:10:31.199 --> 01:10:34.680
For our on solved cases. If you have any information,

955
01:10:34.920 --> 01:10:37.720
please reach out to local authorities or visit our show

956
01:10:37.760 --> 01:10:42.479
notes for links and resources. Someone out there knows something,

957
01:10:43.399 --> 01:10:47.800
Maybe it's you. Thank you for listening to the Book

958
01:10:47.840 --> 01:10:50.880
of the Dead. If this story moved or spoke to

959
01:10:50.920 --> 01:10:54.760
you in some way, talk about it, share it. Keep

960
01:10:54.800 --> 01:11:00.199
their names alive until next time. I'm Courtney Lee's, so

961
01:11:01.920 --> 01:11:07.239
stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant, and remember the

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01:11:07.319 --> 01:11:11.239
dead may be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.

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01:11:12.159 --> 01:11:12.199
M
Tess Korth Profile Photo
Tess Korth

Tess Korth is a former federal correctional officer and nationally recognized prison reform advocate, with over 25 years of service at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. Throughout her career, she became known for her compassion, integrity, and unwavering commitment to the rehabilitation and dignity of incarcerated women.

Tess was a driving force behind the introduction of rehabilitative programming focused on healing and reentry preparation. While earning her Master’s degree in Public Administration, she developed one of the first gender-specific release preparation programs tailored to the needs of incarcerated women. She submitted the program to the Bureau of Prisons’ Administration, and shortly thereafter, it was adopted and introduced across the system—marking a critical step forward in gender-responsive corrections long before such approaches were widely embraced.

Her dedication didn’t stop at program development. Tess worked to create a culture of respect inside the facility and actively supported women in their personal growth. However, when she began reporting misconduct and abuse by fellow officers, she faced retaliation. In what she viewed as a punitive measure, she was reassigned to a male facility in Oregon. Refusing to be silenced or compromised, Tess made the difficult decision to resign from her post in 2022.

Since leaving the Bureau of Prisons, Tess has become a bold and credible voice in the national movement for prison reform. Her story has been featured on 60 Minutes and other national media outlets, w…Read More