Inside the 'rape club prison': Former inmates tell their stories

(NewsNation) — Six women who were formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin in California are telling their stories of surviving a federal prison so notorious for sexual abuse, it was called the “rape club.”

They tell NewsNation investigative correspondent Natasha Zouves they were assaulted by officers who worked there, and when they tried to report the abuse, they were silenced; some, thrown into solitary confinement, others had their release dates postponed. All in an effort, they say, to cover up what was really happening behind federal prison walls.

‘They’re all in it together’: The Warden’s abuse

Yvonne Palmore says she remembers Warden Ray J. Garcia standing over her, filming her naked body as she was beaten by a group of guards.

“I happened to look up and he’s standing over me with this smirk on his face,” said Palmore. “I woke up in the hospital. I had bruises from head to toe, boot prints, actual boot prints on my body for months. So they hid me in the SHU.”

Palmore said she was put in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in solitary confinement, at one point, for seven and a half months.

“They told my family I was dead when they came to visit. That they didn’t know where my body was, my remains,” said Palmore.

Warden Ray J. Garcia was one of eight former FCI Dublin correctional officers charged in federal court for sexually abusing women behind bars — a record number of correctional officers charged with sex crimes at any federal prison in the United States, according to the Garrison Project.

Garcia is the first warden in the history of the Bureau of Prisons to be incarcerated for a sex offense. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 70 months in prison.

“They’re all together. They’re all in it together,” said Palmore. “I didn’t think I would ever see my family again.”

‘Nowhere was safe’: Abuse in the Prison Church

The former inmates say the abuse was everywhere — in the cells, the hallways, even the prison church wasn’t safe.

Windy Panzo said she’s just one of the survivors of Chaplain James Theodore Highhouse’s abuse. She said she hit rock bottom at FCI Dublin and turned to faith.

“It got real dark, so I started leaning on God. I wound up going to church. That turned out to be even darker,” said Panzo.

She alleges that the chaplain abused her a total of, “four times… when they call you to go, you can’t refuse. You can’t do anything. So he would call me over to get these certificates that he would write. He would wind up grabbing me or doing whatever that he wanted to. And I couldn’t refuse. You can’t leave.”

Panzo is out from behind bars now, trying to rebuild her life. She says she goes to therapy, but she is forever changed by what happened in the chaplain’s office.

“I was 140 pounds when all of this occurred, and I ate myself up to over 200 pounds. I figured if I became ugly, then no one else would want me, no one else in the prison system would come after me, and that wasn’t true. I can’t go to church. I don’t go to church at all, I don’t pick up my bible. I can’t,” said Panzo.

Highhouse was never charged directly in Panzo’s case, he pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual abuse and was sentenced to 84 months in prison.

‘It was a violent type of episode’: Abuse and Retaliation

Darlene Baker says she still can’t sleep after what happened. In a federal lawsuit filed last June, she claims to have been sexually abused by a medical staff member at FCI Dublin.

“I get a shot every two weeks for a pretty severe autoimmune disorder. And I went in to get my shot, and he said, ‘Oh, go on back to where the refrigerator is, into the back medical room.’ And I didn’t know, but he had then locked the front door and locked the inside door,” said Baker.

“(He) pushed me hard against the wall, and it was a violent type of episode. I kind of, I don’t know, blacked out. And when I came back, when there was knocking on the door and he had finally stopped, my shirt and bra was up to my neck and my pants were down,” said Baker.

Baker says she tried to report the assault, and the retaliation began. She says her release was canceled and extended for eight months. Phone calls, emails and personal visits were cut off. She became determined to be the whistleblower who would help bring this all down.

“I have a legal background, And what I saw, I was like I’m going to do this. I’m going to report what I’m seeing,” said Baker.

She did — sending meticulous documentation through another inmate’s mail to her family, who sent it to Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

Representative Speier led a congressional delegation to inspect the facility, and later demanded an investigation into the facility’s compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

The U.S. Government did something unprecedented — reaching a nearly $116 million civil settlement, paying out more than 100 inmates of FCI Dublin.

Baker is proud of her actions and the information she provided that ended up being critical in building evidence, though that medical staff member is not one of the eight charged.

“I still have really bad nightmares every single night, and I think that’s because I know my offender is free.”

She says the medical staff member told her he would find her.

“He’s still out, there’s a whole bunch of them out there, a bunch of offenders,” said Baker.

Kendra Drysdale says she experienced similar retaliation and over-incarceration after she tried to report staff misconduct during a pat-down. She sent what should have been a confidential message to the DOJ — but she says within an hour, she was called into a disciplinary hearing in the prison and accused of lying.

She says the guards asked her what she wanted to keep, “I’m like, oh my God please don’t take my phone. I talk to my daughter every single day. And then she said, ‘We’re going to take your email, we’re going to take your in-person visits. We’re going to take your video visits. And then she looked at the other (officer) and said, ‘What else can we take from her?’ And she said, ‘Well, let’s take her out date.’”

The California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners says Drysdale was left in prison for several months past the date she was supposed to go home.

“They tried to break me in here, they tried to break all of us,” said Drysdale. “They weren’t successful.”

Darrell ‘Dirty Dick’ Smith

The women say they are devastated after the events of this week.

One of the most notorious guards, Darrell “Dirty Dick” Smith, was the last of the eight officers charged with sex crimes at FCI Dublin to go to trial. All seven of the other men have either pleaded guilty or were found guilty, they are awaiting sentencing or are already serving up to 96 months in prison.

Smith was charged in a 15-count indictment — the most counts of any of the officers. But after days of emotional testimony from alleged victims — women coming face to face with the man they say abused them — earlier this week, a federal judge declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict. His new trial is now scheduled for September.

Smith maintains his innocence.

The California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners released this statement after the mistrial:

“Survivors shared extremely disturbing testimony over the course of days, including how Smith raped and digitally penetrated a number of them, masturbated while watching women shower, spanked them, and used coercive tactics such as withholding their mail or not letting them leave their cells if they would not flash their breasts or agree to sexual encounters with him.”

Aimee Chavira alleges “Dirty Dick” Smith abused her. She says the abuse led her to consider taking her own life behind bars.