A Warden Who Ran a Prison Called the ‘Rape Club’ Is Now on Trial for Sex Abuse

The sexual abuse trial of a California warden who used to run a federal prison known as a “rape club” kicked off Monday, with emotional testimony from one of the women he stands accused of abusing.

“I felt like he cared about me and he loved me,” said the woman, the Associated Press reported. The woman and the warden, Ray Garcia, had their first sexual encounter in the prison’s visitor’s area, the woman said. She alleged that Garcia told her there were parts of the area where the surveillance cameras wouldn’t catch them. “He just said the sweetest, nicest things, it took me by surprise but I wanted to make him happy.”

Garcia has been charged with sexually abusing three women who were incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, the prison he once ran that, according to the Associated Press, was nicknamed the "rape club" among prison workers and the people held there. Garcia has also been accused of lying to federal investigators when asked if he’d ever had incarcerated women undress for him, or if he’d ever inappropriately touched them. 

The woman who testified Monday also said that, around Christmas 2019, Garcia told her to perform a sex act with a candy cane as he took photos, the Lake County Record-Bee reported. Up to six women are expected to testify against Garcia, although only three have been identified as victims.

The woman who testified Monday that she’s been “tormented” by what happened, the Mercury News reported.

“Getting sentenced to 15 years was nothing compared to what I have gone through,” she said. “They play God with your life. They control it.”

Garcia is one of five Dublin officials charged with sexually abusing women. He retired after FBI agents discovered nude photos of incarcerated women on Garcia’s phone, the Associated Press reported. 

He was arrested in September 2021 and pleaded not guilty. Three of the other officials facing charges have pleaded guilty, according to the Mercury News. 

An Associated Press investigation into the Dublin prison found that women who were held there had started making complaints five years ago, but it’s unclear if those complaints ever went anywhere. The investigation uncovered a litany of alleged abuses, including one woman who accused a prison staffer of saying “let the games begin” when he assigned her to work with another staffer who she said raped her. 

Garcia’s legal team has argued in court records that he took naked photos of one woman because he wanted to record that she was standing around naked, in violation of policy, according to the Associated Press.

There is no way for someone who is incarcerated to give full, voluntary consent to sexual activity with a prison worker, given just how much power the workers wield over incarcerated people’s lives. Sexual activity between incarcerated people and prison staffers is illegal—and sexual misconduct is rampant in the U.S. incarceration system.

In 2018, prison officials noted almost 28,000 allegations of sexual victimization in adult correctional facilities, a 2021 Department of Justice report found. That same year, there were also nearly 6,000 allegations of “staff sexual misconduct” and about 4,600 allegations of “staff sexual harassment.” And although women make up just a fraction of incarcerated people, they say they are victimized at stunningly high rates. Women accounted for just 13 percent of people held at local jails between 2009 and 2011, but they made up 67 percent of the victims of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization, according to another Department of Justice Report.