A 29-year-old towing company owner was sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a plan to set the trucks of four rival companies on fire, along with two years for submitting fraudulent car insurance claims, with state welfare fraud charges pending.

As Bay City News reports, Jose Vicente Badillo, 29, who's the owner of San Francisco-based companies Auto Towing and Specialty Towing, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison on February 12 after pleading guilty to committing arson. As Mission Local reports, Badillo carried out a plan between April and October 2023 in which he conspired with others to set fire to six different tow trucks owned by four competitors in San Francisco and East Palo Alto, according to court documents.

Bay City News writes that Badillo’s plan was in retaliation to perceived wrongdoings by his rivals as well as an effort to drive more customers to his businesses. Additionally, Badillo was sentenced in a separate federal case on February 13 to 27 months in prison for conspiring to submit false auto insurance claims, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, between 2017 and 2021 approximately, which he’ll serve at the same time as the arson sentence, per Bay City News.

Mission Local reports that the two cases are part of a long roster of cases opened against Badillo in recent years. In 2023, the San Francisco district attorney charged Badillo on counts of welfare fraud, perjury, and grand theft for allegedly lying on his welfare application. Per Mission Local, while Badillo’s companies were generating $2 million per year in revenue, which went toward a $250,000 Lamborghini and several other large purchases, Badillo and his partner managed to receive full Medi-Cal, CalFresh, and CalWORKS benefits.

Additionally, Mission Local reports that Badillo has been prohibited from working with the city of San Francisco since February 2024 after it was discovered that one of Badillo’s companies installed fake “no parking” signs in a bank parking lot in 2023 and illegally towed cars. As Mission Local reported last fall, Badillo was reportedly still working with the city under a different business name despite no longer having a permit.

Image: TrongNguyen/Getty Images

A new analysis tracks what became of California prison inmates released early during the COVID outbreaks of 2020 and 2021, and finds that just over 30% of them committed crimes again and found themselves back in prison.

Back during the darkest days of COVID in 2020 and 2021, we saw the recurring tragic story of COVID outbreaks at San Quentin and other California prisons, with the San Quentin outbreak alone claiming 29 lives. So the state of California made a trade-off, choosing to release about 15,000 prisoners from the cramped and high-risk quarters of its prisons, reducing the prison popualtion, and sending the least violent offenders of the bunch to ride out the remainder of their sentences at home.  

A new analysis from CalMatters tracks what happened to those released early between April 2020 and December 2021. And those numbers show that nearly one-third of those released ended up back in prison. That is, 14,800 prisoners were released early during that period, and about 4,600 (31%) found themselves convicted of another crime and back in prison at some point before January 31, 2025.

Of course, the flip-side of this is that nearly 70% of those released early did not commit more crimes. And of those who did recede back into crime, these were by and large not cold-blooded murders. The breakdown of the crimes these individuals committed after release were illegal possession of a gun (14%), assault (10%), burglary (9%), and crimes like vehicle theft, robbery, and domestic abuse all in the 4%-5% range.

These results did not surprise the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who say that nonviolent offenders tend to repeat their crimes at higher rates.

“People eligible for expedited release were non-serious/non-violent, a demographic with a higher tendency to recidivate,” department spokesperson Albert Lundeen told CalMatters. “It is expected that return rates for this subgroup would be higher than overall recidivism rates.”

Still, CalMatters’ analysis has some horror stories of people who did commit violent or despicable crimes. One early-released prisoner strangled a woman to death in San Diego, a cocaine offender shot up a car and killed a woman, a burglar killed someone in a Long Beach DUI crash, and a drug dealer traded cannabis for nude Snapchat photos of minors.  

Those are the outliers. And one could still say that the nearly 70% who did not commit crimes made the early release program a success, with a sort of glass half-full (or more than two-thirds full) kind of argument.

Supporters of re-entry programs also point out that at the height of COVID, when these individuals were released early, there really were no structured re-entry programs, perhaps setting up these recently incarcerated people for failure.

“There was no funding available to … pick people up from prison, bring them to housing beds that were not available, provide them with any type of case management system,” Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) president Terah Lawyer told CalMatters. “This was a very, very trying time in our community."

Related: Another COVID Outbreak Hits San Quentin, Despite High Vaccination Rate Among Inmates [SFist]

Image: Walk south along the west facing prison fence (Getty Images)

The eighth man to be charged in connection with sex crimes at the now shuttered women's prison known as FCI Dublin, and the one charged with the most counts, had his first day of trial Monday at a courthouse in Oakland.

Former correctional officer Darrel "Dirty Dick" Smith — so nicknamed, apparently, because of his reputation with inmates — began his trial Monday, as KTVU reports, and a former inmate named Shayla testified that he ordered her to get naked and lie on her bed so he could look at her.

She also testified that during her incarceration between 2017 and 2022, Smith told her that he liked small breasts, and would ask if he could see her feet. And, she said, on one occasion, Smith came up to her and whispered that he wanted to "lick me from my belly button to my butt-hole."

Smith is charged with 15 counts including abusive sexual contact, sexual abuse of a ward, aggravated sexual abuse, and deprivation of rights under color of law. He is just the third former prison guard or officer to face a jury trial, as five of the seven other men who faced federal charged pleaded guilty.

Former FCI Dublin Warden Ray Garcia went to trial in late 2022 and was found guilty of seven counts of sexually abusive conduct and one count of making false statements to government agents. He is now serving a 70-month sentence, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said at the time of his sentencing that it was "another step forward in our ongoing efforts to root out sexual misconduct within the [Bureau of Prisons]."

Witnesses in the trial of Smith, who is the final FCI Dublin figure to face trial, are expected to testify to a range of lewd, lascivious, and abusive behavior. The former inmate Shayla already testified, as KTVU reports, that he was openly referred to as "Dirty Dick" because he was known act this way with many of the incarcerated women.

"Some of those women are expected to testify that Smith asked them to flash him their private parts, pinned them against the wall, fingered their buttocks and vaginas, watched them shower, bribed them with cellphones in exchange for sex, served as lookouts for him when he had sex with others, and entered their cells while they were naked and showering," KTVU reports.

The jury will have to decide on the credibility of the women who testify, with the defense already saying in its opening statement that there is no video or physical evidence of these crimes, and it is just their words — the words of convicted felons — against Smith's.

Of course the context of the larger culture at FCI Dublin is likely known to the jurors, if not the seven previous convictions, including five guilty pleas, by other officers.

The prison was closed last April shortly after an FBI raid, and it was announced in December that it would remain closed permanently, due to various issues including the costs of necessary repairs to the complex.

It was rumored last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was having a look at the facility, perhaps as a possible detention facility for arrested migrants, but that has not been confirmed.

The Trump administration has since laid out plans to use military bases for this purchase, something that some Democratic lawmakers are pushing back on this week.

Every prisoner has now been abruptly transferred out of the federal women’s prison in Dublin, but some have been hauled as far away as Florida, and a judge is ordering their belongings returned and their medical care restored.

The federal women’s prison known as Federal Correctional Institution of Dublin (FCI Dublin) has had a stunning string of ghoulish sexual abuse scandals bubble up over the last nearly two years. And while we knew the staff had been abusing the women prisoners, it was a shock when the prison was raided by the FBI in March, and then suddenly closed out of the blue on April 15. The 600-plus prisoners were hastily shoved into buses with no idea where they were being sent, often without their possessions, and with their families not being notified where the women were being sent.

All of the women are now out of that prison. But according to the latest report from KTVU, they’ve been shipped as far away as Texas, Alabama, and Florida. And that same KTVU report details how the women were denied the ability to bring their belongings, medicine, and even feminine hygiene products. So a US District Court judge has written a blistering 15-page ruling condemning how the whole mess was handled, and ordering regular updates proving that the prisoners’ possessions have been returned and their rights restored.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote that the US Bureau of Prisons’ “operational plan for closure of FCI Dublin was ill-conceived and, like Swiss cheese, full of holes.” She added that the bureau “ignored other operational issues including the proper movement of the [adults in custody's] property and the appropriate communication and messaging to the [prisoners] and staff who were not advised of the closure until the last minute.”

Last minute, indeed. The staff were apprantly not notified of the Monday morning tranfers until late the prior Friday afternoon.

Oh, and we’re also learning the prison was somehow crawling with illegal drugs. “Drug treatment programs were not available for the majority of the population that requested treatment, despite drugs being rampant at the facility,” Gonzalez Rogers said.

She mentions this in the context that the transferred prisoners had been denied their prescribed medication, or any medical care they needed.

Gonzalez Rogers ordered weekly and monthly reports proving that each prisoner had all of their possessions returned, all of their medicine provided, and all of the medical care they need delivered. She also demanded staffing reports proving that the new prisons to which the women were moved were adequately staffed.

It seems like a responsible intervention to what has been a real disaster. And maybe it will bring some closure to this nightmare. But considering the haphazard way this matter has been handled, it seems likely that we have not heard the last of these prisoners’ rights being abused.

It also remains unclear if the Bureau of Prisons still intends to reuse and repopulate FCI Dublin, or if it's just going to sit empty for a while.

Related: Scandal-Plagued FCI Dublin Women’s Prison Is Abruptly Closing After Torrent of Sex Abuse Claims [SFist]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

We don’t know how many women have been transferred out of the scandal-ravaged and soon-to-be-shuttered FCI Dublin women’s prison, but attorneys for the inmates have filed an emergency restraining order to halt the clearly haphazard and rushed transfer process.

In the shocking Monday morning announcement that the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI Dublin) would be suddenly closing after years of sexual misconduct and assault scandals, the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) said they’d hoped to ship all of the prisoners out by Friday. Well, it is now Friday, and it seems the effort may be just resulting in more prisoner abuse of a different kind.

KTVU reports on the chaotic and hurried transfer process of the estimated 605 women there. Some are reportedly not medically able to be transferred at the time, but are being chained up and shipped out anyway. Others are apparently not being told where they’re going, and are simply being thrown on a bus. There are even reports of strip searches and menstruating women being denied tampons, left to simply bleed on themselves, which indicates this response to the sexual assault scandal is only forcing more trauma on the inmates.

The husband of one prisoner told KTVU his wife “was told she had 15 minutes to pack," and given no information where she was being taken. There are only six other low-security federal women’s prisons elsewhere in the US, none of them in California.

It may be a more important aspect to that KTVU story that attorneys for the prisoners have filed a restraining order to immediately halt the transfers. Or it may prove totally unimportant, as KTVU notes that “most, if not all, of the women have already been hastily shipped out of the prison.”

The restraining order motion says that "While the Court may not prevent BOP from closing a prison in due course, it has the authority, jurisdiction and duty to ensure that the process is carried out in compliance with relevant federal laws and in accordance with constitutional standards."

The FCI Dublin prison guards and their union are also fighting the move. While the BOP has said that none of them will lose their jobs, that likely means that they will have to upend their lives and transfer, probably out of state.

"My officers are not the abusers," union president Edward Canales told KTVU. "They are the officers that maintained safety and security and prevented abuse."

There are some nicely resolved cases where Dublin inmates were released early if their sentences were already nearly complete. But it is odd that the BOP has been completely silent on how many women are still there, and where the others have been shipped to. And it’s possible they will complete all the transfers today in secret, with no accountability.

KTVU spoke with some families, and got the information that “One father said maybe 100 women were left early Friday morning. Another mother said ‘everyone is gone.’”

Related: Scandal-Plagued FCI Dublin Women’s Prison Is Abruptly Closing After Torrent of Sex Abuse Claims [SFist]]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

In a sudden and surprising Monday morning announcement, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced they’re immediately closing the FCI Dublin women’s prison, and they’re already transferring the inmates out.

The Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI Dublin), 20 miles east of Oakland, saw its reputation change from being considered one of “America's 10 Cushiest Prisons” to being known as the “rape club” when a stomach-churning set of sexual abuse claims from the women incarcerated there came to light in the summer of 2022. Eight officers have been charged with sex crimes at the all-women’s prison, including the warden and even the chaplain, and seven of those men charged have been found guilty and shipped off to prison themselves.

Despite those bad actors being taken out, the FBI still raided the prison last month, so clearly there were ongoing issues.

Now we get the stunning Monday morning news that the federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the FCI Dublin prison immediately, according to KTVU. That station reports that buses were spotted in the parking lot there Monday morning, indicating that inmate transfers are likely already underway. KTVU adds that all the women incarcerated there are expected to be transferred out by Friday.

“We have determined that FCI Dublin is not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility,” Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters said in a statement to the Associated Press. “This decision is being made after ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of those unprecedented steps and additional resources.”

But the suddenness of the thing has obviously unnerved the prisoners and their families. "My niece just called me this morning," an aunt of an incarcerated woman told KTVU. "She is petrified because she doesn't know where she is going." That prisoner was expected to be released this month, but now it’s unclear what will happen with her.

The AP adds that there are only six federal women’s prisons in the country, so it’s likely that the some 640 prisoners will be transferred quite a distance away. KTVU has sources within the prison speculating that they could be transferred as far away as Oklahoma and Illinois. The Bay Area News Group also obtained a statement from the Bureau of Prisons saying the women would be transferred “as close to their release locations as possible.”

Last month’s raid resulted in the ouster of yet another FCI Dublin warden (the facility’s fifth in just the last three years) and the appointment of a special master to oversee operations. There are more than 60 lawsuits ongoing from women incarcerated there alleging sexual abuse by guards and staff.

"The evil is beyond comprehension," previously transferred Dublin prisoner Rhonda Fleming told KTVU. "God will deal severely with these prison officials."

Bay Area News Group also points out that supposedly no current staff will be losing their jobs, and the Bureau of prisons added in their statement that “the closure of the institution may be temporary but certainly will result in a mission change.” It’s highly unclear what they mean by “mission change,” though KTVU has some sources on the inside saying that the facility could be reopened as a men’s prison.

Related: FBI Raids Dublin Women's Prison, Warden and Three Others Ousted [SFist]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco resident Min Jin Zhao, 60, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison and directed to pay almost $2 million in restitution to the investors he scammed, including one he convinced he was a movie producer, according to a statement released on Friday by the Northern District of California’s U.S. Attorney's Office.

Zhao pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud involving two separate investment schemes that started in 2017 and 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

According to the statement, the first investment scheme took place from 2017 to 2021. It apparently involved a “dear friend” giving the entirety of her retirement savings — over $2 million — to Zhao under the premise that he would invest it through a company he called "Big Block Consulting, Inc." (BBC). Despite promising her a 10% monthly return on her money, he reportedly never invested any of it, and she had no savings left over for everyday expenses. As KPIX reported, Zhao admitted in his plea agreement that he had instead used the funds to buy a condo in Indian Wells, California, just outside of Palm Springs.

In the second one, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, which Zhao carried on from 2018 to 2021, he claimed to be a film executive at Sony. Zhao was apparently able to convince a man to invest $500,000 in the fake company, BBC, to be an executive producer on movie projects. The victim signed a written contract and handed over $300,000, which he had borrowed from a family member, based on Zhao's fraudulent claim. In the plea, Zhao admitted he was never associated with Sony, nor was he ever a film executive.

The case was ultimately investigated by the FBI, leading to Zhao’s prosecution. In addition to the 5-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who presided over the case, ordered Zhao $1,883,503.93 in restitution and to forfeit the Indian Wells property.

Image via Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons.

A scandal-plagued week at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin just got more scandal-plagued, as a Congressional investigation is looking into why a regional prisons official and former acting warden was able to rise the ranks despite a history of inmate-beating charges for which other guards got fired.

The minimum-security women’s prison Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin, in Alameda County, has long been considered a “country club” kind of prison. It’s been the place of incarceration for the rich and famous who got caught; Patty Hearst, Squeaky Fromme, and “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss, and more recently, Full House star Lori Loughlin and Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman in the 2019 “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal.

Yet we in the media were probably naive to call it a “country club” prison, as we’ve lately learned of some horrible sexual abuse of women incarcerated there. In fact, we have should called it a “rape club” prison, as it turns out that’s an actual term the guards used to describe their exploits. Former warden Ray Garcia was indicted in August for a myriad of sex  crimes (he had a trove of nude photos he’d forced inmates to pose for on his government issued phone), and he was convicted on sexual abuse charges last week.

One would hope that after that scandal, things would be cleaned up around there, but far from it. As seen in the above tweet for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), also last week the Associated Press reported that new Bureau of Prisons Deputy Regional Director Thomas Ray Hinkle has a history of beating inmates senseless, and the victims were generally Black inmates. “An Associated Press investigation has found that the Bureau of Prisons has repeatedly promoted Hinkle despite numerous red flags, rewarding him again and again over a three-decade career while others who assaulted inmates lost their jobs and went to prison,” the AP reported,

And this all appears to go way beyond just FCI Dublin . The New York Times has their own reporting today that sexual abuse of incarcerated women is rampant all over the country. “Federal Bureau of Prisons employees have abused female inmates in at least 19 of the 29 federal facilities that have held women over the past decade,” the Times reports. As seen below, there is going to be a Senate hearing on this today.

In terms of Hinkle, who was just promoted to the deputy regional director role, the AP reports that he says this was all in the distant past, and while  he “acknowledged he beat inmates... he regrets that behavior and now speaks openly about it ‘to teach others how to avoid making the same mistakes.’"

And his higher-ups are sticking to their guns for him. "Mr. Hinkle has openly acknowledged his past mistakes, gone through the employee discipline program, sought professional help and reframed his experiences as learning opportunities for others," Federal Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters told the AP. "Today, I am confident he has grown into an effective supervisor for our agency."

We can expect some contradiction of this characterization from Bay Area Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who told KPIX of a "hostile" encounter she had with Hinkle at FCI Dublin in February, while he was briefly serving as acting warden there. Speier tweeted Friday about the AP article, "The details revealed here are deeply disturbing. If only half of what is reported is true, Hinkle should be terminated immediately."

The congressional pushback against prison guard and warden misconduct will likely become a bipartisan issue. On the left, Durbin and our own California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla seem likely to tee up on this in hearings. On the right, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will have opportunities to go off on Merrick Garland and Biden’s “out of control” Justice Department. But in this case, it may be turn out quite accurate that the Bureau of Prisons is, in some regards, very much out of control.

Related: Ex-Warden of Dublin Women's Prison Convicted of Sexually Abusing Inmates [SFist]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

The third of five officers and employees of the federal women's correctional facility in Dublin to be charged with sex abuse crimes, former prison cook Enrique Chavez, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of groping an inmate.

Chavez, who lives in Manteca, was charged with two instances of "abusive sexual contact" with one particular inmate, and according to court documents, both instances occurred in October 2020. Chavez is now the third officer or employee at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI-Dublin) to plead guilty to similar crimes.

Prosecutors say that Chavez, on at least two occasions, touched or fondled the inmate "with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire" of himself or the inmate. On one occasion he intentionally touched the victim's breasts and buttocks, and on the other occasion he touched the woman's genitals as well.

As KTVU reports, Chavez's plea today before U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, is the third to come from five men who worked at the prison who have been charged. Chavez faces up to two years in prison for each count.

Former prison chaplain James Highhouse pleaded guilty to sex abuse crimes and has been sentenced to seven years, which he's expected to begin serving next week.

Another former correctional officer at FCI Dublin, Ross Klinger, pleaded guilty to having abusive sexual contact with three inmates at the prison — and they further accuse him of psychological abuse using their personal files as fodder against them. One of those inmates, identified only as M.R. in court documents, has separately filed a sexual assault and battery case against Klinger — and it's the first such federal civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault in at least 25 years. He is still awaiting sentencing in the federal criminal case. M.R. further alleges that Klinger threatened to kill her if she told anyone about their sexual contact, and she says she was retaliated against by other officers at FCI-Dublin when she landed back there for violating her parole, after being released to a halfway house and continuing to be in contact with Klinger.

The prison's former warden, Ray J. Garcia, 55, of Merced, was charged in August of this year with seven counts of sexually abusive conduct towards three women and one count of making false statements to government agents. Garcia has pleaded not guilty, and as KTVU reports, he will be headed to trial next year.

Also pleading not guilty is former correctional officer John Bellhouse, who is also headed to trial.

FCI-Dublin has frequently been portrayed in the media as a "country club" due to its minimum security and a few of its high-profile recent inmates, like Varsity Blues scandal figures Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Checking in to FCI-Dublin last year was NXIVM cult figure Allison Mack — featured in HBO's The Vow — who has about two years left on her sentence.

Previously: Former Warden at Dublin Women’s Prison Indicted on More Sexual Abuse Charges, Victim List Continues to Grow

Top image: Photo via Federal Bureau of Prisons

Five officers have already been charged with lurid sexual misconduct charges for exploiting incarcerated women at the Dublin federal correctional facility, and the ex-warden was just indicted on charges involving two more victims.

The Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI Dublin) has a few celebrity claims to fame. Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman served her brief sentence there in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal from 2019, as did Full House star Lori Laughlin. Smallville’s Allison Mack is still there for her role in the NXIVM sex cult scandal. Past celebrities incarcerated there include  Patty Hearst and "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, and Forbes once named the facility one of “America's 10 Cushiest Prisons.”

We should probably dispense with this stereotype of FCI Dublin as a “country club” prison, considering that we know of some really stomach-churning sexual abuses the women incarcerated there have had to endure. NBC Bay Area reports that the prison’s former warden Ray J. Garcia has been indicated on charges of sexually abusing three women incarcerated there, and he’s one of five FCI Dublin officers facing federal charges of abusing their power to commit sex crimes.

Garcia was already indicted last September on one count of sexual abuse of a ward. “Garcia knowingly had sexual contact with at least one inmate victim while she was incarcerated at FCI Dublin and was under his custodial, supervisory, or disciplinary authority,” Justice Department said at the time. “Further, the complaint alleges that Garcia requested that the victim, and at least one other inmate, strip naked for him when he did his rounds at FCI Dublin.  Garcia allegedly took photographs of the victim naked in a cell at FCI Dublin.”

The new indictment from Tuesday adds that he lied to investigator about it, and "further charges Garcia with sexual offenses against two additional females serving prison sentences at FCI Dublin.  These females are identified only as ‘Victim 2’ and ‘Victim 3.’”

KTVU adds that “Garcia has pleaded not guilty to his September 2021 charges,” and that he “retired on Oct. 31, 2021.” He is currently out of custody, and his jury trial starts November 21. And while it is an incredibly difficult read, KTVU has pretty much the definitive account of all of the FCI Dublin sexual abuse charges involving five officers total, published last January.    

Related: NXIVM Sex Cult Defendant Allison Mack Checks In For Three-Year Stay at Dublin Correctional Facility for Women [SFist]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

Following her sentencing to 14 days in federal prison for her role in the college admissions fraud scandal, Oscar nominee and onetime Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman began her new real-life Orange Is the New Black experience on Tuesday in Dublin, California.

The East Bay's Federal Correctional Institution Dublin is one of five federal women's prisons in the country, and minimum security facility was named one of the country's "10 cushiest prisons" by Forbes back in 2009. As SFGate notes, FCI Dublin was also briefly home to Patty Hearst once upon a time in the 70s, as well as would-be Gerald Ford assassin Sara Jane Moore, and later "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss.

FCI Dublin is currently home to 1,235 female inmates, who all must wear khaki uniforms with their names on them, as KPIX reports.

Huffman will be asked to be awake and get her bed made by 6:30 a.m. on weekdays for the next two weeks, but that rule gets laxer on weekends, when beds need to be made by 10 a.m. There are televisions in each cell — referred to as "units," not cells, in the facility handbook — and inmates are permitted to watch them at various designated hours after their "units" have been cleaned and inspected. There is also a "hair room" where inmates can check out blow-dryers and other items, and sun decks for sunbathing. And while everyone has to be in their cells by 11:45 p.m. on weeknights, they're allowed to be out and socializing until 2:45 a.m. on weekend nights.

As FCI Dublin's director Charles E. Samuels writes in a memo at the front of the handbook, "Nearly all of you will release from prison one day and return to the community... Regardless of how many days, months, or years you may have time to serve, it is critical that you begin your preparation for reentry today!" Also, he adds, that any unwanted "sexual behaviors" or anyone "fearful about being sexually assaulted" should contact staff immediately.

And it sounds like Felicity will actually only serve 13 days of her 14-day sentence. As TMZ reports today, she'll be out on October 27, due to credit for time served during her initial arrest and booking.

Huffman was accused of conspiring with college admissions fraudster William "Rick" Singer, paying him $15,000 to have answers on her daughter's SAT exam changed.

The 56-year-old actress pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston and was sentenced last month. In a statement she read in court, Huffman said, "I would like to apologize again to my daughter, my husband, my family and the educational community for my actions. And I especially want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children... I have learned a lot over the last six months about my flaws as a person. My goal now is to serve the sentence that the court has given me."

In addition to the prison term, Huffman will have one year of probation and have to serve 250 hours of community service.

Photo: Tim Lundin/Wikimedia

The woman who made history as the person in the United States to receive gender reassignment surgery while incarcerated is spurring more changes in California's correctional system, as new proposed rules would allow trans inmates makeup and undergarments that reflect their gender identity even if the place of their inprisonment does not.

You already know the name Shiloh Heavenly Quine, the 57-year-old convicted murderer whose lawsuit paved the way for California prison inmates to receive the surgery, as outlined in official guidelines announced by the California Department of Corrections back in October of 2015. It was announced in January that Quine underwent the procedure in a San Francisco hospital, after which she was transferred to the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.

But even after the surgery, things were still difficult for Quine, who will remain behind bars the rest of her life, without the possibility of parole, following an alcohol-fueled 1980 robbery and fatal shooting in Los Angeles for which she and an accomplice were convicted. In a hand-written federal court filing reported on by the Associated Press last week, Quine said that her new housing is a "torture unit."

Quine is housed alone in a cell but said she still has no privacy to perform required intimate post-operative procedures and is enduring "a restrictive isolation" that is pushing her toward anxiety, depression and sadness.

Her beard and mustache are having a "huge impact on day to day life" and are making the transition to life as a woman more difficult, she wrote in a filing received Friday at the court.

The department has "no legitimate penological objective but harassment" in denying shaving access, she wrote. Quine asked the federal judge overseeing her lawsuit to order prison officials to provide electrolysis to remove her facial hair, or at least a razor.

Corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said all female reception center inmates are routinely denied razors and televisions along with other privileges while they are evaluated. Inmates can't have razors until officials are confident they won't harm themselves or others.

Quine said the restrictions could last a year, but Thornton said 45 days is typical and Quine is nearly finished with the process that will determine where she is permanently housed, the programs she is assigned, and whether she needs mental health or substance abuse treatment, for instance.

"It's a very thorough process, which is why it can take a while. But it's a process every inmate goes through," Thornton said. "There's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to male and female inmates."

Quine's initial lawsuit, which was settled in 2015 when the state agreed to provide her surgery, also "led a federal magistrate to provide transgender female inmates housed in men's facilities with items such as nightgowns, scarves and necklaces, though Quine's attorneys are still sparring with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over the details," the AP reported last week. At least some of that sparring appears to have been quelled, as the AP reported Tuesday night that proposed rules filed with state regulators yesterday say that "Transgender female inmates housed in men’s facilities could have feminine undergarments, lip gloss and mascara, for instance, while transgender male inmates in women’s prisons could wear aftershave and boxers."

According to the AP, the federal magistrate overseeing the case "previously ordered the state to provide some of the items." But though the rules have been submitted, nothing's final as of yet: Quine's attorneys will return to court on April 27 to resolve those lingering details, and the proposed new rules must still "have a public hearing and comment period before they can take effect."

Previously: First State-Funded Inmate Sex Reassignment Surgery Takes Place In San Francisco

Inmates who allege they were forced to fight each other for the amusement of San Francisco Sheriff's Deputies will be on the receiving end of a $90,000 settlement after the Board of Supervisors moves to approve the payout today. Bay City News reports that three inmates will split the money evenly, perhaps bringing some closure to the bizarre Fight Club-style battles that made national headlines.

Civil rights attorney John Burris brought the case on behalf of inmates Stanley Harris, Ricardo Palikiko-Garcia, and Keith Dwayne Richardson. The men say deputies took away their food and made them gamble to get it back, in addition to forcing them to fight.

CBS 5 reports that the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has charged the three deputies with a host of crimes, with perhaps the most severe reserved for now-former deputy Scott Neu, including "assault under the color of authority, issuing criminal threats, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment and inhumanity against inmates in his care."

According to CBS 5, Eugene Jones was charged with "assault under the color of authority, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment and willfully failing to perform an official duty," and Clifford Chiba was charged with "inflicting cruel and unusual punishment and willfully failing to perform an official duty."

It should be noted that this was not the first time a troubling accusation had been levied against Neu. In 2006 the city settled out of court after it was alleged he forced inmates to perform sexual acts on him.

All three deputies pleaded "not guilty" to the charges back in March, and they are currently out on bail.

Previously: Sheriff's Deputies Who Allegedly Forced Inmates To Fight Plead Not Guilty

The San Francisco Sheriff's Deputy who pleaded "not guilty" in March to charges of forcing inmates to fight for his entertainment has a long history of complaints. The Examiner reports that former Sheriff's Deputy Scott Neu was investigated 11 times by internal affairs for charges of excessive force prior to being accused of organizing the Fight Club-esque battles that made national headlines.

“It’s unconscionable that he was left in a position of overseeing the safety of vulnerable people during these ongoing investigations,” Public Defender Jeff Adachi told the paper.

According to the Ex, of the 11 complaints made against Neu, three were decided by investigators to be unsubstantiated, four were allowed to pass the one-year statute of limitations, and the remaining four were never closed or no findings were made.

These 11 investigations do not include a 2006 case, settled out of court, that alleged Neu forced inmates to engage in sexual acts with him.

“The lack of accountability allows that employee to continue working unchecked," Adachi observed. "And that’s what happened with deputy Neu.”

“They took me down to the hallway and told me to fight another inmate, which was Stanley, and told me if I didn’t fight that I would basically get beat up by themselves, by Deputy Neu,” Ricardo Palikiko Garcia, one of the inmates allegedly forced to fight, told the Chronicle. “And he told me he was going to Mace me and cuff me if I didn’t. And he told me anything goes."

The former deputy has been charged with 17 misdemeanor and felony counts in relation to the alleged 2015 Gladiator-style battles.

Previously: Sheriff's Deputies Who Allegedly Forced Inmates To Fight Plead Not Guilty

Two Sheriff's Deputies accused of forcing inmates in a San Francisco Jail to fight for the deputies' entertainment entered pleas of "not guilty" yesterday. News of the Fight Club-esque battles broke last March, when Public Defender Jeff Adachi detailed incidents of deputies threatening to beat inmates who would not participate. According to the Examiner, Adachi called the deputies actions “like [something] out of Game of Thrones.”

Now-former deputy Scott Neu, reports KRON 4, "is charged with assault under the color of authority, issuing criminal threats, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment, and inhumanity against inmates in his care." Deputy Eugene Jones has been charged with "assault under the color of authority, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment and willfully failing to perform an official duty."

A third deputy, Clifford Chiba, today plead "not guilty" to misdemeanor charges related to the fights, the Examiner reports.

Criminal action by Neu is alleged to have begun back in 2014, reports the Examiner, when the deputy allegedly began forcing an inmate to do push-ups while simultaneously making other inmates gamble for food. KRON4 informs us that in March of 2015, Neu allegedly forced inmates to fight, threatening to beat, mace, or handcuff them if they refused. All this allegedly went down at the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street.

As we pointed out last year, this is not the first time Neu has been accused of abusing his position of authority. In 2006 he was accused of forcing inmates to perform sex acts on him — in those cases the city settled out of court.

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