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Ex-officers at federal women’s prison in California plead guilty to multiple sex abuse counts

Two former officers of a federal women’s prison in California pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple counts of sexual abuse, the latest to be prosecuted following an Associated Press investigation last year resulting in prison sentences for the former warden and chaplain.

Andrew Jones, a former cook supervisor at Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, pleaded guilty to six felony charges of sexual abuse of three women he supervised, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

Nakie Nunley, a guard at the prison call center, pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual abuse and five lesser felonies of abusive sexual contact of five women. Both also pleaded guilty to making false statements to the government.

The two men will enter pleas and be sentenced at later dates.

They are at least the seventh and eighth former employees charged with abusing inmates after an investigation by The Associated Press last year revealed a harrowing culture of rampant abuse and cover-up at the facility 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

Ray Garcia, the prison’s former warden, was convicted in December of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.

All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal as inmates cannot give consent. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives.

In one example, Nunley wrote in his plea agreement that in May 2021 he called an inmate he supervised into his office and told her he could make her time in prison easier or more difficult. She complied with his request.