Female prisoners who have been moved to a new prison say they have not been exposed to sunlight or seen it in months.
Carolyn Knudsen has been moved to a detention center in downtown Miami since the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California, was suddenly closed in mid-April. She was locked up for transporting children across state lines for the purpose of sexually abusing them.
Knudsen, who is now serving time at FDC Miami, a high-rise detention center that houses pretrial detainees, told his father that he has not seen sunlight since leaving Dublin and cannot take any classes to reduce his sentence because the programs are full.
“She can’t go outside and it wears her out,” her father, Paul Knudsen, told Fox5. “She’s more depressed and cries when I talk to her.”
Susan Beaty, who represents hundreds of former inmates at FCI Dublin, says similar conditions exist at federal detention centers in SeaTac and Philadelphia.
Female prisoners who have been moved to a new prison say they have not been exposed to sunlight or seen it in months.
Carolyn Knudsen was moved to a detention center in downtown Miami since the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California, was suddenly closed in mid-April. She is now serving her sentence at FDC Miami, a high-rise detention center that houses pretrial detainees. Knudsen told her father that she has not seen sunlight since leaving Dublin and cannot take any classes to reduce her sentence because the programs were full.
Last month, Beaty visited clients in Seattle and reported that nearly 40 women complained of not getting sunlight exposure.
Unlike FCI Dublin, which had open-air spaces, these detention centres are designed for short-term stays and lack the infrastructure to house long-term inmates.
“There’s no outdoor space,” Beaty said.
‘The people we spoke to in SeaTac made it very clear that they had not been outdoors since they arrived there in April. So, for several months now, they have had no access to direct sunlight or fresh air. This is particularly concerning for people who have medical and mental health issues.
“The lack of access to outdoor spaces has really compounded the impact of these moves and the trauma our clients have already gone through.”
About 200 of the 605 women transferred from the now closed FCI Dublin are housed in three Bureau of Prisons detention centres.
Unlike FCI Dublin, which had open-air spaces, other detention centres are designed for short-term stays and lack the infrastructure to accommodate long-term inmates.
Once a sprawling facility with outdoor spaces and views of the East Bay hills, Dublin offered inmates outdoor time every day.
The abrupt closure of FCI Dublin followed a long-running sexual abuse scandal and the appointment of a special magistrate to oversee reforms at the low-security prison. Once a large facility with open-air spaces and views of the East Bay hills, Dublin now allowed inmates to spend time outside every day.
Disputes have arisen over the conditions of the new facility. While the BOP claims that detainees have access to sunlight in outdoor recreation areas, inmates and their attorneys disagree.
Women who come to SeaTac and other centers describe receiving little or no direct sunlight, and some report that skylights offer little natural light. Complaints also include inadequate ventilation and possible vitamin D deficiencies, evidenced by the Office of Family Planning’s recommendations to “drink milk” to help alleviate side effects.
The BOP counters these claims with a narrow definition of access to sunlight, citing enclosed outdoor spaces and a viral video showing FDC Miami inmates with access to open windows. However, they declined to provide photographic evidence of the conditions at these facilities, leaving the issue unresolved.
In October 2023, Oakland attorney Yolanda Huang successfully sued San Francisco County jails for denying inmates access to the outdoors. The judge ruled in favor of her clients and ordered that some inmates receive at least 15 minutes of sunlight per day after one year of incarceration. However, Huang reports that this order has yet to be implemented.
Huang stresses that “access to sunlight” is a complex issue. Simple openings in roofs or windows that do not open do not constitute adequate exposure to sunlight.
Huang’s victory was based on the principle that imprisonment should not lead to chronic diseases.
In the case of the women transferred from FCI to Dublin, lawyer Susan Beaty has brought these concerns to the attention of the court-appointed special expert overseeing their care.
While the Knudsens hope for a resolution, there has so far been no indication of any site visits or resolutions on the matter.
