File – The Federal Correctional Institution is shown in Dublin, Calif., Dec. 5, 2022. A former correctional officer at a federal women’s prison in California where inmates say they were subjected to rampant sexual abuse has been arrested and accused of sexually abusing three inmates in his care. The charges were announced Friday by the Justice Department.
Another correctional officer at the Bay Area’s only federal prison for women has been convicted of sexually abusing inmates at the troubled institution, where a group of guards and staff were known as the “rape club” because of widespread allegations of sexual misconduct.
John Bellhouse, who worked as a safety administrator at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse and three counts of abusive sexual contact, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August and faces up to 15 years in prison for each sexual abuse charge, and up to two years in prison for each sexual contact count.
Bellhouse’s conviction comes amid a scandal embroiling the East Bay prison, where at least six current or former employees have been charged with sexual abuse in recent years. They include the prison’s former warden, Ray J. Garcia, who was sentenced in March to nearly six years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing inmates and showing them pictures of his penis, all before lying about it to the FBI.
In addition, several civil lawsuits have been filed against other prison guards alleging they raped or sexually assaulted women held at the facility.
Last month, another onetime officer at the prison, Darrell Wayne Smith, was charged with 12 felonies alleging that he abused women at the prison. The officer, who authorities say went by the alias “Dirty D—- Smith,” is accused of abusing three inmates.
Federal prosecutors say Bellhouse, 40, abused inmates inside the prison’s safety office. He sexually abused one inmate from December 2019 through October 2020, including engaging in oral sex with the woman and touching her genitals, according to a release from the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors also allege he committed abusive sexual contact with another inmate multiple times from October 2020 through December 2020.
His job included bringing the prison’s equipment up to code, distributing cleaning supplies, pest control and overseeing the prison’s recycling program, according to court documents.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, of the Northern District of California, said that such actions “will not be tolerated.”
“As an officer in a federal correctional facility, Bellhouse had an obligation to ensure the safety of all the persons serving their sentences,” Ramsey said, in a press release. “Instead, Bellhouse used the power entrusted to him to serve his own corrupt purposes.”
Originally published at Jakob Rodgers