Sex assault healing center being built with FCI Dublin lawsuit money

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Jessica Pride represents 23 women who were incarcerated at the now-shuttered Federal Correctional Insitute at Dublin who have filed sexual assault civil suits against more than 30 correctional officers. 

The women accuse the various officers of forcing them to undress, making comments about their pubic hair and ripping open shower curtains to see them naked, among other sexual acts. 

In all, there are 106 women in 72 separate sexual abuse suits filed against the Bureau of Prisons and FCI Dublin in a sex abuse scandal where seven correctional officers, including the warden, have been criminally charged and sentenced to prison for sex crimes. The eighth officer is headed to trial next year. FCI Dublin shut down abruptly on April 15 and the 605 women incarcerated there have been placed in prisons across the country. 

Pride wants to do something good with the money that she and the women stand to earn from these civil cases, which could be settled as early as August. 

"Thankfully, once FCI Dublin settles, we will take a good portion of those proceeds to fund Sirona so that we can provide healing to sexual assault survivors around the country," Pride said. "Without the money that we're going to get from the FCI Dublin proceeds, I don't think it would be possible. If there is any silver lining to this traumatic and horrible experience that has been going on at FCI Dublin, it is that a beautiful healing place for survivors will come out of it."

She's already bought 4.5 acres of land in a forest as she is poised to open the country's first sexual assault healing center of its kind in San Diego. 

She is going to name it the Sirona Healing Center after the Celtic goddess of healing. 

Pride said her clients, many of whom testified before U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez in Oakland that they were sexually assaulted and still suffer PTSD from the abuse, have had a really hard time finding a place to provide them with healing.

For instance, the women could go to a therapist, but find out that the psychologist didn't specialize in sexual assault trauma.  

"It was really disjointed," Pride said. "And that's how the idea for a healing center was born." 

Pride came up with the idea with Verna Griffin-Tabor, the former executive director of San Diego's rape crisis center. 

They said that opening a healing center is really expensive. 

Pride said it's costing her and her partner about $6 million to purchase the land, build the retreat center and pay for staff. 

Pride declined to say how much she thought her clients, and she, would be awarded once the BOP cases settle. 

But she did indicate it would be in the millions. 

Pride has already drawn up renderings of what the retreat center would look like. They feature grassy lawns, a pool and mission-style architecture. 

"We hope that survivors can have the space to heal, to have the tools to find themselves and to get to a place where they feel like, 'OK, I got this, something bad happened, but I'm turning my trauma into triumph,'" Pride said. 

Pride said she hopes that the center will be offering virtual therapy sessions for people who don't live in San Diego or for those who can't or don't want to come in person in July. 

And the physical center will be open sometime in 2025 for in-person stays. 

Pride said the center will have an inpatient treatment program where women can stay for a week or up to a month.

"This is not an acute facility," Pride said. 

What will be different about this center is that it will offer therapy outside a clinical setting and be solely focused on curing sexual assault trauma.

"All of our programming will be done with sexual assault survivors in mind," Pride said.

Take yoga, for example.

Sometimes yoga ends with an open "starfish" position.

But that pose can be really vulnerable for survivors of sexual assault, Pride said, adding that the instructors will adapt and accommodate their classes with that knowledge in mind. 

She said she is still working out the price points for the sessions, though counseling, in general, goes for about $200 an hour. She said she will try to take PPO health insurance and that she's starting a nonprofit to provide scholarships if people can't afford to pay. 

"It's a beautiful dream that is coming to life," Pride said. "And I'm so excited that out of the trauma that my clients have had to endure, there is going to be this beautiful blessing and gift, which is how I want to be part of the solution."

For more information on the Sirona Healing Center, click here. 

This story was reported from Oakland, Calif. 

 Lisa Fernandez is a reporter for KTVU. Email Lisa at lisa.fernandez@fox.com or call her at 510-874-0139. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez 

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