(NewsNation) — Legal groups across the country representing people who were sexually abused while in custody by federal prison staff are arguing for their compassionate release, a process where courts reduce sentences based on compelling circumstances.

Some of the prisoners are victims of widespread sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, a federal prison in Northern California.

Guards, medical staff, the chaplain and even the warden who had trained staff on the Prison Rape Elimination Act were abusing women, a Department of Justice Investigation found. The reported abuse had been so widespread that the facility was given the name “the rape club.”  

The prisoners’ argument utilizes a 40-year-old law called the Sentencing Reform Act, which was expanded in 2018 and put in place to allow prisoners to petition for a lesser sentence based on “compelling and extraordinary” circumstances.

For decades, circumstances qualifying for review were largely limited to life-threatening, chronic or irreversible physical or mental illness, condition or disease, but the definition has expanded as prison abuse has become more visible.

“Nobody was sentenced to be sexually abused in custody. Sexual abuse in custody is one of the most pernicious abuses of power that can happen,” Shanna Rifkin, deputy general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), told NewsNation.

FAMM has represented more than a dozen women who were abused in federal prisons, she said.

”People who are sentenced to a crime are not sentenced to have their dignity taken away by officers who control their daily lives,” Rifkin said.

These inmates are “victims of crime that have been committed by federal government officials during their time in prison, so they absolutely deserve to be released from custody and be back in the community where they have the opportunity to heal from the trauma that they have endured,” she said. 

The compassionate release process was established in 1984, though it didn’t allow prisoners to argue for themselves until 2018. Unlike pardons or clemency, the process does not erase criminal convictions. 

In April 2023, the U.S. Sentencing Commission updated its guidelines to include situations “where an individual in BOP custody has been determined to have been the victim of sexual assault perpetrated by BOP (Bureau of Prisons) personnel” as qualifying for compassionate release. 

These changes came after the DOJ’s investigation into FCI Dublin. Seven staff members were convicted of abuse, and the BOP shut down the facility in April.

FAMM, along with several other legal groups, argued that the facility is a prime example of why sexual abuse by prison staff should qualify for compassionate release.

The Sentencing Commission agreed, but seven months later, it instituted higher evidentiary standards for proving abuse that were recommended by the Department of Justice.

Under the new standards that went into effect in November, those petitioning for compassionate release must show that they were sexually abused by penetrative contact and also prove the abuse through a criminal conviction, a civil case or an administrative proceeding. 

The additional requirements have made it more challenging for abuse victims to plead their case, Rifkin said, adding the standards do not take into consideration that sexual violence includes stalking, harassment and forced removal of clothing. 

“Prior to this, we could work with prosecutors or prove our case to judges across the country and let judges use their discretion to determine if this person was sexually abused in custody,” Rifkin said.

Her group and many others are pushing back against the new requirements by submitting amendments to the Sentencing Commission, which has opened up a public comment period on sentencing guidelines until July 15. 

“I’m hopeful that the commission will understand that this is really not what they had in mind when they allowed the argument. I don’t think they wanted to make it more difficult for survivors of abuse to prove their case to courts,” Rifkin said.

Since their cases in Dublin, she says several sexual abuse victims in prisons and legal clinics have reached out to her group expressing interest in learning more about how they argued their cases. 

Rifkin’s group successfully utilized the argument for five inmates at FCI Tallahassee.

“It takes an incredible amount of bravery and courage for people in custody to come forward about sexual abuse, particularly when it’s being perpetrated by the people who control their daily lives,” she said.