Ex-Dublin prison guard sentenced to 8 years for sex crimes

A former guard at the federal women’s prison in Dublin has been sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing three inmates and lying about it to federal agents.

The sentence imposed Wednesday on Andrew Jones by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is the longest so far for any of the seven former officers at the Federal Correctional Institution who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

Ray Garcia, the prison’s warden from November 2020 to July 2021, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in March after a jury convicted him of sexually abusing three inmates. Former prison chaplain James Hightower was sentenced to seven years in August 2022 after pleading guilty to five charges of sexually abusing an inmate and lying about it to investigators. Four other guards have been convicted or entered guilty pleas.

Jones, 36, joined the prison staff in May 2020 and worked as a cook supervisor. In his guilty plea in July, he said he had told one of his victims to go to a prison bathroom, then locked the door, kissed her and engaged in oral sex. He said they later had intercourse a number of times. Prosecutors said he then moved on to two other inmates in 2020 and 2021.

“Jones used (his) power to repeatedly sexually abuse the vulnerable women he was supposed to protect — women who could not legally consent and who were not free to leave,” Justice Department prosecutors wrote in court filings asking for an eight-year sentence, more than three times the standard term recommended in federal sentencing guidelines.

“To enforce the silence that was so critical to the perpetuation of his predation, Jones created an environment of intimidation, fear, and reprisal,” cursing at the women and threatening them, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Ramsey Fisher argued for the 21⁄2-year term recommended by the federal guidelines.

Jones’ “life has been marked by trauma,” Fisher told Gonzalez Rogers. He said Jones, the child of an abusive father, served as a guard at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, performed daily force-feedings, underwent abuse from inmates, and was discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.

He then worked responsibly as a prison guard for eight years until the final year, when he “lost his way and behaved horribly, committing actions he will regret for the rest of his life,” Fisher said.