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FDC Honolulu: Hawaii Federal Detention Center Guide (2026)

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FDC Honolulu at a glance

FDC Honolulu is the only Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Hawaii: a federal detention center at 351 Elliott Street, beside Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, holding men and women, most of them awaiting trial or sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. It held 210 people as of September 2026.

Official nameFederal Detention Center, Honolulu
BOP codeHON
Security levelAdministrative; men and women
Population210 (as of September 2026)
VisitingNo current schedule published · call 808-838-4200 before every trip · see visiting hours
Inmate mailInmate Name & Register Number · FDC Honolulu · Federal Detention Center · P.O. Box 30080 · Honolulu, HI 96820
Send moneyLockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone808-838-4200 · Fax 808-838-4507
Street address351 Elliott Street, Honolulu, HI 96819 · Honolulu County
Judicial districtDistrict of Hawaii
BOP regionWestern
HousingSee housing
Medical care levelLevel 2
Mental health care levelLevel 2
RDAPNot offered
UNICORSee programs
CampNone

The Bureau counts FDC Honolulu among its ten Pretrial Detention Facilities, and the buildingโ€™s own handbook also provides for a sentenced work cadre, immigration detainees and people held for the State of Hawaii. It answers to the Bureauโ€™s Western Region and is the only federal prison in Hawaii. One rule is particular to this building: FDC Honolulu books legal visits in advance only for lawyers who travel in from outside the island of Oโ€˜ahu.

FDC Honoluluโ€™s curved entrance building, with U.S. and Hawaii flags, in front of the detention tower in Honolulu, Hawaii
The entrance building of FDC Honolulu at 351 Elliott Street, with the detention centerโ€™s tower rising behind it. Photograph: Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Who is held at FDC Honolulu?

FDC Honolulu holds mostly federal defendants whose cases are pending in Honolulu, but the Bureauโ€™s own paperwork for the building describes three other groups, and the group decides which visiting, mail and release rules apply.

Pretrial and holdover detainees. The Bureauโ€™s Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook names FDC Honolulu as one of ten Pretrial Detention Facilities, with MDC Brooklyn, MCC Chicago, MDC Guaynabo, FDC Houston, MDC Los Angeles, FDC Miami, FDC Philadelphia, FDC SeaTac and MCC San Diego. A person awaiting trial is a U.S. Marshals Service prisoner. Under Program Statement 7331.05, the Bureau keeps such people apart from convicted prisoners โ€œto the extent practicable,โ€ the words of 18 U.S.C. ยง 3142(i)(2), and may not make them work beyond housekeeping in their cells and the unitโ€™s common area (at 5).

A sentenced cadre. The 2022 handbook issues a red hard-plastic identification card to โ€œdesignated Federal inmates (A-DES)โ€ and lets โ€œCadre inmatesโ€ receive visits from friends and relatives beyond immediate family. The Bureau publishes no count of this group.

Immigration detainees. The handbookโ€™s card classes include โ€œA-INS,โ€ and the May 2024 PREA auditor wrote that โ€œFDC Honolulu does detain inmates solely for civil immigration purposes.โ€ ICE lists the building as a detention site of its San Francisco Field Office on a page updated August 6, 2026. ICEโ€™s own detention statistics give the facility an average daily population of 64 ICE detainees in fiscal year 2026 through July 11, 2026, up from 48 in fiscal 2025 through September 20, 2025, with an average stay of 67 days so far this fiscal year; ICEโ€™s counts exclude Marshals Service prisoners. The Bureau publishes no figure for this group and does not say whether its population report includes them.

People held for the State of Hawaii. The handbook still issues a โ€œState IDโ€ card โ€œto all inmates being housed for the State of Hawaii,โ€ routes their requests through Oโ€˜ahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) forms, and says: โ€œYou are returned to OCCC to be processed for release.โ€ In June 2001 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the state would pay $90 per inmate per day under an agreement then awaiting approval in Washington, with as many as 200 beds for state pretrial inmates, and in April 2020 the Star-Advertiser reported 94 state inmates here. The stateโ€™s later budget papers point the other way: its December 2024 variance report said the department had not used the FDC in fiscal year 2024, and its supplemental budget request for fiscal 2027 says Bureau protocols adopted since COVID-19 have hindered housing Hawaii inmates here and that the department โ€œdoes not foresee housing large numbers of inmates at the Honolulu FDC in the near future.โ€ Treat the handbookโ€™s state-inmate pages as history.

Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. No Bureau document says whether FDC Honolulu holds people charged or sentenced in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The roster lists no Bureau institution in either territory, and the handbookโ€™s only Marianas reference is a liaison office in its consular directory. Ask the defense lawyer or the Marshals Service where a person detained there will be held.

FDC Honolulu is not the state jail. OCCC, Halawa Correctional Facility and the Womenโ€™s Community Correctional Center belong to Hawaiiโ€™s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. No Bureau or state record uses the name โ€œHawaii Correctional Facilityโ€ for this building.

What is the security level at FDC Honolulu?

FDC Honolulu is an administrative-security institution. That is the Bureau rosterโ€™s rating, one of the five federal security levels, and the Bureauโ€™s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, define an administrative institution as one with โ€œa special mission, where inmates are assigned based on factors other than security and/or staff supervision,โ€ with pretrial and holdover confinement among its examples; such institutions โ€œare designed to house all security level inmatesโ€ (ch. 2, p. 1). The PREA auditorโ€™s intake form put the facilityโ€™s levels at โ€œADMINISTRATIVE/LOW.โ€

Detention, not a classification score, is what brings most people here. A pretrial detainee is here because a federal judge in Hawaii ordered detention. A person sentenced in that court is designated like anyone else, and unless the Bureau assigns the person to the FDCโ€™s own cadre, that means leaving the islands: the roster lists no other institution in Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands or American Samoa. Plan for that move before sentencing.

The Bureauโ€™s chart of institution care levels for medical assignment, dated February 13, 2024, lists FDC Honolulu at Care Level 2, and its undated mental-health chart also lists Level 2; both were released under FOIA request 2024-03455 and posted by the Washington Lawyersโ€™ Committee. The Bureauโ€™s care-level policy and our guide to medical care levels explain what that means; the handbook adds that the facility has no inpatient care.

Who are the notable inmates at FDC Honolulu?

The best-known people held here were detainees awaiting court, and none of them is at the FDC today.

NameBureau recordWhy the name is known
Duane โ€œDogโ€ Chapman, Leland Chapman and Tim ChapmanReleased from FDC Honolulu on September 15, 2006 (95743-022, 95744-022, 95742-022)The reality-television bounty hunters were held on a Mexican request arising from their 2003 capture of Andrew Luster in Puerto Vallarta; after about a day and a half, a federal magistrate judge released them on bail with electronic monitoring (Los Angeles Times/AP, Sept. 16, 2006).
Katherine P. KealohaNow at FCI Victorville Medium I, California (06014-122); projected release July 24, 2029Ordered detained at FDC Honolulu in June 2019 when U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright revoked her bail after her conviction (Civil Beat, June 28, 2019).
Dennis MitsunagaReleased from FDC Honolulu on May 17, 2024 (06676-510)Detained from April 19, 2024 on a magistrate judgeโ€™s order over witness-tampering allegations; Civil Beat reported that he fell, cut his head and was taken to an emergency room. A jury acquitted all six defendants in his case on May 17, 2024, the release date the locator shows (Hawaiโ€˜i Public Radio; Courthouse News Service).
Michael J. Miske Jr.โ€œIN TRANSITโ€; projected release โ€œUNKNOWNโ€ (12248-122)Held here from his July 15, 2020 arrest, convicted on July 18, 2024, and found dead at the facility on December 1, 2024 while awaiting sentencing (Civil Beat, July 18, 2024; Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Dec. 1, 2024).

The Miske entry is a warning about trusting the locator alone: nearly two years after his death, his record read IN TRANSIT with a projected release of UNKNOWN, which the screen shows as โ€œNOT IN BOP CUSTODYโ€ and โ€œRelease Date: UNKNOWNโ€, with nothing to say he had died. The Bureauโ€™s pretrial policy says the release code for an inmate death โ€œis not appropriateโ€ for pretrial inmates, who are Marshals Service prisoners, and that they โ€œshould be keyed as a pretrial or holdover releaseโ€ (PS 7331.05 at 18). That note does not explain the entry: the same locator lists Bryan Aasted, a detainee who died here in February 2021, as deceased on February 28, 2021 (00252-122), and the Bureau has not explained the difference.

How do I find someone at FDC Honolulu?

For a federal defendant, search the Bureauโ€™s Inmate Locator by register number or by first and last name; a result for someone held here reads โ€œLocated at: Honolulu FDCโ€ (code HON in the locatorโ€™s record), and every pretrial detainee in the table above appears under a register number. If a name search fails, try each part of a compound or hyphenated surname, then call 808-838-4200. The institutionโ€™s published email address is [email protected]. For two groups in this building, another agency is the better first call:

  • Immigration detainees. ICE tells families to call (808) 529-1970 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. with the personโ€™s full and hyphenated names, aliases, date of birth and country of birth.
  • People held for the State of Hawaii. They are state prisoners, so ask the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

How do I write to someone at FDC Honolulu?

Letters for someone at FDC Honolulu go to the post office box, never to Elliott Street. The Bureauโ€™s facility page prints this block; the first line is the personโ€™s committed name and eight-digit register number:

INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER
FDC Honolulu
FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 30080
HONOLULU, HI 96820

The 2022 handbook adds local rules for incoming mail that catch families out:

  • General letters must be on white paper in a white envelope. Colored envelopes or paper, card stock, and crayon or marker drawings are stamped, photocopied and delivered as copies, and the mailroom discards the original after 30 days unless the recipient arranges its return. Every greeting card is copied the same way.
  • Mail sprayed with perfume or cologne, or soiled with anything else, is rejected.
  • Even legal-mail envelopes are photocopied, although legal mail is still opened only in the recipientโ€™s presence and is delivered by the Unit Team.
  • Mail is delivered Monday through Friday before or after the 4:00 p.m. count, with no delivery on weekends or federal holidays.
  • Books must come straight from a publisher, bookstore or book club; newspapers only by subscription; stamps cannot be mailed in; and personal property cannot be sent, apart from approved release clothing and, for pretrial detainees, approved medical items such as prescription glasses.

A lawyerโ€™s letter counts as special mail only if the envelope identifies the sender as an attorney and is marked in words such as โ€œSpecial Mail or Legal Mail โ€“ Open Only in the Presence of the Inmateโ€; otherwise, the handbook warns, staff may read it. Outgoing letters may not be sealed and must carry the writerโ€™s committed name and register number above โ€œFederal Detention Center Honolulu, Hawaii, Post Office Box 30080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96820.โ€ After a release or transfer, general mail is forwarded for 30 days, legal mail indefinitely. National rules are in the Bureauโ€™s correspondence regulations, our mail guide and our page on attorney-client communications.

ICE sets different rules for its detainees in the same building: letters must carry the last four digits of the A-number as well as the register number and the senderโ€™s name and address; ICE says its detainees โ€œmay seal their outgoing lettersโ€; and only legal mail follows a detainee who leaves. Neither agency reconciles ICEโ€™s sealing rule with the Bureau handbookโ€™s, so families of ICE detainees should follow ICEโ€™s page.

How do I send money to someone at FDC Honolulu?

Money for someone at FDC Honolulu goes to the Bureauโ€™s national lockbox or through MoneyGram or Western Union, never to the facility, and the Bureauโ€™s money-transfer instructions say to wait until the person has physically arrived at a Bureau facility.

MethodWhat to enterWhen it posts
Western Union Quick CollectCode city FBOP, DC; account number is the eight-digit register number followed by the last name, with no spaces or dashes; attention line is the full committed nameTwo to four hours after a transfer made from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern; later transfers post at 7:00 a.m. Eastern the next day, holidays included
MoneyGram ExpressPaymentReceive code 7932; company Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC; same account-number format; up to $300 onlineSame windows as Western Union
MailMoney order, U.S. government check, or cashierโ€™s or certified check bearing the committed name and register number, to Federal Bureau of Prisons, [name], [register number], Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001Non-postal money orders and non-government checks are held 15 days, foreign instruments 45; no cash or personal checks

Those windows are stated in Eastern time, and Hawaii keeps Hawaiian standard time all year (Haw. Rev. Stat. ยง 1-31). The 9:00 p.m. Eastern cutoff therefore falls at 4:00 p.m. in Honolulu while the mainland is on standard time and at 3:00 p.m. while it is on daylight saving time, so a transfer sent after work in Honolulu posts the next day at 2:00 or 1:00 a.m. island time. The Bureauโ€™s deposit line, 202-307-2712, closes at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, before noon in Honolulu.

What the money can buy is capped at $460 a month by the Bureauโ€™s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026. The limit rises by $50 during the Novemberโ€“December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. The FDCโ€™s 2022 handbook still gives the โ€œNational Spending Limitโ€ as $360; that figure is obsolete, and the February 2025 commissary form prints no limit. Stamps, copy cards, footwear and certain medical items do not count against the ceiling, but telephone credit is not on the statementโ€™s list of exclusions.

What are the visiting hours at FDC Honolulu?

FDC Honolulu publishes no current social visiting schedule, so call 808-838-4200 before planning a trip. The facilityโ€™s Bureau page links no local visiting supplement, and the handbook says visiting times vary by housing unit and are posted on unit bulletin boards.

The last schedule the Bureau published, in the May 2022 handbook, is a pandemic plan: non-contact visits across clear plastic shields, Saturday through Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in one-hour blocks starting at 7:00, 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 and 5:00 p.m., with each housing unit given a weekday and a weekend day that rotated monthly, Fridays used only when a unitโ€™s day fell on a federal holiday or another unit opened, and no processing after 5:00 p.m. Nothing from the Bureau says whether that plan still runs. ICEโ€™s page for the building, updated August 6, 2026, says โ€œAll family or other social visits are non-contact.โ€ People in special housing get video visits from a monitor in the front lobby, up to two hours and three visitors. The Bureau-wide rules are in its visiting regulations and our visiting guide.

Who may visit, and how many at once

For pretrial, holdover and immigration detainees, and anyone held for the State of Hawaii, the handbook ordinarily limits visitors to immediate family: parents, step-parents, foster parents, brothers, sisters, a spouse, a person with whom the detainee has a child, and children and step-children. Cadre members may add relatives and friends they knew before incarceration. A list holds up to ten people, a relative with a different surname must prove the relationship, and each visitor returns a Visitor Request form that the detainee mails out.

Three visitors may sit with one person at a time, and each child counts as one. Visits last an hour. The handbook allows no physical contact, not even an embrace at the start or end, and no photographs, and a unit manager may approve an emergency special visit no more than once every 90 days. On children the handbook contradicts itself, requiring an approved adult escort for visitors under 16 in one paragraph and under 18 in another; plan on the stricter rule.

What visitors can wear and bring

Shorts are banned except for children under 12, and so are sleeveless, tank and tube tops, bare midriffs, swimsuits, sweat suits, and skirts or dresses above the knee. Shoes must be closed-toe, so no flip-flops or slippers. Hats and scarves are allowed only as religious headwear; sunglasses, long hair picks and fresh or artificial flowers are refused; nothing may resemble the khaki or green detainee uniforms; and undergarments are required.

Bring nothing to hand over. Food is barred down to gum, candy and breath mints, along with gifts, games, strollers, packages and tobacco, and money cannot pass through the visiting room; anything that cannot be thoroughly searched stays out. A parent may carry two diapers, one pacifier, one sealed bottle and one blanket, but if the baby needs changing or feeding, the handbook says the visit ends, with no in-and-out privileges.

Identification and screening

Screening starts at the door: visitors 18 and older need a current state- or federal-issued photo ID, such as a driverโ€™s license or passport, and the handbook also requires government ID for children over 16; staff may scan it for authenticity. Visitors sign a Title 18 false-statement form, available in English or Spanish, clear a metal detector or hand-held wand, and watch while staff search what they carry. Refusing either the search or the form means being turned away.

Getting there

The FDC stands at 351 Elliott Street next to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, which the stateโ€™s airport website notes was formerly Honolulu International Airport; the Bureauโ€™s 2005 description placed the building on the Aloha/Hawaiian Airlines side of the airfield. Park only in the established lot.

FDC Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii. Get driving directions.

How does a lawyer reach a client at FDC Honolulu?

A lawyer based on Oโ€˜ahu walks in during legal-visiting hours; a lawyer flying in from another island or the mainland may book ahead by email. That is the rule on the in-person legal-visit request form linked from the facilityโ€™s Bureau page (the PDF was created on August 10, 2026): FDC Honolulu โ€œwill schedule in advance requests for legal visits only for non-local attorneys traveling to FDC Honolulu from outside the island of O’ahu,โ€ in the order received, confirmed by email from [email protected], with requests due 48 hours ahead.

Legal visiting hours and entry

The same form sets these hours for walk-in legal visits, first come, first served:

DayWalk-in legal visiting hours (form created August 10, 2026)
Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays6:15 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Monday, Tuesday and Friday7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday7:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.

No legal visitor is admitted from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., during the staff shift change, or from the 3:30 p.m. count until it clears. Bring a bar card showing active membership, follow the dress code, and cancel booked visits by email; repeated no-shows can cost the privilege of scheduling. The 2022 handbookโ€™s weekday-only legal hours of 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. are out of date; the Justice Departmentโ€™s pretrial advisory group recorded the move to the seven-day schedule in May 2023.

The off-island rule sits awkwardly with national policy. The Bureauโ€™s legal activities rules, Program Statement 1315.08, issued May 7, 2026, say that institutions housing pretrial detainees and unsentenced individuals โ€œwill allow scheduled and unscheduled attorney visits during designated attorney visitation hoursโ€ (at 12), a sentence an Oโ€˜ahu lawyer who needs a guaranteed slot can put to the unit team. The same statement lets attorneys and approved legal assistants bring laptops to legal visits at pretrial facilities โ€œfor the sole purpose of facilitating the attorney-client relationship,โ€ requires a warden who finds good cause to refuse one to โ€œdocument the reasons for the denial and confer with the Regional Counselโ€ first (at 14), and keeps phones and smart watches out (at 13).

Immigration lawyers get different hours from ICE: walk-ins from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, evenings and weekends by arrangement through 808-838-4200, and, in ICEโ€™s words, โ€œPer ICE detention standards FDC Honolulu permits 4 hours on weekends and holidays.โ€ ICE takes Form G-28 through ERO eFile but says facility staff cannot see those filings, so bring a printed copy.

Paralegals, investigators and special housing

The advisory group reported in July 2023 that FDC Honolulu required recertification every three months for all non-attorney legal staff, including the Federal Defenderโ€™s paralegals and investigators, and that the facility believed lapsed recertifications often dropped legal staff from its approved list; it also heard conflicting accounts of whether a panel attorneyโ€™s investigator could visit alone. PS 1315.08 now requires a legal assistant to be sponsored on form BP-A0243 and screened on form BP-A0660, treats the criminal-history clearance as valid for one year โ€œabsent good cause for more frequent review on an individual basis,โ€ and says Federal Defender legal assistants who hold credentials from their office โ€œshould not be required to clear the criminal history checkโ€ (at 18), so ask which cycle Honolulu applies today.

A client moved to special housing is hard to reach. The advisory group found that most special-housing legal visits here took place โ€œthrough a small portal in a large door,โ€ which made reviewing discovery or sharing documents impossible, and that a no-contact room could be booked only if the lawyer learned of the move two days ahead. See the Bureauโ€™s special housing policy and our guide to special housing units.

Access to a confidential call depends on where the lawyerโ€™s office is. Defense attorneys told the advisory group in 2023 that legal calls were unavailable to lawyers who were โ€œon-island,โ€ on the same island as the FDC. The Bureauโ€™s pretrial handbook states the other half of the rule: โ€œIf you are housed in FDC Honolulu and your attorney lives outside the Island of Oahu, you can ask your Unit Team for more frequent confidential legal calls with your attorney.โ€ Otherwise, the 2022 handbook routes requests through the unit team on a showing of need, such as an imminent court deadline, makes the detainee pay, and prefers an unmonitored collect call. Unmonitored legal calls do not count against the 510-minute monthly limit (PS 5264.09 at 7).

The pretrial handbook, undated on its face, still sends readers to Program Statement 5264.08 for legal calls, although PS 5264.09 replaced it on September 3, 2026; its references to PS 1315.07, 5265.11, 5800.18 and 6031.05 have likewise been overtaken by 1315.08, 5265.14, 5800.19 and 6031.06. FDC Honoluluโ€™s own supplements on legal activities, correspondence, pretrial detainees and telephones (HON 1315.07C, 5265.14F, 7331.04I and 5264.08H) are not posted online, according to the advisory groupโ€™s 2023 appendix.

The unit team controls electronic discovery. Once it approves, a detainee may keep ordinary e-discovery on the unit, but โ€œProtected or sensitive electronic discovery is kept by Unit Team,โ€ and the detainee checks it out from them, according to the pretrial handbook. PS 1315.08 now says discovery computers at pretrial facilities โ€œshould be placed in each housing unit, the SHU, and other locations as determined by the Wardenโ€ (at 6) and accepts e-discovery only from the defense attorney or a U.S. Attorneyโ€™s Office, read-only, on a hard drive or USB drive, with prior approval sought on form BP-A1155; CDs and DVDs are not authorized (at 5).

The 2022 handbook describes an electronic law library in use since July 2009, electric typewriters for legal work, and a main law library in the Education Department open 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays by unit schedule. PS 1315.08 no longer requires a physical law library and lets a person facing an imminent court deadline, ordinarily within 30 days, be allowed more time on the electronic law library (at 3).

How do phone calls and email work at FDC Honolulu?

Each person at FDC Honolulu may use up to 510 telephone minutes a month under the Bureauโ€™s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026: 300 at no charge for those eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone who has exhausted the 300-minute limit may buy, regardless of eligibility. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, and there must be at least 30 minutes between calls. The 2022 handbook still describes the old policy, 300 minutes a month plus 100 extra in November and December; that holiday supplement did not survive the rescission of PS 5264.08. See our phone-call guide.

Phones run from 6:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Honolulu time. The handbook normally limits phone use on weekdays from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. until after the 4:00 p.m. count, when people are expected at work. PS 5264.09 says such restrictions โ€œshould not be imposed in pretrial/holdover institutions or units where inmates are not required to work and generally have more need for telephone access during the day to prepare for trial,โ€ which gives a pretrial detainee kept off the phone a sentence to cite. Mainland families should mind the clock: a 6:00 a.m. call from Honolulu reaches New York at 11:00 a.m. in winter and noon in summer.

A detainee may keep up to 30 approved numbers, dialed with a personal access code after voice verification, and regular calls are recorded and may be monitored; the handbook allowed people in special housing one call every 30 days. PS 5264.09 lets the warden allow collect calls for good cause, naming detention-center residents and pretrial detainees as examples (at 6).

ICE detainees cannot receive calls; ICE says to leave an urgent message at (808) 529-1970 with the detaineeโ€™s full name and alien registration number and a call-back number. An immigration lawyer told Civil Beat in July 2025 that phone calls with detained clients required appointments booked more than a day ahead.

Email runs through TRULINCS: both sides consent to monitoring, messages are plain text with no attachments, and each is capped at 13,000 characters. The pretrial handbook warns that TRULINCS is not confidential, so keep the case out of it.

What can people buy at the FDC Honolulu commissary?

People at FDC Honolulu shop from an order form, revised in February 2025, that reads like a Hawaii shopping list: a โ€œHawaiian Snacksโ€ section offers li hing mui candies, creamy ume, seasoned seaweed, arare and fried nori, and the form also stocks Spam, Chinese sausage and Halmโ€™s teriyaki and Hawaiian barbecue sauces. It prints no spending limit; the national ceiling of $460 a month in PS 4500.13 (May 7, 2026) applies.

A sample from the February 2025 form, which warns that prices can change and sales are final:

ItemPriceRule printed on the form
Postage stamps$0.73 each, in strips of fiveLimit of $15 or 20 stamps
Copy card, 50 copies$4.00Available during a disciplinary commissary restriction; local use only
Score 7T tablet$131.30Special purchase order only
Swintec typewriter ribbon$6.90Stationery: limit two
Fried nori$4.50Hawaiian Snacks: limit two, local use only
Spam$2.50Foods: limit five
Ramen$0.60Limit 12
Nike Court Vision Low shoes$87.90One pair, by request form only

The fine print matters. Double-asterisk items are โ€œlocal use items only,โ€ and a note says items marked โ€œ##โ€ may not be taken to state facilities, a rule that affects only people held for the state. T-shirts count toward a total of seven, including laundry issue; quantity limits apply per week, and excess purchases are denied and can bring discipline. The typewriter ribbon and $10.00 correction tape reflect how legal work is still done here, and the handbookโ€™s $6.50 price for a copy card is out of date against the formโ€™s $4.00. Our guide to commissary items covers the national rules.

What programs are available at FDC Honolulu?

Few programs run at FDC Honolulu, and the Bureauโ€™s documents disagree about some. The handbook calls FDC Honolulu โ€œa short-term facility.โ€ The First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026) marks 31 programs for this institution in its by-institution matrix, yet only one program description in the guide refers to it, and a matrix mark does not show that a class is running. Ask the unit team in writing what is offered.

Drug treatment

There is no Residential Drug Abuse Program here. The handbook says so, and the institution is absent from the RDAP list in the August 2026 guide, updated June 4, 2026, which counts 57 programs at 50 locations; the handbookโ€™s tally of 62 RDAP institutions is stale. The handbook describes the Drug Abuse Education Course and nonresidential treatment, both said to be available at every Bureau institution, plus group therapy and AA and NA meetings when volunteers allow. It says there is no Resolve Program, though the guideโ€™s matrix marks the Resolve trauma workshop here. RDAP means designation elsewhere after sentencing; see the Bureauโ€™s RDAP policy and our guide to the Residential Drug Abuse Program.

Education and work

The education department teaches literacy and English as a second language. A U.S. citizen sentenced on or after May 1, 1991 without a diploma or GED must spend 240 hours in the GED program and has 60 days from arrival to prove an existing credential, while anyone under a final removal order is exempt. The handbook says there is no occupational education and no apprenticeship, though a boilerplate paragraph mentions occupational-education graduations; correspondence courses need the education departmentโ€™s approval and are paid for by the student. Books come from small unit libraries and a main library on the second floor, with interlibrary loan through Hickam Air Force Base.

On factory work the documents collide. The handbook says: โ€œThis institution does not have a UNICOR factory.โ€ The August 2026 guideโ€™s by-institution matrix marks FDC Honolulu for Federal Prison Industries, but the programโ€™s own description lists 54 institutions and FDC Honolulu is not among them. The guideโ€™s two halves disagree and the handbook matches the shorter list, so get the unit teamโ€™s answer in writing before counting on UNICOR work. Many jobs, food service among them, pay through the Bureauโ€™s performance-pay system, and the handbook says pretrial, holdover, ICE and state detainees may be assigned work within their housing unit.

Faith and reentry

The one program the guideโ€™s descriptions connect to FDC Honolulu is the Puโ€˜a Foundation Reentry Program, a 20-hour productive activity the guide calls a โ€œtrauma-informed care program for women offenders at FDC Honolulu grounded in Hawaiian culture,โ€ with โ€œa special emphasis on women, girls, and Native Hawaiian participants.โ€ The handbook describes Threshold as โ€œa local 5 month spiritual reentry program for those 12-18 months before release,โ€ while Life Connections, for people 24 to 36 months from release, runs โ€œon the mainlandโ€ and so means a transfer. In a family emergency, call 808-838-4200 and say you are making an inmate emergency notification.

First Step Act credits and time in detention

Time at FDC Honolulu before a sentence begins does not earn First Step Act time credits. The statute bars credits for a program completed โ€œduring official detention prior to the date that the prisonerโ€™s sentence commences under section 3585(a)โ€ (18 U.S.C. ยง 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii)). For time after sentencing, the Bureauโ€™s regulation, until September 30, 2026, starts the clock on โ€œthe date the inmate arrives or voluntarily surrenders at the designated Bureau facility where the sentence will be servedโ€ (28 C.F.R. ยง 523.42(a)). That clause comes out on September 30 under an interim final rule the Bureau published on August 31, 2026, leaving a regulation that says an eligible person โ€œbegins earning FSA Time Credits after the inmateโ€™s term of imprisonment commencesโ€ (91 Fed. Reg. 55740, 55741). The Bureau says the change โ€œallows inmates awaiting transportation to their designated facilities to begin FSA-approved programming,โ€ though credits still depend on completing assigned programs or activities. Anyone sentenced in Honolulu who waits here for a flight to a mainland prison should keep a record of approved programs finished after sentencing. Pretrial time still counts toward the sentence: 18 U.S.C. ยง 3585(b) credits official detention before the sentence commences, on the offense or on a charge for a later arrest, if it has not been credited against another sentence, and under United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), the Bureau computes that credit after sentencing. See our pages on prior custody credit and First Step Act time credits.

What is daily life like at FDC Honolulu?

Most of daily life at FDC Honolulu happens on the housing units. The handbook gives seven of the eight housing units an outer recreation deck and an inner recreation room, puts an emergency duress button in every cell for โ€œcritical medical or life threatening emergencies,โ€ and, after a boilerplate paragraph about moving to a recreation yard, gymnasium and chapel, says: โ€œThis institution does not use controlled movements.โ€ Its visiting section still opens with a drafting note, โ€œThese procedures should be specific to each institution,โ€ a reminder that parts of it came from a template.

The 2022 handbook gives a weekday this shape:

TimeWhat happens
6:00 a.m.Unit lights on (7:00 a.m. on weekends and holidays); telephones open; breakfast served
7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.Khaki or dark green uniform on weekdays; rooms inspection-ready by 7:45 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. census
10:30 a.m. to noonLunch; on weekends, brunch follows the 10:00 a.m. stand-up count instead
4:00 p.m.Stand-up count daily; weekday mail call falls around it; dinner follows
9:00 p.m.Stand-up count
11:30 p.m.Telephones close
Midnight, 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.Overnight counts

Housing

The documents disagree on unit names: the handbook lists eight general housing units, CA through FB, its own pandemic visiting table uses 4A, 4B, 5A and 6B, and the 2024 PREA audit counts nine housing units. The handbook forbids congregating or watching television on a unitโ€™s second floor, bans chairs there, and warns that misusing a duress button can bring discipline.

Health care

Health Services is on the second floor. Regular medical hours are 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekdays, evenings and weekends cover acute problems only, and the handbook says medical staff are on duty 16 hours a day, seven days a week; when clinicians are not on site, community emergency personnel respond, which is how the same handbook can say emergency care is available 24 hours a day. There is no inpatient care; emergencies are stabilized and sent to a community hospital. Sick call generally costs $2.00, care is not denied for lack of funds, and daily rounds in special housing are free. Complaints about care follow the route in the Bureauโ€™s patient care policy and our medical care guide.

Dental care is the sharpest limit. โ€œDue to the transient nature of inmates at FDC Honolulu,โ€ the handbook offers only emergency care and dental sick call โ€œto inmates who are housed at the facility for less than a 12 month period; non-sentenced pretrial, holdover, inmates in segregation, special housing or in jail units.โ€ Read literally, that confines every unsentenced pretrial detainee to emergency dental care however long the stay, so report dental problems in writing early. The clinic is open weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to noon.

Marriage

Weddings follow local supplement HON 5326.05 (June 30, 2014). Ceremonies take place in the visiting room outside visiting hours, twice a year, in April and October, and are ordinarily approved by the warden 45 days ahead; the partner outside pays all costs, and no more than two immediate-family witnesses may attend. Because Hawaii requires both partners at licensing, the unit team arranges a special visit with a state licensing agent. For a pretrial detainee, the court, the U.S. Attorney and, for a noncitizen, immigration authorities are asked for comment, and a later move to a designated prison is not postponed for the wedding. The supplement still cites PS 7331.04, since replaced by PS 7331.05.

Our short video on FDC Honolulu, published on YouTube in January 2022.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FDC Honolulu?

The public record on conditions here is thin: one prison-rape audit, federal allegation counts, a Justice Department review of lawyer access, and what courts and prosecutors have filed.

The Inspector General

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. On its own count in May 2026 (Report 26-055), the Inspector General had inspected 14 Bureau institutions since 2023, and FDC Honolulu is not among them. Most of its Honolulu entries are criminal cases against FDC officers, listed under the news below.

The 2024 PREA audit

Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, audited FDC Honolulu under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on site May 21โ€“23, 2024, and submitted her final report on July 7, 2024. The facility exceeded seven standards, met 34 and failed none. The report counts 270 people on the first day of the May 2024 visit and an average daily population of 290 over the prior year, and gives a designed capacity of 992, the same capacity figure FDC Houstonโ€™s audit form shows, so treat it with caution.

In the preceding twelve months there were four administrative investigations of sexual abuse by another incarcerated person, three closed as unsubstantiated and one substantiated; one of sexual abuse and two of sexual harassment by staff, all still open; and no criminal investigations. The auditor wrote that โ€œmany inmates stated that staff do not routinely conduct opposite gender announcements,โ€ and the facility responded with staff training. The facilityโ€™s PREA overview exists in English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, and Spanish is the most common language after English, yet the only orientation handbook the Bureau posts for FDC Honolulu is in English. The handbook lists the Sex Abuse Treatment Centerโ€™s 24-hour confidential hotline, (808) 524-7273; the audit records that no forensic examination was needed in its review period.

GAOโ€™s allegation counts

The Government Accountability Officeโ€™s May 5, 2026 report, GAO-26-107343, lists for FDC Honolulu 9 allegations naming an incarcerated perpetrator for incidents in 2020 through 2024 (Table 7: 1, 2, 0, 0 and 6 by year) and 16 naming a Bureau employee reported in those years (Table 8: 3, 3, 0, 3 and 7). The tables come from different Bureau systems, one counting by year of incident and the other by year of report, so the two are never added. They are allegations, not findings: nationally from 2014 to 2022, 5 percent of inmate-perpetrator allegations were substantiated, 81 percent unsubstantiated and 14 percent unfounded, against 9, 77 and under 1 percent for staff, and GAO explains that unsubstantiated means the evidence could not show whether the conduct occurred, which is not the same as false. GAO did not adjust for population, so the counts rank nothing.

Staffing and lawyer access

The Justice Departmentโ€™s advisory group on access to counsel reported in July 2023 that FDC Honolulu was one of six pretrial facilities with a correctional-staff vacancy rate above 20 percent, and that it paid a 10 percent retention incentive. Counsel also told the group that the facility gave timely notice of canceled visits, that its confidential meeting space was adequate, and that client medical records came promptly.

What the courts have said

In Watanabe v. Derr, 115 F.4th 1034 (9th Cir. 2024), rehโ€™g en banc denied, 139 F.4th 1056 (9th Cir. 2025), the Ninth Circuit let a damages claim against an FDC Honolulu staff nurse go forward. The plaintiff alleged that he was beaten with a โ€œlock in a sockโ€ during a July 12, 2021 gang riot in Unit 5A, that the nurse told him โ€œto stop being a cry baby,โ€ and that his fractured coccyx was not diagnosed until February 2022. The majority held that his medical-care claim did not present a new context under Bivens, because it matched Carlson v. Green, and remanded; one judge dissented in part. The court decided only that the claim could proceed, and that ruling is now under review: the Supreme Court granted the nurseโ€™s petition on June 22, 2026 (Nielsen v. Watanabe, No. 25-417) and set argument for November 9, 2026.

In United States v. Moser, No. 1:13-cr-00860-LEK (D. Haw. Oct. 30, 2014), Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi wrote that the treatment of two defendants held in administrative detention in the FDCโ€™s special housing unit for six and a half and seven months โ€œborders on the unconscionable.โ€ The government conceded the placement was not a reprimand for misbehavior or a response to dangerousness but a result of how many defendants it had indicted. She held that she lacked jurisdiction to order the Bureau to move them and said the court would instead โ€œencourage and even pester the authorities at FDC.โ€ In Doe v. United States, No. 1:12-cv-00640 (D. Haw. Dec. 17, 2014), Senior Judge Alan C. Kay held that a womanโ€™s account of sexual abuse by an FDC officer met the Federal Tort Claims Actโ€™s physical-injury requirement, but dismissed all of her claims against the government, without prejudice and with leave to amend, because her negligence claims fell within the Actโ€™s discretionary-function exception and her emotional-distress claim depended on them; see our guide to tort claims.

FDC Honolulu in the news

Recent news about FDC Honolulu centers on immigration detention, the death of Michael Miske and a proposal that the state take the building over; older items concern deaths in custody, a hunger strike and the prosecutions of five of its officers. Dated items, newest first; reporting on immigration and state detainees is summarized in the section on who is held.

  • April 2026 โ€” Honolulu Civil Beat counted 15 immigration habeas petitions in Hawaii since January 2025; one petitioner, arrested at his green-card interview on August 13, 2025, spent about six months at the FDC before his release in January 2026.
  • March 2026 โ€” Civil Beat reported that Michael Miske died of a fentanyl overdose at the FDC and that his death before sentencing vacated his conviction and ended the criminal forfeiture. Prosecutors, moving to amend their civil forfeiture complaint, allege that he arranged to have fentanyl smuggled in and overdosed on purpose to defeat the forfeiture of assets he had moved into his trust; the trustโ€™s lawyer denies it.
  • July 2025 โ€” Mikael Rivera, an FDC correctional officer from about 2014 to 2018, was sentenced to 96 months in prison after pleading guilty in March 2025 to six counts of sexual abuse of a ward; the U.S. Attorneyโ€™s Office said he first fled on the eve of trial, leading law enforcement on a days-long manhunt across Oโ€˜ahu. The Inmate Locator places him at FCI Englewood, Colorado.
  • June 2025 โ€” Gov. Josh Green told Hawaiโ€˜i Public Radio he had asked the federal government to consider letting the state acquire the FDC to replace OCCC, saying โ€œTheyโ€™re only using about 200 of the 900-plus cells thereโ€; the ACLU of Hawaiโ€˜iโ€™s policy director raised concerns because of ICEโ€™s increased use of the facility.
  • February 2021 โ€” Bryan Leslie Aasted, 59, held since February 23 on heroin charges, died after being found unresponsive late on February 27; KHON, citing the Bureau, reported that emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead.
  • January 2021 โ€” Outhonthip Jenks, a correctional officer at the FDC, was sentenced to six months and a $7,000 fine for accepting a bribe; the Inspector General said Jenks brought a cellphone, food, shoes, clothing and pain pills to an inmate in 2018 in return for $3,500 from the inmateโ€™s associate.
  • June 2017 โ€” Former officer Diego Contreras was sentenced to a year in prison for lying to Inspector General agents investigating his relationships with two women held at the FDC.
  • August 2016 โ€” Gavin Galacia, 38, serving a federal sentence, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at a hospital, the Associated Press reported.
  • April 2014 โ€” About eight defendants in the segregation unit began a hunger strike over isolation, lost family visits, a lack of clean underwear and maggots, the AP reported; a Bureau spokesman called the insect and clothing claims unfounded.
  • July 2013 โ€” Former officer Richard Seaman, indicted in April 2012 on five counts of sexual abuse of a ward, was due to be sentenced, the Associated Press reported; a later court order records that he pleaded guilty to one count on December 17, 2012.

Frequently asked questions about FDC Honolulu

Is FDC Honolulu a jail or a prison?

It is a federal detention center, the Bureau of Prisonsโ€™ only facility in Hawaii, rated administrative security. Most people there await trial or sentencing in the District of Hawaii, but its handbook also provides for a sentenced cadre and immigration detainees. It is not the stateโ€™s Oโ€˜ahu Community Correctional Center.

What is the mailing address for someone at FDC Honolulu?

The personโ€™s committed name and register number, then FDC Honolulu, Federal Detention Center, P.O. Box 30080, Honolulu, HI 96820. Use white paper and a white envelope, because the facility photocopies colored mail and greeting cards and discards the originals after 30 days. Letters to ICE detainees also need the last four digits of the A-number.

Is there a published visiting schedule for FDC Honolulu?

The Bureau publishes no current social visiting schedule for FDC Honolulu. The last published one, in the May 2022 handbook, was a non-contact pandemic plan, Saturday through Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in one-hour blocks by housing unit, and the handbook says times vary by housing unit and are posted on unit bulletin boards. Call 808-838-4200 before traveling.

Can a lawyer schedule a visit at FDC Honolulu?

Only a lawyer traveling from outside Oโ€˜ahu can book ahead, by emailing [email protected] 48 hours in advance. Others walk in: 6:15 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. on weekends and federal holidays, 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and 7:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with no entry from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. or during the 3:30 p.m. count.

How much can someone spend at the FDC Honolulu commissary?

Up to $460 a month under Program Statement 4500.13, issued in May 2026. The limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. The facilityโ€™s 2022 handbook still gives the national spending limit as $360, which is out of date, and the February 2025 commissary order form prints no limit at all.

How many phone minutes do people at FDC Honolulu get?

Up to 510 a month under PS 5264.09 (September 3, 2026): 300 free minutes for those eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives and 210 that anyone can buy. Unmonitored legal calls do not count, and the handbookโ€™s lower limit comes from the rescinded 2008 policy.

Does FDC Honolulu hold ICE detainees?

Yes. The 2024 PREA audit says the facility detains people solely for civil immigration purposes, ICE lists it as a detention site, and ICEโ€™s statistics show an average of 64 ICE detainees a day there in fiscal 2026 through July 11, 2026. For information about an ICE detainee, call ICE at (808) 529-1970 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Is there RDAP at FDC Honolulu?

No. The handbook says the institution has no Residential Drug Abuse Program, and it is absent from the Bureauโ€™s June 4, 2026 list of 57 programs at 50 locations. A sentenced person who wants RDAP needs designation to an institution that runs it.

Does time spent at FDC Honolulu count toward a federal sentence?

Usually. 18 U.S.C. ยง 3585(b) credits official detention before the sentence begins if it was not credited against another sentence, and the Bureau computes that credit after sentencing (United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992)). Time before sentencing earns no First Step Act time credits (18 U.S.C. ยง 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii)); under a Bureau rule effective September 30, 2026, credits can begin once the sentence commences.

Can family members provide court clothes for someone at FDC Honolulu?

National policy allows it: under PS 7331.05, staff may supply clothing for court or a pretrial detainee may supply his or her own, with exchanges at least weekly (at 21). FDC Honoluluโ€™s local procedure is not posted online, so arrange it through the defense lawyer or unit team before the court date.

Can a detention order be reviewed while someone is held at FDC Honolulu?

Yes. A detention hearing may be reopened before trial on material information not known at the time (18 U.S.C. ยง 3142(f)); a magistrate judgeโ€™s order may be challenged by motion in the district court, which must decide promptly (ยง 3145(b)); and the order may be appealed (ยง 3145(c)). A judge may also permit temporary release when necessary to prepare a defense or for another compelling reason (ยง 3142(i)).

Where can a lawyer help with a problem at FDC Honolulu?

The problems in this buildingโ€™s record are specific: long pretrial detention, lawyers kept at a door portal in special housing, dental care limited by a short-term design, and the move to a mainland prison after sentencing. Several have legal answers.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal criminal defense, appeals and post-conviction matters nationwide, and advises families on Bureau of Prisons issues at institutions across the system. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to talk through a specific situation.

Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, the firm’s Managing Director, writes and maintains the federal prison policy material on this site. He is not counsel of record; legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Audits and inspections

Court records

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026

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