MDC Los Angeles: Federal Detention Center Guide

By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

MDC Los Angeles at a glance

MDC Los Angeles is a federal jail, not a federal prison: an administrative-security Metropolitan Detention Center run by the Bureau of Prisons at 535 North Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles, beside the Roybal Federal Building and across from Union Station. It held 897 men and women as of September 2026.

Official name	Metropolitan Detention Center, Los Angeles
BOP code	LOS
Security level	Administrative; men and women, mostly pretrial and holdover
Population	897 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	One day a week by housing unit: weekdays 2:30–8:00 p.m.; 5 North Saturday and Sunday 8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Inmate Name & Register Number · MDC Los Angeles · Metropolitan Detention Center · P.O. Box 531500 · Los Angeles, CA 90053
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	213-485-0439 · Fax 213-253-9510
Street address	535 N Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 · Los Angeles County
Judicial district	Central District of California
BOP region	Western
Designated capacity	1,040
Housing	One building; ten housing units, all multiple-occupancy cells
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 74 segregation cells
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	No

Almost everyone held here is waiting: pretrial detainees charged in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, people waiting to be sentenced, and holdovers waiting for a bus to a prison they have already been designated to. The Bureau’s own 2025 audit puts the average stay at 225.6 days. The institution opened in 1988.

Two downtown jails are called the Metropolitan Detention Center. One is federal.

Settle this before you drive anywhere. The Los Angeles Police Department runs its own Metropolitan Detention Center — a city jail at 180 North Los Angeles Street, one of three LAPD jail facilities, reachable on 213-356-3400. The federal Metropolitan Detention Center is half a mile away at 535 North Alameda Street.

Lockup	Run by	How you find someone
MDC Los Angeles, 535 N Alameda St (this page)	Federal Bureau of Prisons	BOP Inmate Locator
Metropolitan Detention Center, 180 N Los Angeles St	Los Angeles Police Department	213-473-6100
County jails after arraignment	Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department	213-473-6100 (the same line covers both city and county)

Sources: Los Angeles Police Department, Jail and Custody Information; the Bureau’s facility page for MDC Los Angeles.

The test is which court took the case. A federal magistrate judge in the Roybal building, a case number beginning 2:25-cr or 2:26-cr, an Assistant United States Attorney — that is this building. MCC San Diego, at 808 Union Street, is the only other California institution among the ten the Bureau lists as its pretrial detention facilities, and there is no Metropolitan Correctional Center in Los Angeles: stories about smuggling cases “at the MCC in Los Angeles” are about this building, which has always been an MDC. See our guide to federal prisons in California.

Who is held at MDC Los Angeles?

People who have not been convicted of anything, in the main. The institution’s own handbook says it “houses approximately 1000 inmates who are either in pretrial, holdover, or designated status,” and the March 2025 audit recorded 1,853 admissions in twelve months, 1,123 of whom stayed more than thirty days. Which status applies decides how many people may visit, whether the person can be made to work, and whether anything they complete inside counts.

Status	Who that is	What follows from it
Pretrial	Detained by order of a judicial officer while the charge is pending	Visits with immediate family only. No compelled work. Not required to attend education. Unit team review within 21 days of arrival, then every 90 days
Holdover	Sentenced but not yet designated, or designated and waiting for transport	The same immediate-family-only visiting rule as pretrial
Designated (cadre)	A small sentenced group designated here to run the building	Up to ten approved visitors. Work is required. Initial classification within 28 days, program reviews every 90 to 180 days

Source: MDC Los Angeles Admission & Orientation Handbook (revised May 2022), pages 3, 8 and 13.

The work rule surprises people. Under 28 C.F.R. § 551.106, part of the Bureau’s rules for pretrial inmates, a detainee cannot be required to work beyond housekeeping in their own cell and the common area unless they sign a waiver, and the handbook repeats it. Volunteering is a real choice with real consequences; discuss it with counsel before signing anything.

Women are held here, which is easy to miss. The Bureau’s roster records MDC Los Angeles as mixed gender, and its commissary order form settles where: the women’s hygiene section is headed “FEMININE (9 NORTH)”, and the men’s underwear line carries the footnote “(9N*) EXCLUDED”. Nine North is the women’s unit, and it visits on Fridays. Health Services offers cervical and breast cancer screening to every woman held here, and the handbook records that pre-natal and obstetric care are provided where clinically indicated.

The audit answers one frequent question precisely. Asked which other agencies this facility holds people for, the March 2025 auditor ticked both the United States Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Asked how many people were “detained solely for civil immigration purposes” on the audit’s first day, she recorded zero. Both entries are on the same form.

What is the security level at MDC Los Angeles?

MDC Los Angeles is an administrative-security institution. In the Bureau’s vocabulary that is not a step between low and medium — it means the institution takes people at every custody level, because a court and not a classification officer decides who comes through the door. The March 2025 audit lists the custody levels in use here as “Admin/LOS/Max/In/Out/Community” and the age range as 18 to 74.

The building is nothing like a prison. The audit counts the whole institution as one building: no perimeter, no fence, no yard. The handbook’s schedules put the housing units on floors five through nine, each split north and south — the nine general-population units it counts — and the audit’s count of ten is consistent with those nine plus the Special Housing Unit. There are 74 segregation cells and not one single-occupancy unit.

Movement between floors is by staff-escorted elevator, and the handbook’s rule for it reads: “Upon entering the elevators, inmates must proceed to the rear of the elevator and remain facing the rear. At no time may you turn around unless instructed by a staff member. Complete silence must be maintained while in the elevator.”

Outdoor recreation is a rooftop deck, which is also where haircuts happen, four men at a time, between 8:00 a.m. and noon. The handbook says outdoor recreation “is limited by the physical structure of this facility.” Everything else — cards, ping-pong, pool, board games — happens inside the housing unit.

Can the detention order be reopened, reviewed or appealed?

Yes, by three separate statutory routes. A detainee is at MDC Los Angeles because a judicial officer ordered detention under 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e)(1), not because the Bureau of Prisons put them there. The order rests on a finding “that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the person as required and the safety of any other person and the community” — a finding made on one record, often within days of arrest and before defense counsel has seen the discovery. Records change, and the Bail Reform Act says what to do when they do.

Reopening the hearing under section 3142(f)

The last sentence of § 3142(f) allows a second look: the hearing “may be reopened, before or after a determination by the judicial officer, at any time before trial if the judicial officer finds that information exists that was not known to the movant at the time of the hearing and that has a material bearing on the issue whether there are conditions of release that will reasonably assure the appearance of such person as required and the safety of any other person and the community.”

Two conditions do the work. The information has to have been unknown at the time, and it has to bear on conditions — on what could be put in place to make release safe, not on whether the first judge was right. A sister who has now agreed to act as third-party custodian and can document her income; a treatment bed offered in writing with a start date; a lease, an employer’s letter, a diagnosis made after the hearing. Those are reopening motions. Disappointment is not.

This is why the first two weeks matter. The material that supports a reopening motion is gathered outside the jail by people who are frightened and disorganized. Start the day the detention order is entered, not the month before trial.

Review by the district judge under section 3145(b)

Detention in the Central District of California is ordinarily ordered by a magistrate judge. Section 3145(b) provides that a person so detained “may file, with the court having original jurisdiction over the offense, a motion for revocation or amendment of the order,” and that the motion “shall be determined promptly.”

In this circuit that is a fresh look, not an appeal. In United States v. Koenig, 912 F.2d 1190 (9th Cir. 1990), the Ninth Circuit held that a district judge reviewing a magistrate judge’s detention order is not exercising appellate jurisdiction and may not apply a deferential standard: the district court’s responsibility is “as unfettered as it would be if the district court were considering whether to amend its own action,” and it “is not constrained to look for abuse of discretion or to defer to the judgment of the prior judicial officer.”

Two qualifications come with it. Koenig itself lost: the district court had applied the wrong standard but said it would reach the same conclusion on its own view of the evidence, so the error was harmless. And a further evidentiary hearing is not required where no new evidence is offered. Independent review is worth something when there is something new to put in front of the judge.

Appeal, temporary release and exceptional reasons

Section 3145(c) sends an appeal from a detention order, or from an order refusing to revoke or amend one, to the court of appeals under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and it too “shall be determined promptly.” Very few pretrial rulings can be taken to a circuit court immediately; this is one of them.

Separately, § 3142(i) allows temporary release “to the extent that the judicial officer determines such release to be necessary for preparation of the person’s defense or for another compelling reason” — a narrow door, but the one that carries a serious untreated medical condition or a defense that genuinely cannot be prepared from inside.

The last sentence of § 3145(c) is different in kind and is often misread. It applies after conviction, to a defendant facing mandatory detention pending sentencing or appeal, and lets a judicial officer order release on “exceptional reasons why such person’s detention would not be appropriate.” In United States v. Garcia, 340 F.3d 1013 (9th Cir. 2003), the Ninth Circuit held that a court deciding such a motion must consider all the circumstances without a rigid formula, and may not treat the absence of danger as categorically irrelevant. What can qualify: aberrational conduct, a sentence so short it would be served before the appeal was decided, serious illness, unusual vulnerability. What cannot: the ordinary hardships of imprisonment. Garcia ended in a remand, not a release.

Does time at MDC Los Angeles count toward a sentence?

The days count. Pretrial programs do not. Those are two different questions.

On the days, 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) credits time spent in official detention before the sentence commences, so long as it “has not been credited against another sentence.” Months on Alameda Street are ordinarily credited. But the sentencing judge does not do the arithmetic and cannot. In United States v. Checchini, 967 F.2d 348 (9th Cir. 1992), the Ninth Circuit held that after United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), a district court has no jurisdiction to award that credit at sentencing: the computation belongs to the Bureau once the sentence begins, and Checchini “must commence serving his sentence and exhaust his administrative remedies before he can petition for judicial review.”

So the number that governs a release date is produced weeks after sentencing, by a records office, on paperwork the courtroom never sees. Read it against the judgment the day it arrives. Our page on challenging a Bureau sentence computation sets out the route, which runs through the administrative remedy process first.

There is a trap on the other side of the bail decision. Time spent released on conditions is not credited, however confining those conditions are. In Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), the Supreme Court held that a defendant “released” on bail but confined to a community treatment center and forbidden to leave without a government agent had not been in “official detention,” and earned no credit for the roughly 150 days he spent there. The Act offers a court two choices, release on conditions or detention by commitment to the Attorney General’s custody, and only the second is official detention. A halfway-house condition can be an excellent outcome. It is not time served.

On the programs: First Step Act earned time credits do not accrue in pretrial status, and the reason is in the statute, which gives no credit for a program completed “during official detention prior to the date that the prisoner’s sentence commences under section 3585(a)” (18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii)). Set that against the audit’s average stay of 225.6 days: somebody who spends seven months here awaiting trial and takes every class the building offers arrives at their designated prison with no credits for those months. A record of programming still counts at sentencing and at the first unit team review, but pretrial programming earns no time credits.

The rule for people already sentenced is changing. The Bureau’s First Step Act time-credits policy, Program Statement 5410.01 (2023), ties the start of earning to arrival at, or voluntary surrender to, the institution designated to serve the sentence, and excludes earlier time in Marshals Service custody. On September 30, 2026, the regulation it quotes changes: an interim final rule published on August 31 strikes the arrival clause from 28 C.F.R. § 523.42(a), so that an eligible person begins earning “after the inmate’s term of imprisonment commences” (91 Fed. Reg. 55740), and under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a) that happens when the defendant is “received in custody awaiting transportation to” the facility where the sentence will be served. The Bureau’s explanation fits the holdovers on these floors: the change “allows inmates awaiting transportation to their designated facilities to begin FSA-approved programming,” though it “does not mean that every eligible inmate will automatically begin earning Time Credits immediately after their sentence is imposed.”

Where does someone go after MDC Los Angeles?

To an institution chosen in Grand Prairie, Texas, by the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, from documents generated by the court in Los Angeles. Staff at MDC Los Angeles do not pick it, which is why asking a counselor produces sympathy and no answer. Everything that decides the question is fixed before the request is even made, and that is where a lawyer’s work goes.

• The Statement of Reasons. The Bureau’s security designation policy, Program Statement 5100.08, explains why it matters: the procedures exist “to ensure the Bureau is following the intentions of the Court when designating a facility, as the SOR may contain information which overrides the PSR and may affect scoring decisions.” A disputed presentence finding that drives a security point is fixed in the sentencing record or not at all.
• A judicial recommendation. The Bureau treats it as Management Variable B. It is not binding, but when it cannot be met “the court is notified in writing with an explanation outlining the reasons for not satisfying that recommendation” — so asking forces a written answer to the judge.
• Distance. 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) directs placement as close as practicable to the person’s primary residence and, to the extent practicable, within 500 driving miles of it. The same subsection provides that a designation “is not reviewable by any court,” which is exactly why the argument has to be made first.
• Public Safety Factors. A Public Safety Factor overrides the point total outright, so arguing about whether one applies is usually more productive than arguing about points. Our guides to the intake process and federal prison transfers cover what happens either side.

One local detail: the handbook tells people who want the Residential Drug Abuse Program to submit the request here and be told it “will then be considered if you are designated to another institution.” Make the request early anyway — the waiting list is at the receiving prison, and the clock on a § 3621(e) reduction runs on time served.

Who are the notable inmates at MDC Los Angeles?

Durk Banks (“Lil Durk”) and Eugene Henley, Jr. (“Big U”) were held at MDC Los Angeles as of September 2026; James “Whitey” Bulger, Vianna Roman and Aaron Soto were held here in the past. A detention center’s list turns over faster than a prison’s, and most published lists for this building are years wrong.

Name	Status (September 2026)	Case
Durk Banks (“Lil Durk”)	Held here. Register 43251-511; no release date recorded	Charged in United States v. Grant, No. 2:24-cr-00621 (C.D. Cal.). On September 11, 2026, a jury acquitted him on all five counts, and he was not released from custody
Eugene Henley, Jr. (“Big U”)	Held here. Register 67683-511; no release date recorded	Charged in United States v. Henley, Jr., No. 2:25-cr-00211 (C.D. Cal.), indicted March 26, 2025 with eight co-defendants; case pending
James “Whitey” Bulger	Former — a pretrial detainee here from his arrest in June 2011	The Justice Department’s Inspector General records the placement and his intake paperwork in Report 23-007 (December 2022). He was killed at USP Hazelton in 2018
Vianna Roman	Former — released October 10, 2025. Register 64108-112. Bureau records place her last at the Long Beach Residential Reentry Management office	Charged in the Central District of California in the Mexican Mafia racketeering prosecution
Aaron Soto	Former — released February 27, 2018. Register 64072-112	Charged in the same prosecution

Lists that name Jose Cabrera Sablan as a notable inmate serving life here for the murder of a correctional officer at USP Atwater are out of date. The name in the Bureau’s own records is Joseph Cabrera Sablan, and he is dead. The Bureau states it on its Fallen Heroes page for Officer Jose V. Rivera, the man he killed on June 20, 2008: “Inmate Sablan died of natural causes on November 14, 2018 while still in custody.” The Guam Daily Post reported on December 4, 2018, that he was pronounced dead at a hospice in Pueblo, Colorado.

The Banks entry shows how release works for a detainee. A federal jury acquitted him on September 11, 2026, and he was still in this building four days later. The Bureau of Prisons cannot release a pretrial detainee; only a court order does that, and a detainer or a charge in another district keeps a person in custody until a judge in that other case says otherwise. If someone you love is acquitted or has charges dismissed, the first question for counsel is not when they are coming home but what else is lodged against them.

How do I find someone at MDC Los Angeles?

Use the Bureau’s free Inmate Locator. Search by name, or better by the eight-digit register number, which is the reliable key because the locator matches the committed name on the judgment rather than a nickname. For someone still held it gives the facility and, for a sentenced person, a projected release date; for someone released it shows “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, with no facility.

A new arrest is the one case where the locator regularly fails. Someone arrested this week is in the custody of the United States Marshals Service, and may be here, at a contract jail the Marshals use, or in transit, without appearing in the Bureau’s system for days. The locator is not the Marshals’ system. See how register numbers work for what the digits mean.

How do I write to someone at MDC Los Angeles?

Mail does not go to Alameda Street. It goes to a post office box, and it is returned without the committed name and register number on the first line. The national rules are in our guide to writing to someone in federal prison.

General and legal mail	Freight and non-USPS parcels
Inmate Name & Register Number MDC Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center P.O. Box 531500 Los Angeles, CA 90053	Staff Name MDC Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center Attn: Warehouse 535 N Alameda Street Los Angeles, CA 90012

Source: the Bureau’s facility page for MDC Los Angeles.

General correspondence is opened, inspected and may be read, and only legal mail may be sealed before it goes out. Legal mail is handled differently: it “will be delivered to the housing unit by a designated unit team member within 24 hours of receipt. The mail will be opened in your presence and scanned for any contraband.” The handbook accepts magazines, books and newspapers only “directly from the publisher,” and no letter may contain money.

That protection depends entirely on the envelope. The Bureau’s pretrial handbook is blunt: the sender’s full name must appear with the word “Attorney”, the front must be marked “Legal Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate”, and “Writing ‘Law firm’ or ‘Esq.’ is not enough.” An attorney letter without the marking is opened and read as ordinary mail. See our guide to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons. One detention-specific limit catches families sending case papers: each person may keep one cubic foot of legal material in their cell.

How do I send money to someone at MDC Los Angeles?

Money never goes to the institution. It goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa, or through one of two wire services, and every route needs the committed name and the eight-digit register number on the instrument and on the envelope.

Route	Where it goes	Notes
Postal money order or cashier’s check	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	A U.S. postal money order posts without a hold; most other instruments sit under an automatic 15-day hold before the money can be spent
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	Posted within two to four hours of a transfer sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern, according to bop.gov; Program Statement 4500.13 § 9.7 says such transfers are “ordinarily” posted within two hours. Later transfers post at 7:00 a.m. the next day
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons	Same posting window as Western Union

The handbook is specific about what gets money returned: no personal checks, nothing else in the envelope, and the sender’s own name and return address in the upper left corner. The institution’s mail room will not accept funds at all. For the cost of each route, see sending money to a federal prisoner. Money also has to cover telephone credits and TRULINCS minutes, which here are bought in fixed increments.

What are the visiting hours at MDC Los Angeles?

They depend on which floor the person is on, and there is no institution visiting supplement to consult. The only published schedule for this building sits inside its Admission and Orientation handbook, revised May 2022, and it assigns each housing unit one day a week.

Day	Units visiting	Social visits	Legal visits, all floors
Sunday	5 North	8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Monday	6 North and 6 South	2:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday	7 South	2:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday	9 South and 5 South; inter-floor visits 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.	2:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday	7 North and the Special Housing Unit	2:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Friday	8 South Annex and 9 North	2:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday	5 North	8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Source: MDC Los Angeles Admission & Orientation Handbook (revised May 2022), pages 12–13. Federal holiday visits follow the unit’s assigned day but run 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Two cautions on that table. The Saturday cell in the handbook prints the closing time as “1:00 AM”; the footnote beneath it gives 5 North weekend visiting as 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Both are in the same document. And the schedule is four years old, with nothing newer published to replace it. Call 213-485-0439 and confirm the day and the hours for the specific unit before you buy a ticket.

Of the ten institutions the Bureau designates as pretrial detention facilities, eight publish an institution visiting supplement; MDC Los Angeles and FDC Honolulu do not. The Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California still links five documents for this jail, and every one of those links now returns a 404.

Nor is there a Spanish-language handbook. Four of the ten pretrial facilities publish one; this one does not, in a city where the Bureau’s own auditor counted 60 people with limited English proficiency in the building on a single day in March 2025.

Who can visit, and how to get on the list

• Pretrial and holdover detainees may be visited by immediate family only — mother, father, sibling, spouse and children — after the relationship is verified and the Unit Manager approves a background check. Friends, fiancés, cousins and employers do not go on the list.
• Sentenced cadre inmates may have up to ten approved visitors, who need not be family, but proof of a relationship predating the incarceration is required.
• The process starts inside: the person sends out form BP-S102, and the visitor returns it to the correctional counselor, not to the front desk. The handbook says approval “typically takes two weeks.”
• A maximum of three adults may visit at one time, because of the size of the visiting room. Special visits for a family emergency are considered case by case.
• Pastoral visits are arranged through Religious Services, do not count as social visits, and happen in the visiting room during regular hours. Consulate visits follow the legal-visit rules.
• People in the Special Housing Unit, and some in general population whose conduct has been judged disruptive, get tele-visiting instead — a video visit on the same day their unit visits, under the same dress code.

What visitors can wear and bring

The banned list is long and specific: bathing suits, sweatshirts, sweatpants, warm-up suits, jackets unless worn with a suit, sweaters, shorts of any kind, see-through garments including sleeves, low necklines, miniskirts or sundresses more than one inch above the kneecap, stretch pants, crop, halter and tube tops, medical scrubs, tight clothing, hats, hoods and scarves. Also barred, because they resemble what people inside wear: solid white, green or gray t-shirts, and tan or khaki clothing of any kind.

Identification is required for everyone sixteen and over. The handbook singles out one document that is refused — “Matricular identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate are not considered valid for entrance” — which in this city turns visitors away every week. Every visitor passes a metal detector and may be swabbed for narcotics residue.

For an infant you may bring one diaper, one pacifier, one baby blanket and one clear bottle. Nothing else comes in, and nothing may be handed to the person you are visiting. Physical contact is limited to one closed-mouth kiss on arrival and one on leaving; moving a chair or a table ends the visit. See our guide to federal prison visitation and the Bureau’s visiting regulations.

Getting to MDC Los Angeles

The building stands at North Alameda and Aliso Streets, immediately off the Hollywood Freeway (US-101), reached from both Interstate 5 and Interstate 10. It is directly across Alameda from Union Station, which makes this one of the few federal facilities in the country you can reach without a car: Amtrak, Metrolink, the Metro B and D lines and the regional bus network all arrive there. The handbook points drivers to paid parking at Joe’s Auto Park and Union Station. There is no visitor parking at the institution.

How does a lawyer reach a client at MDC Los Angeles?

Better than at most Bureau institutions, because this is one of ten buildings the Bureau treats as a designated pretrial detention facility. Its own facility page links the Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook in twenty-five languages, and that handbook names the ten: MDC Brooklyn, MCC Chicago, MDC Guaynabo, FDC Honolulu, FDC Houston, MDC Los Angeles, FDC Miami, FDC Philadelphia, FDC SeaTac and MCC San Diego. The designation carries a phone, a discovery rule and expectations a lawyer can hold the institution to in writing.

The unmonitored phone on the pretrial unit

The handbook states that the ten pretrial facilities “have a phone on the pretrial units for legal calls,” allowing “brief, direct, unmonitored, calls to pre-programmed and verified phone numbers of defense counsel.” A 2023 Justice Department review counted such phones at eight of the ten; here they also dialed CJA counsel, but from the unit’s common area, where no call was confidential. A Federal Defender client “should be able to” use it; a privately retained lawyer “may be able to,” and the unit team decides.

MDC Los Angeles confirms it locally: “Each pretrial housing unit has one unmonitored telephone which will connect you directly to the Public Defender’s office.” For any other lawyer the handbook sets out what the request must contain — a written request to the Unit Manager giving the next court date, why written correspondence will not suffice, and why the attorney cannot make a legal visit. Longer unmonitored calls run through form BP-A0148, and 28 C.F.R. § 540.103 allows frequent confidential attorney calls “only when an inmate demonstrates communication with their attorney by other means is not adequate.” Three-way and forwarded calls are prohibited.

The Special Housing Unit has its own route, specific to this building. A legal call from the SHU is requested on an Inmate Request to Staff addressed to the SHU Lieutenant, naming the attorney and the number; “The SHU Lieutenant will verify the inmate-attorney relationship using PACER. Upon verification, the SHU officer will connect the inmate phone to the ‘attorney calls’ phone jack within SHU, and record the legal call in the logbook.” If your appearance is not yet on the docket, that verification fails.

Legal visits, discovery and the law library

Attorney visiting runs 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekends, every floor, seven days a week; weekend visits after 3:00 p.m. need two working days’ notice. There is no time limit on a legal visit. Visits, legal and social alike, are taken in the order people arrive, so arriving early is worth more than telephoning ahead. A legal mailbox sits in the visiting room, and nothing may be handed over in the room itself.

Electronic discovery follows a two-track rule the Bureau prints for this facility by name. Ordinary electronic discovery, once the Legal Department approves it, goes to the housing unit. Protected or sensitive discovery does not: “Your attorney must work with the Legal Department to arrange for you to view protected or sensitive electronic discovery.” That sentence puts the burden on counsel.

The law library is thin and the handbook says so: sign-up is through the Unit Officer at assigned times, the electronic law library runs on the housing-unit computers and in Education, and extra time is requested in writing “on the day you are in the law library.” Typewriters and legal paper are available; ribbons and paper come from the commissary. Pretrial facilities generally do not provide notary services — an attorney who needs a declaration sworn brings a notary in as an approved legal assistant on form BP-A0243.

Two deadlines catch families by surprise. Indigent status for free copies and typewriter supplies is a Bureau determination, and the handbook says being found indigent by the court does not make you indigent here; it is applied for separately, in writing. And a pretrial detainee may hold their own presentence report up to the day of sentencing, after which no one in Bureau custody may possess one and a copy found later can draw an incident report.

How do phone calls and email work at MDC Los Angeles?

Calls go out, never in. Before anyone can call at all they need a nine-digit phone access code, issued within 48 hours of arrival except on weekends, and a completed voice-verification registration. That two-step is the most common reason a family hears nothing in the first week. Numbers go on an approved list of up to thirty managed through TRULINCS.

The monthly allowance is 510 minutes. The Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, rescinded the 2008 telephone policy and “Modifies the number of telephone minutes allowed per calendar month.” The new rule: “Inmates with ITS accounts are limited to 510 minutes per calendar month.” People eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives receive 300 of those free, and anyone who uses up the 300 may buy the remaining 210. This institution’s handbook and the Bureau’s own Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook both still describe the 300-minute cap, and the pretrial handbook cites the rescinded 2008 policy by number. The program statement controls.

The program statement also provides: “The 510 minutes per calendar month limitation does not apply to an inmate’s ability to place unmonitored legal telephone calls.” Properly arranged calls with counsel are outside the allowance entirely.

Locally, telephones on the housing units run 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The handbook limits each call to fifteen minutes, with a full hour’s wait before the next. Nationally, a call should generally not exceed 15 minutes and at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls, so the extra half hour is the warden’s choice. The phones switch off during lunch and half an hour before every count. International collect calls reach only the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Recording is the default, and using the telephone counts as consent to it. Charges and how the account works are covered under federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs on TRULINCS, reached by families through CorrLinks, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. in fifteen-minute sessions; there is no TRULINCS in the Special Housing Unit. Attorneys may be added, and the handbook states the consequence in the same sentence: those messages “will not be treated as privileged communications and will be subject to monitoring.”

What can people buy at the MDC Los Angeles commissary?

The monthly spending limit is $460, set by the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which records in its own summary of changes that it “Increases spending limit from $360 to $460 per month” and adds $50 for the November–December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. Stamps and over-the-counter medication do not count against it.

MDC Los Angeles’s own published order form says $250. It is dated Friday, July 20, 2018, and its notice panel reads “MONTHLY SPENDING LIMIT IS $250.00” and says stamps and medication are not counted toward it. It is the document the Bureau still serves from this institution’s page. The current handbook says only: “See staff for current spending limits.” The program statement controls, and every price on that form should be treated as indicative.

Shopping is by housing unit, one day a week. One rule on that form exists only in a detention center: “IF YOU ARE AT COURT THE DAY OF DELIVERY, YOUR COMMISSARY WILL BE DELIVERED FRIDAY OF THAT WEEK.” A trial week can push a whole month’s shopping to the end of the week. Unsigned, altered or duplicate lists are not honored.

What the list stocks tells you how the building is used. There are typewriter ribbons at $5.20, correction tape, typing paper, legal writing tablets and copy cards — the equipment of people preparing their own filings. There are halal and kosher lines, prayer rugs, kufis, dikr beads and rosaries. And there is a women’s section headed “FEMININE (9 NORTH)”. The national rules are set out on our federal prison commissary page.

What programs are available at MDC Los Angeles?

Fewer than at a prison, and the institution says so itself: “Due to the nature of MDC Los Angeles’ mission, educational resources are limited.” A detention center exists to produce people in court, not to run programs.

Drug treatment, education and reentry

The Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) does not run here. The residential drug abuse program locations list inside the Bureau’s August 2026 First Step Act guide, dated June 4, 2026, records 57 programs at 50 locations; MDC Los Angeles is not on it, and in California only FCI Herlong and FCI Lompoc are. What does run is crisis support for people detoxing on arrival, drug and alcohol education groups, and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings when they are available.

Education offers literacy and GED classes, English as a second language, adult continuing education and parenting courses. Cadre inmates without a high school diploma must attend the literacy program; pretrial detainees are exempt and may take ESL voluntarily “as it is made available.” There is no UNICOR factory here.

A chaplain is available seven days a week, administers the religious diet program — all religious diet meals here are kosher — and arranges pastoral visits after a security check. Psychology Services is staffed by full-time psychologists, interns under licensed supervision and a contract psychiatrist, and the handbook’s own description uses the word “limited” three times: limited group therapy, limited individual therapy, limited substance abuse treatment.

What the First Step Act guide records, and what it does not

The Bureau’s August 2026 approved-programs guide has two halves and, for this institution, they do not agree. The narrative program descriptions — the half that controls — name no program for MDC Los Angeles by code; everything reaching this institution does so through a blanket sentence that a program “may be offered at all BOP institutions,” which is permission rather than a report that anything runs. The by-institution grid marks fifty programs against the MDC Los Angeles column, among them Anger Management, Criminal Thinking, Drug Education, the Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program, Threshold and thirteen written for women.

The two halves also disagree on work. For Federal Prison Industries, the guide’s narrative cell lists 54 institutions and MDC Los Angeles is not one of them; the grid marks it. Both halves were published the same day. Either way, ask the unit team in writing whether the program is running, and ask for the answer on paper.

What is daily life like at MDC Los Angeles?

The day is built around two things a prison does not have to schedule: five formal counts, and the court bus. The shape below comes from the institution’s own handbook.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Counts	12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:30 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.; the 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. counts are standing lockdown counts, as is the 11:00 a.m. count on weekends and holidays
Court line	Begins around 5:00 a.m. Court lines may not be refused	—
Meals	6:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 5:15 p.m.	7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 5:15 p.m.
Cell inspection	Rooms clean and beds made by 7:30 a.m.
Uniform required	6:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., and at meals	At meals
Telephones and TRULINCS	6:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m., off 11:00 a.m. – noon on weekdays and for half an hour before each count
Haircuts	8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on the recreation deck, four people at a time, by unit

Source: MDC Los Angeles Admission & Orientation Handbook (revised May 2022). Read this as the shape of the day rather than a timetable; a court appearance rearranges all of it.

The 5:00 a.m. court line shapes life here and explains why a client can look exhausted at a 9:00 a.m. hearing. It is not optional: “Court lines may not be refused. Inmates who violate court call procedures will be reported to both the U.S. Marshals and courts.” Nothing may be carried to court except legal papers, and street clothes for trial are requested through the court and then arranged with the correctional counselor, not with the courtroom deputy on the morning of trial.

Meals arrive on the unit on carts from the main kitchen, on a 35-day cycle menu, and must be eaten in the unit’s dining area. Sick call runs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday by electronic request to a named mailbox, with a $2 co-pay for anything the person asks for themselves and none for staff referrals, chronic care, mental health or emergencies. Health Services staff are on call around the clock and the Special Housing Unit gets medical rounds daily.

The Special Housing Unit has two halves, administrative detention and disciplinary segregation, and the handbook’s telephone rule there is the one families need: one social call per thirty days, requested in writing from the SHU officer. There is no TRULINCS. See our page on special housing units.

One line of the discipline policy exists only in a pretrial setting: “Staff shall advise the court of repeated or serious disruptive behavior by a pretrial inmate.” An incident report here can travel to the judge deciding detention and, later, sentence. The disciplinary process at this institution is part of the case.

What do inspectors say about conditions at MDC Los Angeles?

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. It did not carry out one of the remote pandemic inspections either — those covered MDC Brooklyn, MCC Chicago, FCC Lompoc, FCI Terminal Island and nine other institutions, but not this one. On the Inspector General’s own count in May 2026, it has inspected fourteen Bureau institutions since 2023, and MDC Los Angeles is not among them. Nor has the DC Corrections Information Council, which inspects federal facilities holding District of Columbia residents.

That means the only independent, on-site examination of this building in recent years is a compliance audit under one statute, about one subject.

The March 2025 PREA audit

MDC Los Angeles was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on March 18–20, 2025, by Cassandra McGilbra of Corrections Consulting Services. The final report is dated May 2, 2025. The facility passed: two standards exceeded, 43 met, none unmet, no corrective action.

The exceeded standards were 115.41 and 115.42, both about screening people for risk of sexual victimization or abusiveness. The basis for the first: the auditor verified that all 1,853 people admitted in the preceding twelve months had been screened within 72 hours of arrival, and “methodically examined the assessment dates of each inmate” to confirm it.

It is also the fullest public account of the building.

Designated capacity	1,040
Population on day one of the audit	815
Average daily population, prior 12 months	619 — and the facility had not been over capacity at any point in that year
Buildings / housing units / segregation cells	1 / 10, all multiple-occupancy cells / 74
Staff who may have inmate contact	254, of whom 38 were hired in the preceding year
Limited English proficient, day one	60
Disclosed prior sexual victimization at screening, day one	121
Accreditation in the past three years	American Correctional Association only

Three findings sit alongside that clean result. Against the counts of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual and as transgender or intersex, the report reads: “The facility administration couldn’t provide the requested totals on the first day of the audit due to agency policy changes.” Under the cross-gender viewing standard, “Formal interviews with inmates revealed there were issues with opposite gender staff not clearly announcing when entering the housing area, with one inmate reporting an unclothed incident,” reported as a possible voyeurism allegation and still under investigation; the auditor found the facility compliant anyway. And forensic examinations are performed at a local hospital, with confidential advocacy available from the Violence Intervention Program at LAC+USC Medical Center on 323-409-3800.

In the twelve months before the audit the facility recorded two allegations of sexual abuse, both inmate-on-inmate, and eight of sexual harassment, five of them staff-on-inmate. One line in the report explains why the abuse figures for staff are zero: “Staff investigations are conducted by OIA” — the Bureau’s Office of Internal Affairs, not the institution.

Two Bureau documents disagree on accreditation. The audit ticks the American Correctional Association and nothing else. The handbook tells patients that “The Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles is an accredited organization by the Joint Commission” and gives that body’s complaints address. A complaint about medical care should probably go to both.

The GAO allegation counts

In May 2026, the Government Accountability Office published per-institution sexual abuse allegation counts for every Bureau facility. For MDC Los Angeles: where the alleged perpetrator was another incarcerated person, counted by year of incident, none in 2020, two in 2021, two in 2022, six in 2023 and three in 2024, thirteen in all. Where the alleged perpetrator was a Bureau employee, counted by year reported, none, two, three, ten and two — seventeen.

They are reported allegations, not findings, and the GAO’s own conclusion is that most allegations nationally from 2014 through 2022 ended unsubstantiated — which means there was not enough evidence either way, not that the allegation was false. The two tables come from different Bureau systems with different as-of dates, so they cannot be added. And the GAO does not adjust for population, so these counts cannot rank one prison against another.

Staff prosecutions

The Inspector General’s criminal caseload is the thickest part of the oversight record here. On March 20, 2023, Jose Viera, 49, a correctional officer at MDC Los Angeles, was sentenced in the Central District of California to 120 months for deprivation of rights under color of law. On the morning of December 20, 2020, assigned to supervise women held in COVID-19 isolation, he entered a woman’s cell, lay down next to her in her bed and sexually assaulted her, then lied to Inspector General and FBI agents about it.

A second officer here was charged in September 2021 and sentenced in August 2022 to six months, three in custody and three in home detention, for making false statements about unlawful sexual activity with an inmate. A third, Juana Cruz, pleaded guilty in June 2023 to converting property. And on June 1, 2025, Samuel Morales was arrested at the institution and charged with attempting to provide contraband: he was “searched during enhanced security screening at MDC LA and found with a vial of cocaine on his person,” and after arrest was found carrying unidentified pills and multiple SIM cards.

Two older items complete the picture. In February 2006, three jailers and a former guard here were charged with smuggling cell phones and cigarettes to prisoners. And the Inspector General’s 1999 review of Bureau telephone monitoring records that a prisoner arranged a million-dollar drug deal from MDC Los Angeles in 1996 using a cellular telephone supplied by a correctional officer.

The Inspector General has been in the building for other reasons. Its 2023 capstone review of the Bureau’s pandemic response evaluated responses from MDC Los Angeles and the other pretrial facilities on inmate access, and its 2016 review of the Release Preparation Program visited here and found that “the quality of RPP classes was inconsistent in content, length, and format” across the institutions visited. Neither is an inspection of conditions.

MDC Los Angeles in the news

Recent news about MDC Los Angeles centers on the Durk Banks acquittal, a 2025 contraband arrest and the institution’s 2025 Prison Rape Elimination Act audit; older items concern an officer’s 2023 sentence for sexual assault, the Bulger record, a 2020 death release and a 2006 smuggling case.

• September 2026 — a federal jury acquitted Durk Banks on all five counts after a three-week trial in downtown Los Angeles; two co-defendants were convicted of stalking resulting in death and acquitted of murder-for-hire. Banks was not released from custody.
• June 2025 — a correctional officer was arrested during enhanced staff screening and charged with attempting to introduce contraband, after cocaine, unidentified pills and multiple SIM cards were found on him.
• March 2025 — the institution passed its Prison Rape Elimination Act audit with two standards exceeded and none unmet, though the auditor was unable to obtain two population counts the standard form requires.
• March 2023 — a former correctional officer was sentenced to ten years for sexually assaulting a woman held here in COVID-19 isolation in December 2020.
• December 2022 — the Inspector General recorded that James “Whitey” Bulger had been a pretrial detainee here after his arrest in June 2011.
• December 2020 — the Bureau posted one news release reporting the death of a person held at MDC Los Angeles; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• February 2006 — three jailers and a former guard were charged with smuggling cell phones and cigarettes into the institution.

Frequently asked questions about MDC Los Angeles

Problems at MDC Los Angeles: where we can help

What goes wrong here is different from what goes wrong at a prison, because almost everyone in the building is still fighting a case. These are the issues this institution’s own record raises most often.

• The detention order itself. Reopening under § 3142(f), review by the district judge under § 3145(b), appeal under § 3145(c) and temporary release under § 3142(i) are four different motions with four different tests. The work is in assembling what was not before the first judge — a custodian, a treatment bed, an employer, a diagnosis — in weeks rather than months.
• Getting counsel to the client. The unmonitored unit telephone, a scheduled call on BP-A0148, a legal visit taken in arrival order, and the Legal Department arrangement this facility requires before a client can view protected or sensitive discovery. When those break down the remedy is a written request and then the administrative remedy process, which has a clock on every rung: a BP-9 within twenty calendar days, and a Warden’s reply within three calendar days of filing for an emergency threatening immediate health or welfare.
• Designation. The Statement of Reasons, a judicial recommendation, a documented medical need and any disputed presentence finding all have to be in the record before the designation request leaves Los Angeles. Afterward, 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) makes the choice unreviewable.
• Sentence computation. Credit under § 3585(b) is calculated weeks after sentencing, and computation errors are common where there is state custody, a writ, or time on conditions a family assumed would count.
• Medical and mental health care. Psychology Services here describes its own treatment as limited and sick call runs four days a week. Where care is not happening, the route is a written request, then an administrative remedy, and where negligence has caused injury a Federal Tort Claims Act claim.
• Discipline. An incident report at this institution is reported to the sentencing court under its own policy, so a charge that would be routine elsewhere can affect a bail motion or a sentence here.
• Safety and staff misconduct. This building has produced a ten-year federal sentence against an officer for sexually assaulting a woman held in isolation, a second officer sentenced for lying about sexual activity with an inmate, and a 2025 contraband arrest. Reports go to the Office of the Inspector General directly, and confidential advocacy is available from the Violence Intervention Program at LAC+USC Medical Center on 323-409-3800.
• Challenges to the conviction or sentence itself, through a direct appeal or a § 2255 motion.
• Getting out after the case ends. Detainers, holds and charges in other districts keep people here after an acquittal or a dismissal, and clearing them is separate work that has to start early.

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

• MDC Los Angeles, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• MDC Los Angeles Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Housing, counts, the court line, visiting, calls, the law library, programs, medical care and discipline.
• MDC Los Angeles Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2018.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced the 2008 telephone policy.
• First Step Act of 2018 – Time Credits: Procedures for Implementation of 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4), Program Statement 5410.01, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Includes the RDAP locations list.
• Send Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Wire-transfer posting times.
• Jose V. Rivera, Fallen Hero, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024.
• Institution Care Levels for Medical Assignment and Institutional Mental Health Care Levels, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. Released under Freedom of Information Act request 2024-03455 and published by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Includes the December 2020 release reporting a death at MDC Los Angeles.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: MDC Los Angeles, Corrections Consulting Services, 2025. By auditor Cassandra McGilbra; on site March 18–20, 2025.
• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026.
• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan (Report 26-055), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. The count of institutions inspected since 2023.
• Report and Recommendations Concerning Access to Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Pretrial Facilities, U.S. Department of Justice, Advisory Group, 2023.
• Capstone Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic (Report 23-054), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Handling of the Transfer of Inmate James “Whitey” Bulger (Report 23-007), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Release Preparation Program (E&I Report 16-07), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.

Court records

• BOP Correctional Officer Arrested for Attempted Introduction of Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2025. Samuel Morales.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to Conversion, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Juana Cruz.
• Former BOP Corrections Officer Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting a Woman in Federal Custody, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Jose Viera.
• BOP Correctional Officer Arraigned and Charged with Embezzlement, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. Juana Cruz.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Making False Statements About Engaging in Unlawful Sexual Activity with an Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• Federal Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements About Engaging in Unlawful Sexual Activity with an Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Federal Correctional Officer Charged with Making False Statements About Engaging in Unlawful Sexual Activity with an Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• United States v. Garcia, 340 F.3d 1013 (9th Cir. 2003), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2003.
• Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), Supreme Court of the United States, 1995.
• United States v. Checchini, 967 F.2d 348 (9th Cir. 1992), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1992.
• United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), Supreme Court of the United States, 1992.
• United States v. Koenig, 912 F.2d 1190 (9th Cir. 1990), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1990.

News and other sources

• Federal Jury in Los Angeles Acquits Grammy-Winning Rapper Lil Durk in Murder-for-Hire Case, Los Angeles Times, 2026.
• Jail and Custody Information, Los Angeles Police Department, 2026.
• Guam Inmate’s Death Under Review, The Guam Daily Post, 2018.
• Jailers Arrested in Cellphone-Smuggling Case, Los Angeles Times, 2006.
• First Step Act Time Credits—Revisions, Federal Bureau of Prisons (Federal Register), 2026. Interim final rule, effective September 30, 2026.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3142, Release or detention of a defendant pending trial, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3145, Review and appeal of a release or detention order, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a), (b), Calculation of a term of imprisonment, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), (e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii), Development of risk and needs assessment system, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 1291, Final decisions of district courts, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. §§ 540.100–540.105, Telephone Regulations for Inmates, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 551.106, Institutional employment, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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