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Federal Prisons in California

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

Federal prisons in California at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates 10 institutions in California, five of them with a satellite camp, holding 11,196 people as of September 2026. All ten belong to the Bureau’s Western Region, which is run from Stockton, California.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
USP AtwaterU.S. Penitentiary · HighMen1,143Camp: 144AtwaterEastern District of California
USP VictorvilleU.S. Penitentiary · HighMen1,001—VictorvilleCentral District of California
FCI HerlongFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen554Camp: 82HerlongEastern District of California
FCI MendotaFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen648Camp: 121MendotaEastern District of California
FCI Victorville Medium IFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen and women1,369Camp: 226VictorvilleCentral District of California
FCI Victorville Medium IIFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,327—VictorvilleCentral District of California
FCI Lompoc IFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen885—LompocCentral District of California
FCI Lompoc IIFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen1,895Camp: 119 · Camp: 220LompocCentral District of California
MCC San DiegoMetropolitan Correctional Center · AdministrativeMen and women565—San DiegoSouthern District of California
MDC Los AngelesMetropolitan Detention Center · AdministrativeMen and women897—Los AngelesCentral District of California
Total10 institutions10,284912
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

Three California prisons with pages on this site are no longer among the ten: Dublin, emptied on May 1, 2024; Taft, named in a Bureau closure announcement dated July 1, 2026; and Terminal Island, absent from the roster record behind this page, queried September 18, 2026. One further change is a rename rather than a closure: in 2024 Lompoc’s penitentiary became FCI Lompoc II and its neighbor FCI Lompoc I.

How many federal prisons are in California?

Ten, counting institutions on the Bureau of Prisons roster, which is what this page counts. Two are high-security penitentiaries, four medium-security and two low-security correctional institutions, and two administrative jails. Nothing here is a stand-alone camp: the six camp and satellite rows in this state all sit inside a larger institution’s row. Half the list belongs to two complexes, FCC Lompoc and FCC Victorville. The ratings themselves have pages of their own — high, medium, low, minimum and administrative — under our security levels guide, and designation explains how the Bureau arrives at one. The Bureau of Prisons directory gives the national picture. Three former California facilities keep pages here too, in the closures section below.

What is each federal prison in California like?

The ten, in the order the table lists them.

USP Atwater

A high-security penitentiary for men in Merced County, on ground that was once Castle Air Force Base, with a minimum-security camp beside it. Atwater runs a Reintegration Housing Unit, a residential alternative to segregation the Bureau has activated at three institutions only. See USP Atwater.

USP Victorville

The second penitentiary, for men, on the old George Air Force Base northeast of Los Angeles, sharing a campus with two medium-security prisons. In December 2025 the Bureau made Victorville the first site for its National Resource Team, the leadership review every penitentiary is to receive. See USP Victorville.

FCI Herlong

Medium security for men in Lassen County, with a camp, and farther north than any other federal institution in the state. Visiting runs on Sundays and Mondays rather than Saturdays, so listings printing Saturday hours are out of date. See FCI Herlong.

FCI Mendota

Medium security for men in western Fresno County, with a camp, and one of the very few prisons the Justice Department’s Inspector General has walked into: its kitchen was one of six examined in the concurrent inspections of Bureau food service operations, Report 25-062. See FCI Mendota.

FCI Victorville Medium I

Medium security at the Victorville complex, recorded on the roster as holding men and women because of the camp: the Bureau files the complex’s minimum-security camp for women under this code, and its records do not all agree which medium it belongs to. See FCI Victorville Medium I.

FCI Victorville Medium II

The second medium-security prison at the complex, for men, with no camp. It carries a second job: when the U.S. Marshals Service is short of bed space in southern California it takes pretrial and holdover detainees, and its visiting supplement builds a separate legal-access regime around them. See FCI Victorville Medium II.

FCI Lompoc I

Low security for men on Guard Road inside FCC Lompoc, with no camp. This is the older Lompoc institution, the one that carried the plain name FCI Lompoc for decades; it took the numeral in 2024 when the penitentiary across the road was redesignated. See FCI Lompoc I.

FCI Lompoc II

Low security for men on Klein Boulevard, and the only California institution the Bureau has renamed out of its penitentiary estate: this was USP Lompoc until April 4, 2024. Two minimum-security camps are attached to it, which nothing else here has. See FCI Lompoc II.

MCC San Diego

An administrative-security federal jail in a high-rise on Union Street downtown, holding men and women whose cases are mostly pending across the street. A Justice Department review of July 2023 found it the only one of the Bureau’s ten pretrial detention facilities with no dedicated room for a confidential meeting with a lawyer. Those meetings are governed by the Bureau’s inmate legal activities policy. See MCC San Diego.

MDC Los Angeles

The Bureau’s detention center in downtown Los Angeles, beside the Roybal Federal Building, holding men and women almost all of whom are waiting: for trial in the Central District of California, for sentencing, or for transport onward. The Los Angeles Police Department runs a jail of the same name half a mile away. See MDC Los Angeles.

Which federal prisons in California hold women?

Three of the ten, and not one is a women’s prison. MDC Los Angeles and MCC San Diego hold men and women together, most of them before sentence. The third is FCI Victorville Medium I, a men’s institution whose satellite camp holds women; the roster records sex at institution level, so those women appear under a men’s prison. Since Dublin was emptied the state has had no women’s institution at all. See women’s federal prisons, and the Bureau’s female offender manual for the rules that follow a woman between institutions.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees California?

The Western Regional Office, at Stockton, one of the Bureau’s six regional offices. Every California institution belongs to the Western Region, which also takes in Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. The region is the rung of the administrative remedy ladder at which a complaint first leaves the prison that produced it. Program Statement 1330.18 provides at pp. 6–7 that “An inmate who is not satisfied with the Warden’s response may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-10) to the appropriate Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response.” The rung below is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from California?

Two offices, divided by judicial district, out of the Bureau’s national network of residential reentry management offices. California is divided into four federal districts, the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California, under 28 U.S.C. § 84. The Bureau’s page for RRM Sacramento prints Northern California and Eastern California; its page for RRM Long Beach prints Central California and Southern California. Each district appears once, under one office: California has neither the overlaps nor the gaps seen elsewhere.

The office is fixed by where a person is releasing to, not by where the prison stands. Program Statement 7310.04, the Bureau’s halfway-house placement procedures, tells the Warden at p. 12, on significant doubt about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” Someone at FCI Herlong going home to San Diego is an RRM Long Beach matter. See federal halfway houses for the timing and release preparation for what the institution is meant to do first.

How do I find, write to, visit or send money to someone in a California federal prison?

Start with the national search. The inmate locator takes a register number or a name, and a name has to be both halves. A result reading Long Beach or Sacramento is usually a Residential Reentry Management office, not a prison.

Post goes to the exact block the institution publishes, which here is easy to get wrong: Lompoc has two institutions on two roads and Victorville three at one address, each with its own post office box. See writing to someone inside, and the Bureau’s correspondence rules for what may be sent at all.

Visiting runs on each institution’s own supplement: Herlong visits on Sundays and Mondays, while the three Victorville prisons share one. Each supplement sits on top of the national visiting regulations. See visitation.

Money moves on national channels: the lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Fund transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST are posted by 7:00 a.m. the following day.” See sending money, and the trust fund rules that govern the account the money lands in.

Which federal prisons in California are closing or have closed?

None of the ten is on an announced closure list, and the only California institution in the Bureau’s July 1, 2026 closure announcement had already stopped operating. That was Taft Correctional Institution, now closed: the announcement recorded that “Minimal staff will be affected at La Tuna FSL and Taft FCI, as both facilities are currently non-operational; however, each facility will be permanently closed.” Taft is gone from the roster and its page on bop.gov returns a 404.

Two more have left the roster without a closure release. The former FCI Dublin, the low-security prison for women in Alameda County, was emptied of everyone in custody on May 1, 2024 under the supervision of a federal court hearing a class action about sexual abuse at the prison, and no Bureau decision about the site has been published since. The transfers that emptied it scattered those women across the federal system rather than to another California prison. The former FCI Terminal Island, at San Pedro, is off the roster as well. California shows what our explainer on major federal prison closures traces: a prison can leave the roster long before a document calls it shut.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau of Prisons run in California?

Ten institutions on the roster snapshot behind this page: two high-security penitentiaries, four medium-security and two low-security correctional institutions, and two administrative jails. Five of the ten also carry a satellite camp, and one of those carries two camps rather than one.

What is the largest federal prison in California by population?

FCI Lompoc II, which held 1,895 people as of September 2026. That is the institution counted on its own; two minimum-security camps sit beside it and the Bureau reports each on a separate line, so the whole site at Klein Boulevard holds more again.

Does California have a high-security federal penitentiary?

Two of them, and they are the only California institutions the Bureau rates high security. USP Atwater stands in Merced County on the old Castle Air Force Base; USP Victorville stands in the high desert of San Bernardino County. Both hold men.

Where are women held in federal custody in California?

At three of the ten institutions, none of which is a women’s prison. MDC Los Angeles and MCC San Diego are jails holding men and women, most of them awaiting trial or sentencing. The third is the Victorville camp, which the Bureau files under a men’s prison.

Where are pretrial federal detainees held in California?

Mainly at MDC Los Angeles and MCC San Diego, the two California institutions on the Bureau’s list of ten pretrial detention facilities. FCI Victorville Medium II also takes holdover and pretrial detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service. The inmate locator shows where a person actually is.

Which reentry office handles halfway-house placement for someone releasing to California?

One of two, depending on which federal judicial district the person is going home to. The Bureau’s page for RRM Sacramento lists Northern California and Eastern California; its page for RRM Long Beach lists Central California and Southern California. The release district decides, not where the sentence is served.

Can someone ask to be designated to a federal prison in California?

A request can be made and a sentencing judge can recommend a prison, but the choice belongs to the Bureau. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment” and place the person “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence.”

How can a federal defense firm help a family with someone in a California federal prison?

Four problems recur across California’s institutions, each visible on the facility pages themselves. Movement: this state has lost three institutions from the roster since 2024, and a closure is a transfer question for everyone inside long before it is anything else, which is where prison consulting starts. Campus confusion: half the state’s prisons sit inside complexes where institutions share a street and sometimes a name, and the three-letter code, not the city, decides where a letter or a visit lands. Detention: two of the Bureau’s ten pretrial detention facilities are here, so legal access questions arise before sentence, and are among the problems we work on inside. Medical: a care level limits which institutions a person can be sent to at all, so the Bureau’s medical designation record is usually where a compassionate release motion begins. Programs: program access and First Step Act time credit disputes are ordinary early release work, and a habeas petition is what is left when the administrative remedies run out.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of California places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.

Call 843-620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Audits and inspections

Court records and statutes

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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