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Federal Prisons in Hawaii

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

Federal prisons in Hawaii at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs one institution in Hawaii, FDC Honolulu, which held 210 people as of September 2026. It is a detention center rather than a prison for people serving sentences, it has no satellite camp, and it belongs to the Bureau’s Western Region, run from Stockton, California.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FDC HonoluluFederal Detention Center · AdministrativeMen and women210—HonoluluDistrict of Hawaii
Total1 institution210—
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in Hawaii?

One. This page counts institutions on the Bureau of Prisons roster, and Hawaii has a single entry: FDC Honolulu, a Federal Detention Center graded administrative, the label the Bureau gives a building whose work is holding people rather than a rung on the security scale. Hawaii has no penitentiary, no correctional institution, no prison camp and no satellite camp. No facility here was named in the Bureau’s closure announcement of July 1, 2026, and no former federal prison in the islands has a page on this site. Our guide to security levels explains the grades; the rest of the country is in the Bureau of Prisons directory.

FDC Honolulu stands on Elliott Street beside Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, holds men and women, and takes most of its population from cases pending in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. The Bureau names it in its national pretrial handbook as one of ten Pretrial Detention Facilities, and its own paperwork also describes a sentenced work cadre. One rule is peculiar to it: legal visits are booked ahead only for attorneys coming in from outside the island of Oahu, and everyone else uses the walk-in hours on a form created August 10, 2026. See FDC Honolulu.

Which federal prisons in Hawaii hold women?

The one there is. The Bureau’s roster records FDC Honolulu as holding men and women, so a woman in federal custody in the islands before trial is in the same building as the men. There is no women’s camp and no correctional institution here, so a woman sentenced in Honolulu is ordinarily designated away from the state. Where the Bureau houses women across the system is in our guide to women’s federal prisons.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Hawaii?

The Western Regional Office, at Shoreline Drive in Stockton, California. The roster places Hawaii’s one institution in the Western Region, and the Bureau’s Offices page, read September 18, 2026, lists Hawaii under it. For a family the region is the second step of the administrative remedy process, and from Honolulu it is an ocean away. 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 step before it is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Hawaii?

RRM Sacramento, in California. The islands form a single federal judicial district: 28 U.S.C. § 91 provides that “Hawaii constitutes one judicial district” and that court is held at Honolulu. The Bureau’s page for that office prints Hawaii as a bare state name, which reaches the whole district, alongside Eastern and Northern California, Guam and Northern Nevada. No second office claims any part of Hawaii, and none is left unassigned.

The office that acts is the one for the district a person is going home to, whatever state the sentence was served in. Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden, where there is significant doubt about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” Someone finishing a mainland sentence with a Honolulu address to return to is therefore an RRM Sacramento case. When that referral is made, and how far ahead, is set out on our page about federal halfway houses.

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

Looking someone up is a national search, not a Hawaii one. The inmate locator takes a name or a register number, and a name search will not run on a surname alone. While the person is in custody the screen gives the facility’s name and type; once a release date is recorded it shows that instead.

Mail goes to the post office box the institution publishes, not to its street address, and the block has to be copied exactly, register number and all. Post across the Pacific takes longer than a mainland family expects. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on the institution’s own supplement, not on any state-wide rule, and for anyone who does not live on Oahu a visit means a flight. Confirm day, hours and approval status before booking. See visitation.

Money reaches Honolulu through the same three national channels as anywhere else: lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Ordinarily, funds sent to an inmate via the Western Union Quick Collect/MoneyGram Program are posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST.” Those windows are Eastern, and Hawaii keeps Hawaiian standard time all year under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 1-31, so the evening cutoff falls at 4:00 p.m. in Honolulu, an hour earlier once the mainland turns its clocks forward. See sending money.

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

One. FDC Honolulu is a federal detention center graded administrative security and holding men and women. It is the only Bureau of Prisons facility anywhere in the state, it has no satellite camp, and the roster carries no penitentiary, no correctional institution and no prison camp in the islands.

What is the largest federal prison in Hawaii by population?

FDC Honolulu, because it is the only one. It held 210 people as of September 2026, and since it has no satellite camp that figure covers everyone the Bureau held in the state. The population report prints one Hawaii row, and nothing has to be added to it.

Does Hawaii have a high-security federal penitentiary or a prison camp?

Neither. The Bureau grades its one Hawaii building administrative, the classification it uses for detention and medical facilities rather than a rung between low and high. There is no United States Penitentiary, no correctional institution and no prison camp here, so anyone who needs one is sent out of the state.

Where are women held in federal custody in Hawaii?

At the Honolulu detention center, alongside men: the roster records the facility as holding both. Because it is the state’s only federal institution, there is no separate women’s prison and no women’s camp in Hawaii, and a woman serving a federal sentence is ordinarily designated to the mainland.

Where are pretrial federal detainees held in Hawaii?

At FDC Honolulu, which the Bureau lists in its national Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook as one of ten Pretrial Detention Facilities. Most people inside have not been sentenced: they are awaiting trial in the District of Hawaii or held for the U.S. Marshals Service. The building also keeps a sentenced work cadre.

How do I look up someone held in a Hawaii federal prison?

Search the Bureau’s locator, which covers the whole federal system rather than one state, by register number where you have one and by first and last name where you do not. A surname on its own returns a validation failure rather than an empty result, so treat that as a query to redo, not an answer.

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

RRM Sacramento, the Bureau’s Residential Reentry Management office in California. Its bop.gov page prints Hawaii as a bare state name, which reaches the single judicial district the islands form, and no other office lists any part of Hawaii. What decides the office is the district of release, not the prison left behind.

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

A request can be made and a sentencing judge can recommend one, but the Bureau decides. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment” and place a person “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence”, subject to bed space, security designation and the statute’s other factors.

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

Three problems recur here, each visible in the Bureau’s own record for the one institution. Reaching a lawyer: the Justice Department’s pretrial advisory group reported on July 20, 2023 that defense attorneys based on Oahu were told confidential legal calls were not available to them. Leaving the islands: a designation after sentencing usually means a mainland institution, which turns visiting, medical continuity and transfer requests into problems we work on inside. Programs: residential drug treatment is not run in Honolulu, so earned time and early release questions wait on where the Bureau means to send someone next.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Hawaii 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

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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