Big Spring Correctional Center at a glance
Big Spring Correctional Center no longer holds anyone for the Bureau of Prisons: its two federal contracts ran out on November 30, 2021, and its owner, The GEO Group, has reported the buildings idle ever since. It held non-citizen men serving federal sentences, in units called Airpark, Cedar Hill and Flight Line. This page gives no mailing route, deposit channel or telephone line for it: nobody there needs one.
This is not FCI Big Spring, the Bureau-run prison in the same town that the Bureau announced on July 1, 2026 it will close. That institution was still on the Bureau’s roster on September 19, 2026. The contract center was never a Bureau institution.
Each row below rests on a dated record named in Sources.
| Official name | Big Spring Correctional Center (the Bureau’s name in its Institution Hearing Program statement, 2017). GEO reports two facilities: Big Spring Correctional Facility and Flightline Correctional Facility |
|---|---|
| Also called | CI Big Spring; BSCC; the Airpark, Cedar Hill and Flight Line (Flightline) units |
| Status | No Bureau contract since November 30, 2021. Listed by GEO as idle on June 30, 2026. No contract facility appears on the Bureau’s roster (checked September 19, 2026) |
| Operated by | The GEO Group, Inc. |
| Location | Big Spring, Howard County, Texas |
| Security level | Low (Inspector General’s table of contract facilities, February 19, 2015) |
| Held | Men: low-security non-U.S. citizens serving federal sentences |
| Bureau relationship | Contract facility on the Inspector General’s list by 2015. Two contracts signed May 25, 2017 (DJB1PC019 and DJB1PC020); both periods of performance ended November 30, 2021 |
| Now | Idle. GEO listed both Big Spring buildings among idle facilities it was marketing to potential customers as of June 30, 2026, and reported no firm commitment to reactivate them |
| Finding someone | Use the Bureau’s Inmate Locator; for someone who went to immigration custody, ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System |
On this page
What happened to Big Spring Correctional Center?
Its federal work ended on a timetable set in Washington. Executive Order 14006, signed January 26, 2021, says in section 2: “The Attorney General shall not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, as consistent with applicable law.” At Big Spring the record runs:
- May 25, 2017. The Bureau signed two operating contracts with GEO, both performed at Big Spring (DJB1PC019 and DJB1PC020, federal award records).
- May 2021. The Inspector General still listed “Big Spring Correctional Center (Cedar Hill and Flightline)” as a site of the immigration hearing program (Report 21-123 at 31).
- August 18, 2021. The Bureau told GEO it would not exercise the renewal option on either facility (GEO Form 10-K for 2021, at 7).
- November 30, 2021. Both periods of performance ended (federal award records); GEO describes both facilities as ramped down and deactivated that year (at 54).
- June 30, 2026. GEO still listed both buildings, idled in 2021, among idle facilities it was marketing, with no firm commitment to activate them (Form 10-Q, at 25 and 48).
- September 19, 2026. The Bureau’s roster had 165 records and no contract facility; its only Big Spring entry was FCI Big Spring.
GEO’s 2021 annual report gives the end date two ways: “expired on November 30, 2021” in its business section (at 7), “expire on November 30, 2022” in two later passages (at 33 and 135). The award records control, as does that report’s own facility table, which lists both buildings idle (at 13).
Where are the people who were held there?
Out of Big Spring by the end of 2021. The Bureau’s only public statement on it covers every former private prison at once: on December 1, 2022 it said “All BOP inmates previously housed in these private prisons have been safely transferred to BOP locations without incident.” Neither it nor this page names a receiving prison.
To trace one man, start with the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, using a first and last name together or a register number. Someone still serving shows under “Located at:”; once a release is recorded, the screen gives a label and a date instead of a prison. Immigration detention never appears there, so also try ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System, which searches by nine-digit A-Number or by exact name, each with a country of birth. Our federal inmate locator guide walks through the Bureau’s screens.
What was Big Spring Correctional Center?
A low-security prison the Bureau used under its Criminal Alien Requirement contracts, which the Inspector General describes as fixed-price service contracts for facilities “housing low-security, non-U.S. citizen male inmates in BOP custody.” The first such solicitation went out in 1999 (Report 15-15 at 2); the 2017 Big Spring contracts came from the sixteenth round. On the Inspector General’s table of February 19, 2015, Big Spring was the largest of the 14 facilities listed, run by GEO and holding 3,392 people (at 3). Across the Bureau’s private adult male contract prisons, 98.5 percent of the people held on July 10, 2020 were non-citizens subject to possible deportation (Report 20-096 at i).
Even the Inspector General mixed the two Big Spring prisons, writing in 2021 of “FCI Big Spring (Flight Line Unit, Airpark Unit, and Cedar Hill Unit)” (Report 21-123 at 16), though its appendix lists Big Spring Correctional Center separately (at 31).
The center was also an immigration hearing site. That program is meant to finish a prisoner’s removal case while the sentence is still running, with Immigration Judges hearing cases in person or by video inside the prison, and it lets a man found not deportable be released when his sentence ends (Report 21-123 at 1). The Bureau’s Institution Hearing Program statement, as changed May 23, 2017, lists the center as a hearing and release site on its own line apart from FCI Big Spring (PS 5111.04 at p. 15); see our page on the Institution Hearing Program.
What did federal investigators find there?
Criminal cases, each investigated by the Justice Department’s Inspector General and announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. On September 19, 2014, former correctional officers who had pleaded guilty were sentenced in cases over false count and safety-check records in the Flight Line Special Housing Unit on August 22 to 23, 2012, the night a man held there died by suicide.
Two contraband cases followed in April 2015. A contract teacher admitted smuggling tobacco and alcohol to prisoners for pay, and a recreation specialist admitted bringing in tobacco products and creatine for a prisoner; both were sentenced that month.
Federal prisons still operating in Texas
Our Texas federal prisons hub lists the 13 institutions the Bureau still runs in the state, with its September 10, 2026 population figures, and flags the three named in the July 1, 2026 closure announcement. Texas’s other former contract prisons have record pages too, Giles W. Dalby and Reeves County.
The Bureau’s last private-prison contract, at McRae in Georgia, ended November 30, 2022; our closures explainer collects the rest. Designation is the Bureau’s call; we recommend no prison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Big Spring Correctional Center the same as FCI Big Spring?
No. FCI Big Spring is the Bureau’s own prison, still on its roster on September 19, 2026 and named for closure on July 1, 2026. Big Spring Correctional Center was a private contract prison owned by The GEO Group, and its federal contracts ended in 2021.
Is anyone held at Big Spring Correctional Center now?
Not for the Bureau. Both federal contracts ended on November 30, 2021, and GEO’s report for the quarter ending June 30, 2026 still listed its Big Spring and Flightline buildings as idle since 2021 and on the market, with no firm commitment to reopen them.
Can I send mail or money to someone at Big Spring Correctional Center?
No. Nobody is held there, and directory listings that still print an address or deposit instructions for it are stale. Locate the person first, through the Bureau’s Inmate Locator or ICE’s detainee locator, then follow the rules of wherever they are held.
When did the Bureau stop using Big Spring Correctional Center?
On November 30, 2021, when both contracts ended in the federal award records; GEO says the Bureau told it on August 18, 2021 that it would not renew. One note in GEO’s 2021 report says 2022, but that report lists the buildings as idled in 2021.
Why did the Bureau end the Big Spring contracts?
GEO’s 2021 filings cite Executive Order 14006, which directed the Attorney General not to renew contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, and falling federal prison populations. The Bureau’s December 1, 2022 statement ties its own exit from private prisons to that order.
What were the Airpark, Cedar Hill and Flightline units?
Parts of the contract complex. The Inspector General’s 2021 report names Flight Line, Airpark and Cedar Hill units, while GEO reports a Big Spring Correctional Facility and a separate Flightline Correctional Facility. None belonged to FCI Big Spring, whatever older directories say.
Where we can help
Questions left over from time served at Big Spring, about sentence credit, a detainer or release timing, are federal custody questions we work on.
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.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Texas places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.
Sources and currency
Government records
- Bureau of Prisons: institution roster, queried September 19, 2026; closure release, July 1, 2026; BOP Ends Use of Privately Owned Prisons, December 1, 2022.
- PS 5111.04, Institution Hearing Program, CN-1 (May 23, 2017), at p. 15.
- DOJ Inspector General: Report 15-15 (April 2015), at 2–3; Report 20-096 (August 2020), at i; Report 21-123 (September 2021), at 1, 16 and 31.
- U.S. Attorney, N.D. Tex.: September 19, 2014, April 9, 2015, April 17, 2015.
- Executive Order 14006, 86 Fed. Reg. 7483 (January 29, 2021), § 2.
- USAspending.gov, awards DJB1PC019 and DJB1PC020.
Operator filings
- The GEO Group, Form 10-K for 2021, at 7, 13, 33, 54 and 135; Form 10-Q, first quarter 2021, at 35; Form 10-Q, second quarter 2026 (filed August 6, 2026), at 25 and 48.
Sources reviewed September 2026; web records read September 19, 2026.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026