Location Dublin, California Phone +1 925-833-7500 | Status Operational Opened 1974 | |
 | ||
Security class Low-security (with minimum-security prison camp) Population 990 (320 in prison camp) Managed by Federal Bureau of Prisons Address 5701 8th St, Dublin, CA 94568, USA Similar Alameda County Santa Rit, Marsh Creek Detention, Elmwood Correctio Facility | ||
The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) is a low-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Dublin, California. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum-security female offenders.
Contents
FCI Dublin is located 20 miles southeast of Oakland on the Camp Parks Army Reserve Forces Training Area (RFTA) Military Base. It is located near Santa Rita Jail, which is operated by Alameda County.
History
FCI Dublin opened in 1974. It became an exclusively female prison in 2012 and is one of only three federal prisons for women in the United States.
Facility and programs
The prison’s education department offers GED and ESL programs, as well as courses in parenting skills. The prison also provides legal and leisure library services in addition to training in the use of various computer software.
There are two Federal Prison Industries UNICOR programs at FCI Dublin: the Textiles and the Call Center. Textiles employs approximately 150 inmates on the manufacture of custom draperies, parachutes, and disaster blankets. They also sort and repair USPS mailbags. The Call Center employs around 250 inmates on directory assistance enquiries.
It houses inmates who are serving an average sentence of 5 years. It has a design capacity of 250 inmates, but houses 1,077 as of April 11, 2013. Conditions are cramped, with three inmates sharing a cell designed to house a single prisoner. Meals are served in shifts due to the small size of the dining facilities.
Like most American prisons, FCI Dublin also contains a SHU (Security Housing Unit), where any prisoners who are deemed to have broken prison rules are kept in segregation under a highly restrictive regime. Prisoners in the SHU spend more time locked in their cell than the general prison population, are only allowed out for limited amounts of time and must be transported to and from their cell wearing handcuffs. Depending on the circumstances, an inmate may spend weeks or even months in the SHU.
FCI Dublin is surrounded by two separate fences with a gap of approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) between them. Measuring 14 feet (4.3 m) high, each chain-link fence is reinforced with multiple coils of razor wire (at the top and bottom) plus electronic sensors to detect escape attempts.
The institution also has an adjacent administrative detention facility housing adult males on holdover or pre-trial status, and a minimum-security satellite camp housing adult female offenders, which opened in 1990.
Notable incidents
On November 5, 1986, Ronald McIntosh, who had escaped during a prison transfer one month earlier, landed a stolen helicopter in the exercise yard and escaped with Samantha Lopez, who was serving a 50-year sentence for bank robbery. Mr. McIntosh was serving a sentence for wire fraud when he met Ms. Lopez working in the business office of the prison and the two devised the escape plan. They were arrested by FBI Agents 10 days later and subsequently convicted of air piracy and escape. McIntosh received a 25-year sentence and Lopez had five years added to her sentence.
Notable inmates
†Inmates incarcerated prior to 1982 do not have an assigned register number.