Federal prisons in California

Checked 3 minutes ago. I poll the BOP's own data for all 17 of these every five minutes. The BOP under-reports, so quiet means they have not said anything, not that nothing is happening.

California has 12 federal institutions across 7 towns. Counting the camps and detention centers attached to them, that is 17 separate places somebody can be designated to: 5 camps, 2 lows, 4 mediums, 2 penitentiaries, 2 administrative facilities, and 2 facilities at a level I don't have. Each one has its own page here.

Security level is the first thing that matters, because it decides almost everything else: whether there is a fence, whether visiting is a room or a table outside, how much movement there is, and what the days look like. Where somebody lands in California is not a choice anybody gets to make, but it is worth knowing what the options are.

Every federal facility in California

Camps and detention centers sit under the prison they belong to, because that is what they are: a satellite unit on the same grounds, run by the same staff, with its own security level and its own rules about visiting.

Visiting status is the BOP's public data, not a schedule. A facility running today can suspend tomorrow without warning, and the suspension usually shows up in the data before it shows up on a phone call. Each facility's page carries its own day-by-day record.

The complexes

A federal correctional complex is several separate prisons on one piece of ground, usually at different security levels, sharing a mailing address and not much else. People get the name of the complex and the name of the prison mixed up constantly, and it matters: the wrong one on an envelope is a delay, and the wrong one in your head is the wrong visiting rules.

FCC Lompoc

• FCI Lompoc I · Low security
• FCI Lompoc II · Low security
• FCI Lompoc II Camp · Minimum security

FCC Victorville

• USP Victorville · High security
• FCI Victorville Medium I · Medium security
• FCI Victorville Medium I Camp · Minimum security
• FCI Victorville Medium II · Medium security

The camps in California

A camp is minimum security: no fence, open bay housing, and the most freedom of movement the Bureau hands out. It is also the level most people picture when they think "federal prison camp," and the level most first-time white-collar defendants are hoping for. Nobody chooses it. The designation score does, and you can work the score out yourself before anybody tells you.

• USP Atwater Camp · Atwater, CA
• FCI Herlong Camp · Herlong, CA
• FCI Lompoc II Camp · Lompoc, CA
• FCI Mendota Camp · Mendota, CA
• FCI Victorville Medium I Camp · Victorville, CA

Where women go in California

There are far fewer federal facilities for women than for men, which is why women get designated further from home on average. These are the California options.

• MDC Los Angeles · Administrative security · Men and women
• MCC San Diego · Administrative security · Men and women
• FCC Victorville · Unknown security · Men and women
• FCI Victorville Medium I · Medium security · Men and women
• FCI Victorville Medium I Camp · Minimum security · Men and women

The suspension record for California

Every visiting suspension I have caught at a California facility, newest first. 2 of them started in the last twelve months. I started watching these places on July 25, 2026, so nothing before that date is here.

• FCI Victorville Medium I · Sep 3, 2026, 7 am PDT, no end on record Still running
• MCC San Diego · Aug 6, 2026, 12 pm PDT to Aug 7, 2026, 2 pm PDT

Where this comes from

The addresses, phone numbers, security levels and visiting status are the Bureau's own published data, re-read every five minutes. 15 of these facilities also have an admission and orientation handbook behind the page, which is where the facility-specific answers about mail, money and visiting come from. Everything else on a facility page is general to that security level, and it says so where it is.

Unknown means unknown. I would rather show a blank than a guess, and the facility pages do. If you have done time at one of these or visited somebody there, tell me what I have wrong.

Every federal facility, all states →

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