FCI La Tuna (low-security)

FCI La Tuna is a low-security federal correctional institution located in Anthony, Texas, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It sits in the desert of far west Texas, near the New Mexico border. The facility houses male inmates. As of November 2025, it held approximately 525 inmates. It's part of a larger federal correctional complex that also includes a satellite prison camp, serving as an important component of the Bureau of Prisons' southwestern regional operations.

MALE

Gender

LOW

Security Level

525

Population (Nov. 2025)

No RDAP

History

FCI La Tuna has been a federal correctional facility for several decades, supporting the Bureau of Prisons' mission in the southwestern United States. The remote desert location in west Texas made it a strategic choice for housing federal inmates in low-security custody. The institution's evolved over time, keeping pace with changing correctional standards and adjusting its programs to meet the rehabilitation needs of the inmates it houses.

Programs and Services

The facility offers a range of educational, vocational, and rehabilitation programs to help inmates prepare for life after release. It's been recognized for specialized programming, particularly initiatives aimed at first-time federal offenders. These programs stress skill development, educational advancement, and behavioral change to lower recidivism rates among those who take part.

Inmates can access adult continuing education, English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, and vocational training programs tied to real labor market needs. That's just the start. Recreational activities, religious services, and counseling programs round out what the institution offers as part of its overall approach to incarceration and rehabilitation.

Housing and Facilities

Low-security institutions like this one use dormitory-style housing units instead of individual cells, following Bureau of Prisons standards for that security level. FCI La Tuna's layout includes housing units, administrative buildings, recreational areas, and educational spaces set up to handle daily operations and programming for its inmate population. Fencing and electronic monitoring systems secure the compound. They're appropriate for a low-security designation. The conditions are less restrictive than higher-security facilities, but the institution still maintains the security protocols it needs.

Location

Anthony, Texas is where you'll find FCI La Tuna. It's a small community right on the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso County. Roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown El Paso, the facility remains accessible to the metropolitan area while keeping the geographic distance that federal correctional institutions typically maintain. The remote location offers operational advantages without cutting off access for staff, visitors, and official transportation.

Physical location: ANTHONY, TX 79821

Mailing address: LA TUNA FCI/SCP, ANTHONY, TX 79821

Visitation

The Bureau of Prisons sets the rules for visitation here, and FCI La Tuna has its own facility-specific protocols on top of that. These rules balance security with keeping family contact possible. Visitors need to follow dress codes, show ID, and get on an approved visitor list before they're allowed in. Visiting hours and scheduling depend on institutional policy and can shift based on operational needs and security concerns.

There's a lot to know before you visit. Dress codes, what you can bring, who can visit, when you can visit. Check our Visitation Guide for the details.

For the latest visiting rules and how to schedule, head to the Bureau of Prisons website: Official BOP Page.

Notes from Alumni

We haven't heard from alumni of FCI La Tuna yet. If you've been incarcerated here and want to share your experience, log in and edit this page to add it.

Keep in mind that experiences vary, and yours might not match what inmates face today.

Daily life and programs

Located on the Texas and New Mexico border roughly 12 miles north of El Paso, FCI La Tuna is a low-security federal correctional institution for men in Anthony, Texas. It opened in 1932 and operates within the Bureau of Prisons South Central Region. The facility is well known for its Spanish mission style architecture, which was designed by El Paso architect Gustavus A. Trost. This unique aesthetic has long given the site a reputation as one of the more distinctive looking prisons in the federal system. The overall complex pairs the main low-security institution with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. Although reported populations have varied over the years, recent figures show around 700 total inmates at the facility, with roughly 150 to 160 of them housed at the camp.

Established in 1932 as the El Paso Detention Farm, the facility was later renamed La Tuna. Thomas B. White, the longest serving leader of the institution, directed the prison from its opening until 1951. Under his administration, inmates irrigated several hundred of the site's roughly 630 acres and were trained in farming and dairying. White also brought La Tuna into Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR). By 1984, the operation reported several million dollars in annual government sales of goods such as brushes and refinished furniture. A minimum-security satellite camp was added in 1978. Because this expansion took place decades after several of the institution's most famous prisoners had already come and gone, the earliest notable inmates (Valachi, Paddock) were held at the main institution rather than the camp.

As at other low-security BOP institutions, nearly all medically able inmates are assigned to work, in food service, maintenance, groundskeeping, the library, or the UNICOR factory, which at La Tuna has focused on fleet management and vehicular components. Standard institution jobs pay a few cents to roughly a dollar per hour, with UNICOR positions paying at the higher end. The Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), a voluntary nine-month, 500-hour treatment program that can shorten an eligible sentence by up to 12 months, is offered, along with GED instruction, English as a second language, and vocational training in areas such as automobile repair, building trades, and horticulture. Recreation includes basketball, handball and racquetball, jogging tracks, and softball fields, plus indoor options such as cable weight machines, table tennis, and hobby crafts like leatherwork and painting.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, La Tuna drew scrutiny for a significant outbreak and understaffing. This episode was chronicled in a firsthand memoir by a man incarcerated there at the time. On July 1, 2026, the Bureau of Prisons announced that La Tuna would close as one of six federal facilities being shut down. Officials cited decades of deferred maintenance and longstanding staffing challenges, bringing nearly a century of continuous operation to an end. Local officials, including Representative Veronica Escobar, criticized the abrupt decision. Additionally, reporting indicated that staff would be laid off rather than reassigned.

First-hand accounts

First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.

• Life at FCI La Tuna - Donald V. Watkins (personal blog, incarcerated at La Tuna beginning March 2021). Firsthand account of daily life at La Tuna: a dining-hall job paying about $5.25 a month, unusually respectful treatment from staff who addressed him as Mr. Watkins, praise for the medical and optometry departments, and the facility's multicultural inmate population and Spanish-mission setting near El Paso.
• God's Miracles Along the Journey to FCI La Tuna - Donald V. Watkins (personal blog). Companion firsthand piece describing his 1,500-mile transfer from FCI Talladega to La Tuna, which he characterizes as retaliation for filing a whistleblower complaint about corruption at his prior facility, and his arrival and adjustment at La Tuna.
• The La Tuna Variant: Surviving The Covid-19 Outbreak In America's Most Dysfunctional Federal Prison - Michael Good (memoir, via Goodreads). Memoir by a man who spent about 50 months incarcerated and witnessed the COVID-19 outbreak at La Tuna firsthand, describing understaffing, shifting health guidance, and the tension the pandemic created inside the facility.

Notable inmates

Name	Sentence	Offense	Dates
Joseph Valachi	held at the main institution until his death in 1971	Cosa Nostra soldier and the first mobster to publicly acknowledge the American Mafia; imprisoned on narcotics charges	1960s to 1971 (died in custody)
Benjamin Hoskins Paddock	escaped from the main institution in 1968	Bank robbery; escaped from La Tuna and landed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Father of Las Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock	escaped 1968
George Jung	held at La Tuna, released in 2014	Cocaine trafficking and conspiracy; major figure in the 1970s and 1980s cocaine trade, portrayed in the film Blow	released 2014
Nicodemo Scarfo	roughly two years	Philadelphia crime family boss; held at La Tuna on a parole violation for firearm possession	August 1982 to January 1984
Lee Baca	three-year sentence; reported February 2020, released January 2022	Former Los Angeles County Sheriff; obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI in a county jail corruption scandal	2020 to 2022
Charles "Pee Wee" Kirkland	held at La Tuna	Streetball legend and convicted drug dealer	1981 to 1988
Max Hardcore (Paul F. Little)	46 months; served about 2.5 years, released July 2011	Adult film producer convicted on federal obscenity charges	circa 2009 to 2011
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula	one year; released 2013	Maker of the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims; held for violating probation from a 2010 check fraud conviction	circa 2012 to 2013

References

CLOSURE NOTICE: This facility was announced for permanent closure on July 1, 2026. See the closure announcement below.

Announced closure (2026)

On July 1, 2026, the Bureau of Prisons announced that FCI La Tuna, together with its satellite low and camp, will permanently close, part of a set of closures the agency attributed to extreme staffing shortages and a systemwide maintenance backlog it put at more than $4 billion. This page will be retitled and preserved as a historical record once the closure is complete.