FCI Terminal Island (Closed)
Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island (FCI Terminal Island) was a low-security federal prison for men on Terminal Island, in Los Angeles Harbor between San Pedro and Long Beach, California. Opened in 1938, it operated for nearly nine decades before the Bureau of Prisons closed it in 2026, citing deteriorating infrastructure the agency said was no longer safe to occupy.[1] This page is maintained as a historical record of the facility.
The facility
Terminal Island was one of the oldest institutions in the federal system, a harbor-front prison that dated to the New Deal era.[2] Across its history it held some of the most recognizable names in American crime: Al Capone passed through Terminal Island near the end of his imprisonment, and a young Charles Manson served time there decades before the Tate–LaBianca murders.[3] In its final years it operated as a low-security institution holding roughly 1,000 men, among them FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti.[1]
Why it closed
The closure was driven by the physical condition of the site. Ceilings in the prison's underground utility tunnels had deteriorated to the point that chunks of concrete were falling, endangering staff and threatening the heating system. An architectural and engineering review commissioned by the Bureau identified more than $110 million in critical repairs needed over the following two decades.[1][4] The Justice Department's Inspector General had separately documented the Bureau's system-wide maintenance backlog, with Terminal Island among the case studies.[5]
Closure
Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III announced the closure in 2026, describing it as a matter of "safety, common sense, and doing what is right for the people who work and live inside that institution," and characterizing it as potentially temporary while the site's condition was addressed.[1] The men held there were transferred to other federal institutions, with the Bureau saying it would prioritize keeping people close to their anticipated release locations.[4]
Legacy
Terminal Island's closure came amid a broader wave of Bureau of Prisons facility shutdowns driven by staffing shortages and a maintenance backlog the agency put at more than $4 billion, which also claimed FPC Pensacola and several other institutions announced in July 2026.[6]
First-Person Accounts & Reporting
Accounts and reporting on conditions at Terminal Island, including its closure:
- OIG remote inspection of FCI Terminal Island's COVID-19 response — Oversight.gov. Primary oversight document from the facility's most-covered crisis period.
- FCI Terminal Island — Reddit (r/OnTheBlock). 2026 staff thread on the BOP "suspending operations" at Terminal Island over structural (falling-concrete) issues.
- Received 57 months fed time, what to expect — Reddit (r/ExCons). First-person thread asking specifically whether Terminal Island is dangerous.
Please remember that experiences are unique and may not reflect today's experience.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Terminal Island prison to close because of crumbling infrastructure". CBS Los Angeles. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Citing deteriorating conditions, Terminal Island prison set to close". FOX 11 Los Angeles. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "BOP closing Terminal Island prison over infrastructure dangers". Corrections1. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Terminal Island". U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Bureau Of Prisons Announces Multiple Facility Closings Citing Budget". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-07-13.