Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin


The Federal Correctional Institution, 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.
FCI Dublin is located 20 miles southeast of Oakland on the Parks Reserve Forces Training Area. 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 five 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 employ 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 inquiries.
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 on the top tier and four inmates sharing a cell on the bottom tier, 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, 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 between them. Measuring high, each chain-link fence is reinforced with multiple coils of razor wire 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. This minimum- security was several old army barracks and these have been torn down. The BOP has removed a section of the FCI and placed approximately 200 female minimum security prisoner in this space. This facility is just short of a FCI. All the guards are rotated out of the FCI.

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.
Inmate NameRegister NumberStatusDetails
Patricia HearstN/A†Released from custody in 1979 after President Jimmy Carter commuted her 7-year sentence; served 21 months.Granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst; convicted in 1976 of participating in a 1974 bank robbery with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, who had kidnapped her several months before; pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.
Rita LavelleReleased from custody in 1985 after serving four and a half months of a six-month sentence.Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for solid waste and emergency response under President Ronald Reagan; convicted in 1984 for perjury after an investigation of the Superfund program.
Michael MilkenReleased from custody in 1993 after serving 22 months of a 10-year sentence.American billionaire financier who created high-yield bonds; convicted of securities fraud in 1990. His case was the largest criminal case in Wall Street history.
Sara Jane MooreReleased from prison on parole on December 31, 2007 after serving 32 years of her life sentence.Attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
Stacey Koon
Laurence Powell
Released from custody in 1995; served 24 months.Former LAPD officers; convicted in 1993 of federal civil rights violations in connection with the 1992 beating of Rodney King; their acquittals in state court sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Heidi FleissReleased from custody in 1998; served 20 months.Operated a prostitution ring in Hollywood, California which catered to high-profile clients in the entertainment industry; convicted in 1997 of tax evasion and money laundering; known as the "Hollywood Madam."
Pavlo LazarenkoReleased from custody in 2012; served 8 years.Prime Minister of Ukraine from 1996 to 1997; convicted in 2004 of money laundering and other charges for siphoning millions of dollars of public money into his personal accounts and attempting to hide some $21 million from American banks.
Briana Waters
Joyanna Zacher
Waters was released from custody in 2013; Zacher in 2012; they served 5 years.Members of the ecoterrorist group Earth Liberation Front who pleaded guilty to arson, Waters in connection with the University of Washington firebombing incident and Zacher for setting fires at an SUV dealership, a poplar farm, and a police station in Oregon; several other ELF members were also sentenced to prison.
Stella NickellRelease date 07/10/2040Killed husband and innocent stranger by poisoned Excedrin capsules with cyanide. Caused manufacturer's US-wide recall of all non-prescription capsule products and 90-day ban on the sale of non-prescription medication in capsules in Washington State. First person convicted under federal product tampering laws.
Felicity HuffmanReleased on 10/25/2019Charged with connection to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
Elizabeth HenriquezRelease date 01/27/2021Charged with connection to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.