The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) currently operates 122 federal prison facilities across the country. In December 2024, then-Director Colette Peters called for closing six federal prisons across the country due to staffing shortages and infrastructure challenges. Of those, only FCI Dublin and FPC Pensacola were eventually closed as there was backlash by congressional members over closing prisons in their respective districts. While the current leadership at BOP, headed by William Marshall II (Director) and Josh Smith (Deputy Director) have not mentioned any closures, they are now starting to move people around in what may be a sign of things to come.
According to an internal BOP memo circulated to staff it stated:
"To strengthen operational efficiency and to better meet population needs, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is realigning the missions of FCI Aliceville, Alabama and FCI Estill, South Carolina.
FCI Aliceville has long faced staffing challenges, particularly in Health Services, and currently operates under a designation moratorium which limits the types of female inmates who can be placed at the facility. Converting the site to a male Care Level 1 mission will ease medical care demands and expand much needed male low security bed space across the Bureau.
FCI Estill has undergone extensive weather-related repairs in recent years and is expected to be fully renovated by March 2026. The facility is anticipated to begin accepting inmates as early as May 1, 2026. Consolidating female low security and minimum security beds at FCI Estill will streamline medical care delivery, reduce transport related costs and risks, and leverage the broader healthcare network in the surrounding region. The transition will also allow for the relocation of gender specific medical equipment and support more responsive programming for women.
Together, these changes will free approximately 512 additional male low security beds systemwide while consolidating female services at a location better suited to their medical and operational needs. These realignments reflect the Bureau’s ongoing efforts to modernize operations, optimize resources, and ensure safe, effective placement options across its facilities."
Estill has only held camp-level inmates since a tornado did significant damage to the facility in 2020. At 6:00am on April 13, 2020, alarms went off in the small South Carolina towns of Estill and Nixville. A powerful EF-4 tornado, with winds approaching 175 mph, had hit the ground, leveling homes, uprooting trees, tossing cars and, ultimately, killing five of the town’s residents. It was on the ground for 24 miles before leaving behind a path of death and devastation.
The tornado also damaged the perimeter fence and several buildings on the FCI Estill prison complex, a medium security facility housing over 900 inmates and an adjacent minimum security camp (200 inmates) operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). As one resident in Estill wrote on Facebook about the destruction at the prison, “Razor wire was hanging in the trees miles away from the prison.”
The inmates in the prison were locked down in their cells because the prison grounds could not be secured. By April 17, the BOP transferred 900 medium inmates from Estill to another prison in Lewisburg, PA, over 700 miles away.
Estill has remained mostly vacant since 2020 and did offer training programs for some staff members but no inmates for a period of time. Minimum security inmates, whose facility was destroyed with the tornado, started to move inside the Medium security facility but the conditions were substandard. Leaking roof and infrastructure repairs made life difficult for the male inmates. In late 2025, male inmates were moved out and female minimum security inmates started to arrive.
One of the newest prisons in the BOP, FCI Aliceville is a low-security federal prison for women located in Pickens County, Alabama. Opened in 2013, the complex includes a main low-security institution and an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. The facility was designed to house more than a thousand female inmates, primarily those serving sentences for non-violent federal offenses, and it represents the first federal women’s prison in Alabama. Now it will be changing its mission to a much-needed male facility.
The BOP’s population of 150,000+ inmates is made up of mostly minimum and low security inmates (over 50%). Many non-US citizens and sex offenders are housed at low security facilities. Inmates are expected to be moved out by June 2026, making room for males inmates.
The BOP closed FCI Dublin (California) in 2025 after a series of sexual assaults led to a multi-million dollar settlement with inmates at the facility. At Dublin, a warden, a chaplain and numerous correctional officers received prison terms for their role in what lawmakers called a 'rape club.’ Similar accusations were made about the satellite prison camp at FCI Coleman (Florida) in previous years.
Estill has not been fully operational since 2020 and has never been a female facility. In 2021, minimum security male inmates moved into FCI Estill during reconstruction with many complaining of leaking ceilings and poor air quality. Late in 2025, the facility changed over to a female camp. Now, both minimum and low security female inmates will be moving into the facility.
There are only four female, low security facilities for women (FCI Danbury, FCI Tallahassee, FCI Waseca and, now, FCI Estill). Moves such as this are disruptive to both staff and inmates and more complicated as some inmates are now moving further from home (support base).
Follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Forbes. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
