Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin

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The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) is a federal prison for women in the United States. It is located near the city of Dublin in Alameda County, California, 20 miles southeast of Oakland and approximately 40 miles east of San Francisco.

Situated on the Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (PRFTA), FCI Dublin opened in 1974 and is one of only three federal facilities for women in the US. It is a low-security facility incarcerating female offenders who are serving an average sentence of 5 years. The prison is completely surrounded by a double fence topped with multiple coils of razor wire. It has a design capacity of 250 inmates, but houses well in excess of 1,000. Conditions are cramped, with three inmates sharing a cell 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 an SHU (Security Housing Unit), 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/from their cell wearing handcuffs. Depending on the circumstances, an inmate may spend weeks or even months in the SHU.

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 employs 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 enquiries.

FCI Dublin is surrounded by two separate fences with a gap of approximately 10 feet between them. Measuring 14 feet high, each chain-link fence is reinforced with multiple coils of razor wire (at the top and bottom) 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.