The BOP Is Closing a Los Angeles Prison Due to Falling Concrete
On November 25, 2025, federal Bureau of Prisons director William K. Marshall III told staff that the agency will shutter the Federal Correctional Institute, Terminal Island due to structural failures, including falling concrete that could disable the facility’s heating system. Located south of Los Angeles, FCI Terminal Island was first opened in 1938 and has a long record of aging infrastructure. The prison, which now cages 1,000 prisoners, once locked up Al Capone and Charles Manson and currently holds cryptocurrency scammer Sam Bankman-Fried and celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti.
According to a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Marshall said the decision to close FCI Terminal Island, which could be temporary, was “absolutely necessary” to avoid a potential crisis. At the staff meeting, he described how the ceilings of the underground tunnels that house the prison’s steam heating system are beginning to deteriorate and cause chunks of concrete to fall, creating hazardous conditions for staff and prisoners. “We are not going to gamble with lives,” he said. “And we are not going to expect people to work or live in conditions that we would not accept for ourselves.”
Despite Marshall’s seeming commitment to safety, the BOP—much like FCI Terminal Island—is plagued by systemic problems. The agency has more than 30,000 workers, operates 122 prisons and other facilities, locks up over 150,000 prisoners, and runs an annual budget of more than $8.5 billion. But despite its resources, the agency is experiencing an understaffing crisis and has a repair backlog of $3 billion. [See: PLN, Sep. 2025, p. 1.] As ABC News reported, other issues include an expanded mandate by the administration of Pres. Donald Trump (R) to allocate space in its prisons to detain immigrants, as well as rampant sexual assault, wipespread smuggling and other abuse by guards, and dozens of escapes.
In April 2024, the BOP closed FCI Dublin, a women’s prison in Dublin, California, as a result of a “rape club” run by guards at the facility. There were so many sexual assaults committed by guards that FCI Dublin was deemed unreformable and, by the end of that year, a federal court in California had approved a $116 million settlement over a lawsuit filed by 103 abused prisoners. [See: PLN, July 2025, p.1.] And similar to FCI Terminal Island, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the infamous federal jail in lower Manhattan, was closed in 2021 due to deteriorating conditions.
In a process that could take several weeks, prisoners at FCI Terminal Island are being shifted to other federal prisons. An engineering and architecture firm contracted by the BOP found in 2024 that FCI Terminal Island would need more than $110 million in critical repairs over the next 20 years in order to remain functional.
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