Opened: 1995

Supervised by: John Fox  

Total inmates: Approximately 1185; the population is always changing and the facility handles approximately 85,000 inmates each year

Security: Administrative

Email Address: OKL/[email protected]

Prison System: Federal Bureau of Prisons; South Central Region

Status: Active, opened in 1995

Employees: 313

Offender Gender: Male and Female

Security Level: Administrative

The main location for “Con Air,” the Oklahoma Federal Transfer Center is the central hub for transporting all federal prisoners.  It is used not only be the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but also by the U.S. Marshal Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the U.S. Parole Commission.  

Most of the inmates at both the male low-security main facility and the female minimum-security prison camp are incarcerated for drug crimes, with burglary, larceny, and property offenders comprising the rest of the population.  While some offenders may have violent criminal histories, neither facility is a prime location for violent offenders.   

There are two groups of inmates at the Oklahoma FTC.  The first group is a small group of minimum security cadre inmates who are responsible for doing the inmate jobs, such as food service, laundry, and maintenance at the facility. They are generally assigned to the facility for the duration of their sentences and will have usually committed lower-level non-violent offenses.  The second group of inmates are the transfer inmates.  These inmates form a constantly fluctuating group, but may actually be at Oklahoma FTC for longer periods of time than one would imagine.  That is because, in order to minimize the risk of prison breaks, inmates may be transferred to Oklahoma FTC and held there for an indefinite period of time, before being moved to their permanent facility.  Furthermore, inmates may be held in Oklahoma while their future destination is being decided.  Inmates come from the Bureau of Prisons, but also from the U.S. Marshal Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the U.S. Parole Commission.   While the prison is described as stark, it is also considered to be a meticulously clean facility. 

The majority of prison programming at the Oklahoma FTC is only available to the cadre or long-term inmates, rather than the holdover inmates who are at Oklahoma FTC only while they are being transferred.  Inmates can participate in ESL and GED programming; in fact such programming is mandatory for inmates who are not considered fluent in English and/or do not already have a high school diploma or GED.  Failure to participate in that programming can impact an inmate’s ability to accrue Good Time hours, which reduce the time served on their sentence.  Inmates can participate in hobby craft programming.  Cadre inmates can participate in structure fitness programs such as basketball, handball, unit walking, and using fitness equipment. 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not maintain a prison industries program.  Cadre inmates at Oklahoma FTC are assigned to prison work units; holdover inmates may have temporary jobs at Oklahoma FTC.

Built in 1995, the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center was built on the edges of the Will Rogers World Airport to be the main hub for inmate transfers in the United States.  Through the operation of ten airplanes and several buses, the facility handles the movement of 85,000 inmates a year through the entire federal prison system.  The schedules for flights and buses are kept secret and change frequently in order to deter prison breaks, with inmates given very little notice prior to being moved.  Inmates moving from location-to-location are generally processed through Oklahoma City.  The location has been featured in the popular media, in the movie Con Air, which focused on inmates escaping from the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System and in Orange is the New Black.    

Because the Oklahoma FTC is a hub, a number of well-known inmates have moved through the facility.  Piper Kerman wrote about her time at Oklahoma in her memoir Orange is the New Black.