Taft Correctional Institution
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Location | 1500 Cadet Road Taft, California |
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Status | Operational |
Security class | Low-security (with minimum-security prison camp) |
Capacity | 2500[1] |
Population | 2187 (360 in prison camp) |
Opened | August 20, 1997 |
Managed by | Management and Training Corporation |
Taft Correctional Institution is a low-security federal prison for male inmates located in Taft, Kern County, California, owned by the BOP and operated by Management and Training Corporation under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[2] It also includes a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates.
The facility opened in 1997 as the first private prison contract of the FBOP; the contract was awarded to Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, and then operated the facility under the name of The GEO Group. In August 2016, Justice Department officials announced that the FBOP would be phasing out its use of contracted facilities, on the grounds that private prisons provided less safe and less effective services with no substantial cost savings. The agency expects to allow current contracts on its thirteen remaining private facilities to expire.[3] The facility was slated to close in 2019, but was extended several times into 2020.[1][4]
House Rep. Kevin McCarthy (California politician) was opposed to its closure.[4]
Notable inmates[]
- Jordan Belfort
- Don Blankenship
- Tommy Chong
- Sunny Garcia
- Vic Kohring
- Rudy Kurniawan
- Michael Ellis
- Kermit Washington[5]
- James Robert Liang[5]
- Richard Pinedo
References[]
- ^ a b Joseph Luiz (24 March 2020). "Taft prison notifies county more than 300 employees could be laid off after April 30". KGET 17. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Taft Correctional Institution". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ^ Zapotosky, Matt (18 Aug 2016). "Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons". Washington Post. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
- ^ a b "DOJ halts prisoner removal from Taft Correctional Institution". KGET 17. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ a b BOP inmate locator,
Coordinates: 35°06′35″N 119°23′08″W / 35.109776°N 119.385469°W
- Prisons in California
- Buildings and structures in Kern County, California
- Management and Training Corporation
- 1997 establishments in California