Prison barbwire fencing. Credit: Alex Potemkin, Getty Images.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is closing a women’s prison and other facilities “after years of abuse and decay,” the Associated Press has reported. The bureau is suspending operations at a minimum-security satellite camp in Wisconsin. 

The camp is adjacent to FCI Oxford, Wisconsin’s federal prison, the AP reported. According to the bureau, such camps “provide inmate labor to the main institution and to off-site work programs.” FCI Oxford is located in southern central Wisconsin, north of Wisconsin Dells. 

The bureau previously announced the closure of a federal prison in Dublin, California, which staff and incarcerated people named “the rape club,” according to AP reporting in 2022. 

The bureau is closing minimum-security prison camps in Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia. It’s also suspending operations at minimum-security satellite camps in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania, the AP reported. 

Such facilities have seen frequent escapes and an influx of contraband, according to the AP. Oxford’s satellite camp had an escape in 2022; the man was later arrested in connection with a retail theft offense. 

The camp at FCI Oxford was cleared out in June, the AP reported. For the three satellite camps, employees have been or will be moved to adjacent low-security prisons while the minimum-security incarcerated people are moved elsewhere. 

The AP reported that the bureau pointed to efficiencies and infrastructure concerns for the moves. This included a $26 million estimate for repairs to a camp at FCI Englewood in Littleton, Colorado.  

In June of last year, the bureau announced FCI Oxford would transition from medium security to low security, in support of the First Step Act signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.