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Beginning in this month, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will start transferring the FCI Danbury inmates to other institutions, a statement said. Once that process is complete -- projected for late December -- the transition to a low-security male facility will begin. The male inmate population is expected to begin to arrive in late January or early February 2014.
This mission change will not affect the Danbury Satellite Camp, located near the prison, which houses 210 minimum-security female offenders. No staffing changes are expected.
The FCI in Danbury has housed low-security female offenders. The 1,126 women in the low-security prison will be moved to a new prison in Aliceville, Ala., and to facilities in other states, according to a report in the CTMirror.org website.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is making the move because of an increased need for male bed space, CTMirror said. The prison will remain classified as low security, the second-lowest security level for federal prisons.
The FCI in Danbury is located in southwestern Connecticut, 70 miles from New York City and three miles north of downtown Danbury on State Route 37.
Danbury is the only federal prison in Connecticut. It opened in 1940 as a minimum-security prison for men, and the nearby camp opened for men in 1982. In 1988, the camp converted to a women's facility, followed by the prison in 1994, according to its Wikipedia page.
The prison has become a fixture in popular culture. It is currently featured on the Netflix series called "Orange is the New Black." Read more about it here on The Daily Voice.
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