Federal Detention Center, Miami

The Federal Detention Center, Miami is a federal prison in the downtown area of Miami, Florida, United States. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The administrative facility employed 311 staff as of 2002 and housed 1,512 male and female inmates as of July 15, 2010.

Background

Built in 1995, the detention center was designed for a capacity of 1,259 inmates. The facility primarily houses prisoners of the U.S. Marshals Service, both male and female. Its mission is to provide a safe and humane confinement of inmates and detainees, many of whom are involved in federal court proceedings in the Southern District of Florida.

Security procedures

Inmates are screened by a unit team member, and assigned quarters based on personal profile and security needs. Each unit team is composed of a unit manager, case manager, correctional counselor, and at times, an education representative. A federal register number is assigned to each inmate for identification and forwarding of correspondence while in federal custody.
In June 2010, the facility's security procedures prevented attorney Brittney Horstman from meeting a client when her underwire bra set off a metal detector. After returning from a bathroom without the item, she was turned away because of the detention center's dress code. The federal public defender's office contacted Warden Linda McGrew, who conducted an inquiry. McGrew concluded the incident was "an aberration" and promised it would not happen again.

Sexual victimization

According to a 2005 U.S. Department of Justice report, an estimated 12 percent of the complaints received by the department's inspector general involved inmates claiming sexual victimization by prison staff. In 2009, federal judge Cecilia Altonaga wrote that although the statute of limitations had passed to award damages in a civil case, "the BOP and FDC Miami did have notice of the illegal conduct taking place, and were woefully deficient in addressing it."

Location

The prison is located in downtown Miami, at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and North Miami Avenue. In 2021, a luxury apartment complex called "Downtown 5th" had been built opposite the prison on what was previously a parking lot. It went viral two years later for its rooftop pool area directly across the street from the prison, where sunbathing women in bikinis were shouted at by inmates.

Notable inmates (current and former)

†Inmates in the Federal Witness Protection Program are not listed on the Bureau of Prisons website.

Inmate Name	Register Number	Photo	Status	Details
Esteban Santiago-Ruiz	15500-104		Serving five life sentences plus 120 years. Transferred to USP Tucson.	Perpetrator of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.
Jatavia Johnson			Sentenced to serve a term of 24 months. Released on October 8, 2019.	Member of rap duo City Girls; charged with aggravated identity theft.
Douglas M. Hughes	62746-007		Received a 4-month sentence. Released from a halfway house on October 7, 2016.	Activist seeking campaign finance reform; landed a gyrocopter onto the U.S. Capitol Lawn in April 2015.
Harlem Suarez			Serving a life sentence; now at USP Florence High	ISIS sympathizer; charged with attempting to detonate a backpack bomb on a public beach in Key West.
Simone Gold	26132-509		Released September 9, 2022	Participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack
Colton Harris-Moore			Held at FDC Miami after being apprehended in the Bahamas in 2010. Released from prison in 2016.	Former fugitive known as the "Barefoot Bandit"; pleaded guilty in 2011 to engaging in a multi-state crime spree during which he stole several small planes and a boat, and committed numerous burglaries.
Paul Allard Hodgkins	30165-509		Released from custody in April 2022.	Participant in the U.S. Capitol attack
Joseph Cartagena			Released from custody in December 2014; served a 4-month sentence.	Grammy Award–nominated rapper; pled guilty in 2012 to failing to file tax returns from 2007 to 2010 in order to avoid paying $718,00 in federal taxes.
Sean Kingston	25931-511		Serving a 3 year sentence	Arrested in 2024 for wire fraud.
Scott W. Rothstein	Unlisted†		Moved to an undisclosed location after entering the Federal Witness Protection Program.	Attorney; pleaded guilty in 2010 to running a Ponzi scheme which defrauded investors out of $1.2 billion
Camilla Broe			Released from custody in February 2010 after drug trafficking charges against her were dismissed.	First Danish citizen to be extradited to a non-EU country since the founding of the European Union
Ryan Wesley Routh	35967-511		Found guilty on all Federal counts and was moved to the St. Lucie County jail.	Attempted to assassinate then-former U.S. president Donald Trump on September 15, 2024. Had volunteered on the Ukrainian side during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022.