FCI Herlong is a medium-security federal prison for male inmates located in a remote stretch of Lassen County in far northeastern California, near the small community of Herlong. The institution opened in 2007 and also includes an adjacent satellite camp housing minimum-security offenders, bringing the combined population to roughly 1,600 or more inmates. The surrounding area was historically tied to the Sierra Army Depot, a military logistics installation, which shaped the region's isolated, high-desert character long before the prison was built. Like many federal facilities constructed in the 2000s, Herlong reflects the Bureau of Prisons' pattern of siting newer institutions in sparsely populated rural areas, which can mean longer travel times for visiting family. There isn't a lot of dramatic history tied specifically to this facility — it doesn't have the decades-long institutional story that older penitentiaries carry — but it functions as a standard medium-security compound with the usual range of educational, vocational, and treatment programming. For loved ones researching it, the main practical facts are its relatively recent construction, its medium-security classification, and its remote high-desert location.