FTC Oklahoma City is unlike most federal facilities in this list because it isn't really a long-term prison at all; it's the Bureau of Prisons' central transportation hub, opened in 1995 next to Will Rogers World Airport specifically to move inmates between institutions. It functions as the main terminal for the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, popularly nicknamed "Con-Air," through which prisoners nationwide are flown and redistributed to their eventual designated facilities. Because of that mission, it's classified as "administrative," meaning it holds people of every security level, from minimum-security defendants to high-security offenders, simply passing through rather than sorted by classification. Since activation, well over a million inmates have cycled through its gates, and in a typical recent year tens of thousands pass through annually. For families, an inmate showing up at FTC Oklahoma City usually means they are in transit rather than settled, which can make it a confusing and anxious stretch since stays there are usually brief and communication can be limited until the person reaches their permanent designation.