The facility houses politically sensitive inmates: political prisoners, foreigners, disgraced Communist Party officials, individuals charged with crimes relating to state security, and allegedly, prisoners of conscience.

The detention center is operated by the Beijing State Security Bureau (BSSB), the Beijing branch of the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China's foreign intelligence agency and secret police.

The BSSBDC houses politically sensitive prisoners, including, according to the Oriental Daily News, disgraced former high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

Members of the Falun Gong movement allege the BSSB has repeatedly detained their followers in the facility.

[2] Some prisoners have been moved to the BSSBDC after serving time in a BSSB black jail of the Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) program, an extrajudicial regime of secret detention which facilitates the "disappearing" of individuals – often foreigners – charged with endangering state security.