In 1976, FCI Miami served as a center for youth offenders which explains its campus-like architecture and the presence of a lake in the middle of its compound (the only BOP facility with such landscape feature).

It is estimated that between 1977 - 1981, more than 70,000 Haitians (possibly up to 200,000)[3] and as many as 125,000 Cubans (Mariel Boatlift) "Marielitos" migrated to South Florida with many of them being detained at the facility until their legal status was clarified.

The vast majority of those individuals charged would eventually be found guilty of participating in the illicit drug trade at which time they would be transferred to another federal facility to serve their sentences.

Between 1990 and 2001, he and others from his congregation served eleven years of an eighteen-year sentence on a RICO conviction for conspiracy for their role in more than a dozen murders.

[5][6] In 1986, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) thwarted a daring escape planned by two inmates at MCC- Miami.

Gary Wayne Betzner and Terry Jackson Briceno planned to be in the recreation area of their housing unit when a helicopter would fly overhead, drop a rope ladder, and help them escape.

The BOP's minimum-security facility (the "Camp") which had been located in Homestead, Florida and also destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, was transferred to MCC Miami's extensive grounds during that year.

This infuriated several Democratic House members representing Virginia, including Rep. Gerry Connolly who responded on X that due to the number of felony charges facing the former President, "they find a federal prison" to name after him.