Taft Correctional Institution was a low-security federal prison for male inmates located in Taft, Kern County, California, owned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and operated by Management and Training Corporation under contract with the BOP.

[2] It also included a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates.

In August 2016, Justice Department officials announced that the BOP would be phasing out its use of contracted facilities, on the grounds that private prisons provided less safe and less effective services with no substantial cost savings.

The agency expects to allow current contracts on its thirteen remaining private facilities to expire.

[1][4] The congressman for the area at the time was Kevin McCarthy opposed the closure.