Naval Consolidated Brig , Miramar Naval Consolidated Brig , Miramar ( NAVCONBRIG ) is a military prison operated by the U . S . Navy at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in Miramar , San Diego , California , just under north of downtown San Diego . It is one of three Navy consolidated brigs and is the Pacific area regional confinement facility for the United States Department of Defense . The facility has a capacity of up to 400 male and / or female prisoners and is staffed with 31 civilian and 173 military personnel The facility is in Building 7684 , across from the base golf course near the west gate . It is about from the MCAS Miramar East Gate Entrance . It houses some Tier II male prisoners of the United States Navy ( who serve sentences of up to 10 years ) and female prisoners from all areas of the United States Department of Defense . NAVCONBRIG Miramar Executive Officer Commander Kris Winter said that before NAVCONBRIG Miramar was designed as the place for all female prisoners , it was difficult for the U . S . military to have " successful female - specific rehabilitation programs " since there were not enough women in any one location . The consolidation of all women in Miramar was intended to provide a female - oriented corrections program . History . It was built in 1989 at a cost of nearly $ 17 million , was commissioned on July 19 , 1989 and accepted its first prisoners on October 31 , 1989 . In March 1996 , the United States Department of Justice entered into an agreement with the U . S . Navy and a private jail firm and began to use a section of the brig for illegal immigrants who had been deported for criminal convictions , mostly drug crimes , and had been re - arrested for re - entering the United States . The U . S . military allocated cell space to the U . S . Marshals Service so that agency could operate a civilian facility , the Miramar Federal Detention Facility , within the brig . The U . S . Department of Justice had begun to target illegal immigrants who had criminal records . As a result , jails in the San Diego area became overcrowded . Metropolitan Correctional Center , San Diego had been overcrowded for a long period of time leading up to 1996 . Within two weeks of the move , on March 29 of that year , prisoners rioted , setting fires inside their housing units . The prisoners were upset over a lack of commissary privileges , and a perceived low quality of television service , so they obscured a surveillance camera with a blanket and set fire to mattresses . The fire inflicted $ 500 , 000 worth of property damage . Of 174 prisoners involved , 12 were hospitalized . $ 1 . 5 million was spent to care for the injured prisoners . 10 Mexican citizens and one Costa Rican citizen received charges of damaging federal government property and conspiracy . The civilian prisoners were transferred to civilian facilities . During that year the Secretary of the United States Navy said that Miramar will never again be used to house illegal immigrants , the civilian population sent to Miramar . Randy " Duke " Cunningham , a member of the United States House of Representatives who had opposed the housing of illegal immigrants in the facility , said that the move was a " victory for San Diegans " because putting illegal immigrants in the brig placed national security in danger . Illegal immigrants who would have been sent to Miramar instead were sent to jails in Imperial County , California , Kern County , California , and Arizona . As a result , the parties that handled the transportation received millions of dollars in transportation costs . In 2003 , it became the only American military prison to accept women . In 2010 , the facility was expanded to accommodate an additional 200 prisoners before February 2011 .