Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System

Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System
IATA ICAO Call sign
- DOJ JUSTICE
Founded1995
Parent companyU.S. Marshals Service
Websitewww.usmarshals.gov/what-we-do/prisoners/transportation
A U.S. Marshal on a "Con Air" flight.
Patch of JPATS, Air Operations Division, Air Crew.

The Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS), nicknamed "Con Air",[1] is a United States Marshals Service airline charged with the transportation of persons in legal custody between prisons, detention centers, courthouses, and other locations. It is the largest prison transport network in the world.[2] Though primarily used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, JPATS also assists military and state law enforcement.

The agency is managed by the USMS out of the JPATS headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.[2] JPATS was formed in 1995 from the merger of the Marshals Service air fleet with that of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. JPATS completes more than 260,000 prisoner/alien movements per year.[3] Air fleet operations are located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with hubs in Las Vegas, Nevada; Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Additionally, the Federal Transfer Center at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was built especially to facilitate prisoner transport on JPATS.

Usually, the airline employs Boeing 737 aircraft to transport convicts and illegal residents of the United States for extradition. Smaller jets and turboprops may also be used to transport individual prisoners who are considered particularly dangerous or notorious, as well as individuals in the witness protection program.

According to the Marshals Service, JPATS owns and operates four Boeing 737s.[4]

JPATS aircraft use the ICAO designator DOJ with the callsign JUSTICE.

  1. ^ "Con Air: America's High-Flying Paddy Wagon". Usmarshals.gov. 2004-06-03. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  2. ^ a b Graves, Lucas (June 2010), "Relocating Prisoners", Wired, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 148–149
  3. ^ Service (USMS), U. S. Marshals. "U.S. Marshals Service". www.usmarshals.gov. Archived from the original on 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).