Sybil Brand Institute
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The Sybil Brand Institute (in full, the Sybil Brand Institute For Women) was a famous county jail in Los Angeles County, California. It was located at 4500 East City Terrace Drive, in Monterey Park, California.
The facility was named after Sybil Brand (May 8, 1899-February 17, 2004), a noted local philanthropist and civic leader; immediately prior to her death she was generally regarded as the oldest more-or-less well-known individual still alive in the United States.
Opened in 1963 with the aid of funds approved by voters when a bond measure passed in a referendum three years earlier, the institution often provided the setting for scenes from movies and television shows. It was forced to close in 1997 after sustaining extensive damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and has yet to be reopened or remodeled due to persistent budget shortfalls affecting both Los Angeles County and the State of California. It is perhaps best known as the jail where Susan Atkins admitted to a fellow inmate Virginia Graham, that she and other members of the Manson family were responsible for the Tate & LaBianca murders.
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The Sybil Brand Institute, at the County Sheriff?s complex in City Terrace, east of downtown, was the primary Los Angeles County correctional facility for women before it closed in 1997. Though still managed by the sheriff?s department, it is now used exclusively for filming. Built in 1963, Sybil Brand was a minimum to maximum security facility, with a design capacity of 900, and a peak occupancy of 2,800. It once housed Susan Atkins (whose confessions to a cellmate at the prison led to the arrest of Charles Manson and family), and Susan McDougall of Whitewater scandal fame. When Sybil Brand closed, inmates were transferred to the new Twin Towers complex. The County may renovate the building and open it again as a prison, but in the mean time it offers modern looking prison rooms including cafeterias, hallways, recreation areas, visiting areas, infirmaries, and cells from solitary confinement to dormitories. As it was a women?s prison, the interior walls have a pink color, which is usually painted over for filming. Productions film here at a rate of two or three per month. The film Blow, A Johnny Depp picture about cocaine dealers, spent five weeks shooting all over the prison. Other productions include Arrest and Trial, Gangland, X-Files, and America?s Most Wanted. Location: Los Angeles Address: CA Visitor Info: Not open to the publlic. LCS: Cultural
