FCI Ashland (low-security)
FCI Ashland is a low-security federal correctional institution for men in Ashland, Kentucky, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It held about 1,166 people as of November 2025. It does not offer the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The institution's main number is 606-928-6414.
Location
Physical location: ASHLAND, KY 41105
Mailing address: ST. ROUTE 716, ASHLAND, KY 41105
Visitation
There are many specific rules and procedures to be aware of when you're considering visiting the institution. Read more on our Visitation Guide.
For full, current visiting rules and scheduling, always check the institution's official page on the Bureau of Prisons website: Official BOP Page.
Daily life and programs
The Federal Correctional Institution, Ashland (FCI Ashland) is a low-security federal prison for adult men in the unincorporated community of Summit, Boyd County, Kentucky, about five miles outside the city of Ashland in the state's far northeast. Operated by the Bureau of Prisons within its Mid-Atlantic Region, the facility opened in 1940 and today holds roughly 1,300 inmates: approximately 1,080 to 1,160 at the low-security main institution and another 260 to 300 at an adjacent, separately run minimum-security satellite camp. The institution draws inmates principally from Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Community reports and inmate-family discussion indicate the low houses a substantial population of federal sex offenders alongside white-collar, drug, and fraud cases, a mix that shapes daily programming and social dynamics.
The main compound operates as a walled institution rather than a dorm-only camp. According to published descriptions, its housing consists of four cell blocks and two dormitories organized into general-population housing units, along with a Special Housing Unit (SHU) used for segregation and disciplinary confinement. Recreation offers a notable strength for the facility. Outdoors, there are walking and running areas as well as basketball, handball, and softball facilities, while the indoor recreation building provides cardiovascular exercise equipment, musical instruments, and a hobby and crafts area. Furthermore, daily life adheres to the standard BOP low-security rhythm, which involves controlled movement, count times, and work or program assignments during the day, followed by evening recreation and unit time.
Programming emphasizes education and vocational trades. The education department manages adult continuing education, GED preparation and testing, and English-as-a-Second-Language classes. Vocational offerings include automotive maintenance, HVAC, welding, and a Master Gardening track. This gardening curriculum is delivered in cooperation with the University of Kentucky, and participating inmates grow produce that is donated to River City Harvest in Ashland. The institution hosts a UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) factory that manufactures office furniture. Operations at the factory are supported by Quality Assurance, Business Office, and Warehouse sections, though the camp has no UNICOR factory. Psychology services provide counseling and drug-abuse education. Because FCI Ashland does not operate the intensive residential drug treatment program (RDAP), inmates seeking that credit and its potential sentence reduction must transfer to an RDAP site.
The site possesses a long institutional history. In 1944, the future civil-rights strategist Bayard Rustin, imprisoned as a conscientious objector, led a nonviolent campaign to desegregate Ashland's cell blocks and dining hall. This campaign involved a hunger strike before he was placed in isolation and transferred to the Lewisburg penitentiary. From 1950 to 1951, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, served roughly nine to eleven months at Ashland for contempt of Congress. More recently, the institution has held high-profile fraud, corruption, and cybercrime defendants. A 2014 case underscored contraband problems when a former Ashland correctional officer, James Lewis, was sentenced to 15 months for conspiring with an inmate and the inmate's girlfriend to smuggle marijuana and nude photographs into the prison between late 2010 and early 2012.
First-hand accounts
First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.
- Honored Combat Veteran to Conviction: Jeremy Harrell's self-surrender to FCI Ashland - Nightmare Success (podcast, host Brent Cassity). Decorated Army combat veteran and nonprofit founder Jeremy Harrell recounts driving himself to FCI Ashland to self-surrender on Jan 28, 2025 for a six-month sentence, including the intake experience and being recognized by corrections officers who supported his veterans nonprofit.
- FCI Ashland (family member of a newly transferred inmate) - Reddit. The girlfriend of a man just transferred to FCI Ashland asks for firsthand experiences after he went several days without calling; a facility-specific thread from an inmate's family member.
- Anyone on here been to or know anything about FCI Ashland in Kentucky? - Reddit. An inquiry thread seeking firsthand information from people who have been to FCI Ashland about conditions, programs, and daily life at the facility.
- Former Baltimore Sgt. Keith Gladstone assigned to FCI Ashland, same facility as GTTF's Wayne Jenkins - Reddit. Community discussion sharing reporter Justin Fenton's confirmation that former Baltimore officers Keith Gladstone and Wayne Jenkins were held at FCI Ashland; corroborates notable-inmate placement rather than offering a personal narrative.
- Jasiel Correia, former Fall River mayor, is moved to a federal prison in Kentucky — Fall River Herald News. Local-paper reporting tracking former mayor Jasiel Correia's transfer to FCI Ashland, with facility-security-level context.
- Do all minimum federal prisons have AC? — Reddit (r/ExCons). First-person account describing finishing a sentence at FCI Ashland with no air conditioning.
- FCI Ashland federal low prison in Kentucky — Reddit (r/ExCons). Current thread questioning FCI Ashland's low-security classification.
Notable inmates
| Name | Sentence | Offense | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Ciavarella Jr. | 28 years | Racketeering, honest-services fraud, money laundering, and tax offenses in Pennsylvania's 'kids for cash' juvenile-detention kickback scandal | Transferred to the low-security FCI Ashland in April 2016; projected release 2034 |
| Nico Walker[1] | 11 years | Robbery of about ten banks around Cleveland to fund an opioid addiction | Held at FCI Ashland from roughly 2013; wrote the acclaimed novel 'Cherry' there; released early in October 2019 under the First Step Act |
| Wayne Jenkins | 25 years | Racketeering and robbery as ringleader of the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force | Reported held at FCI Ashland (per 2022 reporting); has since been transferred to FMC Lexington |
| Dalton Trumbo | About 9 to 11 months | Contempt of Congress as one of the blacklisted 'Hollywood Ten' for refusing to answer HUAC | Imprisoned at the Ashland federal institution 1950-1951 |
| Bayard Rustin | 3 years | Refusing WWII conscription on pacifist and religious grounds (Selective Service violation) | At Ashland from 1944; led a hunger-strike campaign to desegregate the cell blocks and dining hall; later transferred to Lewisburg |
| David Kernell | 1 year and 1 day | Unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice for hacking Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account (2008) | Served at FCI Ashland; released November 2011 (died 2018) |
| Ryan Collins | 18 months | Unauthorized access to protected computers in the 2014 celebrity iCloud/Gmail photo-theft ('Celebgate') scheme | Held at FCI Ashland; released February 2018 |
| Mark Ingram Sr. | 92 months, with added time for failing to surrender | Bank fraud and money laundering (former NFL wide receiver), plus later failure to report to prison | Designated to report to FCI Ashland in December 2008; failed to surrender and was arrested in January 2009 |
References
- ↑ "Nico Walker". '. Retrieved 2026-07-07.