FCI Fort Dix (low-security)

FCI Fort Dix. Public domain photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.

FCI Fort Dix is a low-security federal correctional institution for men in Joint Base Mdl, New Jersey, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It held about 3,931 people as of November 2025. The institution's main number is 609-723-1100.

MALE

Gender

LOW

Security Level

3931

Population (Nov. 2025)

RDAP

Location

Physical location: JOINT BASE MDL, NJ 8640

Mailing address: 5756 HARTFORD &, JOINT BASE MDL, NJ 08640

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

Operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fort Dix is a low-security U.S. federal correctional institution for men located in Fort Dix, New Jersey. The facility is situated within Burlington County on the grounds of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. It originally opened as a federal prison in 1992 on land that had been part of the U.S. Army's Fort Dix installation, where it currently reuses former three-story brick military barracks as housing. Holding roughly 4,000 inmates, the site represents one of the most populous federal prisons in the country. The complex is organized into a separate East Compound and West Compound, with each functioning as its own low-security prison. Additionally, an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp of a few hundred men supplies grounds and support labor.

Housing at Fort Dix features a dormitory-style layout rather than cellblocks. Men live in 12-person rooms situated inside large barracks buildings that can hold roughly 300 people each. Reflecting the low-security setting, these rooms have no bars or locks on the doors. Inmates are generally free to move around the compound during the day and are required to be in their assigned rooms only for scheduled census counts. The facility's dense, shared design includes common TV rooms, phone areas, bathrooms, and meal lines, which makes daily life communal and crowded. Commissary spending is capped at about $360 per month, although postage stamps and over-the-counter medications do not count against the limit. Additionally, ordinary institutional job wages run roughly $0.12 to $0.40 per hour.

In addition to providing standard GED and adult continuing education classes, vocational training, and religious services, the institution runs Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) operations that have included recycling and textile and clothing production. Because UNICOR assignments pay more than ordinary institution jobs, they are among the most sought-after work at the facility. Reporting on the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) at Fort Dix is contradictory; some prison guides list the intensive 500-hour, unit-based program as available, while other guides state it is not currently offered at this facility. Because RDAP completion can carry a sentence reduction, anyone relying on it should confirm current availability directly with the Bureau of Prisons.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Dix drew national scrutiny. In May 2020, the ACLU of New Jersey filed a class-action habeas petition seeking release of medically vulnerable people confined there. In late 2020, the facility experienced one of the worst outbreaks in the federal prison system. This occurred after the Bureau of Prisons transferred inmates from FCI Elkton in Ohio, which had suffered its own large outbreak; consequently, hundreds of Fort Dix prisoners became infected. Contemporary reporting described crowded 12-man rooms, shared facilities, and empty soap dispensers, with inmates using contraband cellphones to raise alarms. Ultimately, some individuals later won compassionate release from courts citing the Bureau's failure to control the outbreak. The episode remains a defining chapter in the facility's recent history.

First-hand accounts

First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.

• What Awaits Sean Combs at Fort Dix: A Long-Term Prisoner Explains the Reality - White Collar Advice. A formerly incarcerated person gives a line-by-line first-hand account of Fort Dix housing, movement, counts and daily conditions in the converted barracks.
• FCI Fort Dix Federal Prison: Daily Life, Housing & What to Expect - White Collar Advice. First-hand guide describing the 12-man rooms in three-story former Army barracks (about 350 men per building), the lack of locks on room doors at a low-security compound, census-count routines, and discipline sanctions.
• FCI Fort Dix: what it's like inside the prison Diddy is headed to — CNN. Current national journalism describing dorm-style housing and the facility's low-security character, timed to Sean "Diddy" Combs's arrival.
• AMA-style first-person account of Fort Dix and supervised release — Reddit (r/probation). Full-arc first-person account: 3 years at FCI Fort Dix (Low) followed by 5 years of federal supervised release.
• Anyone work at FCI Fort Dix? — Reddit (r/OnTheBlock). Staff-side thread on what working at Fort Dix, the BOP's largest facility, is actually like.

Please remember that experiences are unique and may not reflect today's experience.

Notable inmates

Name	Sentence	Offense	Dates
Sean "Diddy" Combs	50 months; projected release Feb 23, 2028	Two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution (Mann Act)	designated 2025
Martin Shkreli	7 years; released 2022	Securities fraud ("Pharma Bro")	2018-2022
Christopher "Dudus" Coke	23 years	Drug trafficking and assault; leader of the Jamaican Shower Posse	arrived 2017
Kwame Kilpatrick	28 years (commuted January 2021)	Racketeering, fraud, bribery and extortion as former Mayor of Detroit	released 2021 via commutation
Vincent "Buddy" Cianci	Released 2007	Racketeering conspiracy as former Mayor of Providence, RI	released 2007
Joseph Ganim	Released July 2010	Racketeering, bribery and fraud as former Mayor of Bridgeport, CT	released 2010
Ramon Abbas ("Hushpuppi")	135 months; projected release 2029	Money laundering conspiracy	designated after 2022 sentencing
Martin Frankel	Released 2016	Racketeering and fraud (siphoned over $200 million from insurance companies)	released 2016

See Also

• Federal Prison Security Levels
• Residential Reentry Centers (Halfway Houses)
• Commissary Operations and Inmate Accounts