FCI Pekin (minimum-security camp)

FEMALE

Gender

MINIMUM

Security Level

239

Population (Nov. 2025)

No RDAP

Notes from Alumni

The following people have spoken about their time at FCI Pekin (minimum-security camp) on the Nightmare Success podcast, hosted by Brent Cassity (himself formerly incarcerated in the federal system):

• Josh Boyer caught up in fake stash house undercover sting...incredible story (Nightmare Success podcast)
• The Journey of Shane Spurgeon: From Struggles to Self-Acceptance (Nightmare Success podcast)

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

Location

Physical location: PEKIN, IL 61554

Mailing address: 2600 S. SECOND ST., PEKIN, IL 61554

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does FCI Pekin allow conjugal visits?

No. FCI Pekin does not allow conjugal visits. The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not permit conjugal visits at any facility regardless of security level. This includes all minimum-security federal prison camps, low-security FCIs, medium-security facilities, and high-security USPs. Only four state prison systems (California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington) allow conjugal visits for state prisoners. Federal inmates have no access to conjugal or extended family visits anywhere in the BOP system.

Q: What types of visitation are allowed at FCI Pekin?

FCI Pekin allows contact visits during designated visiting hours, typically on weekends and holidays. Contact visits permit brief embraces at the start and end of visits, but prolonged physical contact is not allowed. All visits occur in supervised visiting rooms. Visitors must be pre-approved through a background check process and must follow dress code requirements. For full details, see the Visiting Policies and Procedures page.

Daily life and programs

Located in Tazewell County, FCI Pekin is a federal correctional institution for adult male offenders in Pekin, Illinois. Positioned roughly 10 miles south of Peoria and about 180 miles from Chicago, the facility includes an adjacent minimum-security satellite prison camp that currently houses women. The camp opened in 1994. Because it is minimum security, the site operates without perimeter fences, walls, razor wire, or guard towers. Historical descriptions note the camp was composed of two dormitories and a central compound containing classrooms, office buildings, and recreation buildings surrounded by grass. As a result, researchers have likened the location to a small college campus that does not fit the stereotype of a prison. Women at the camp live in dormitory housing organized into two-person cubicles. The reported capacity is about 256 individuals. As of September 2023, the camp held roughly 244 women, though more recent directory snapshots list smaller counts of around 172 to 206 limits. Additionally, one directory lists an inmate age range of about 23 to 66 and an average length of stay near 96 months.

The gender of the Pekin camp population has changed more than once, a detail that is important to document accurately on a reference page. The camp housed women from its 1994 opening. In May 2011, the female population was replaced by a male population so that the Bureau of Prisons could create more space for in-house drug treatment programs for men. By the mid-2010s, it again held women; specifically, former Dixon comptroller Rita Crundwell served at the Pekin camp from 2013 until 2021, and multiple directories describe it as a women's camp holding several hundred female inmates through 2023. The exact date the camp reverted from male back to female is not clearly documented in available sources. Furthermore, because at least one current guide site still describes the satellite camp as male, live BOP population data should be checked before any current-status claim is published.

Daily life and facility programming at the women's camp primarily focus on education, employment, and limited drug and reentry initiatives. Documented educational resources feature a parenting program, GED preparation, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), and inmate-taught Adult Continuing Education (ACE) classes. Substance abuse and recovery treatments have included a Drug Education course, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program (NR-DAP). However, the availability of the full Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) to women at the Pekin camp remains disputed across various sources and requires confirmation before being treated as a verified fact. Specifically, certain guides maintain that neither the FCI nor the camp provides RDAP, whereas alternative texts list the program as active. Vocational opportunities at the camp are notably more limited than those available at the main institution, and the facility has been described as having no apprenticeship programs. During the period when the camp housed women, inmates frequently engaged in volunteer and community-service work in the surrounding area, although the women were officially barred from performing certain jobs requested by local non-profit organizations.

Two women held at the Pekin camp are documented in citable public sources, and both women were incarcerated during periods when the camp held female inmates. Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, pleaded guilty to embezzling roughly $53.7 million of municipal funds. This offense was described as one of the largest municipal frauds in U.S. history. Crundwell was sentenced in February 2013 to 19 years and 7 months, and she served her time at the Federal Prison Camp in Pekin prior to an early release to community confinement on August 4, 2021. Furthermore, peace activist and author Kathy Kelly served a three-month sentence at the Pekin Federal Prison Camp in 2004 following a protest at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (Fort Benning, Georgia). A multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, Kelly later collected her prison correspondence in the book Other Lands Have Dreams: Letters from Pekin Prison.

FCI Pekin. Public domain photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.

See also

• FCI Pekin camp: a practical guide for women preparing to serve time there (womensfederalprison.com)