FCI Williamsburg (medium-security)
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Location
Physical location: SALTERS, SC 29590
Mailing address: 8301 HIGHWAY 521, SALTERS, SC 29590
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
Situated roughly 90 miles southeast of the state capital, Columbia, FCI Williamsburg is a medium-security U.S. federal prison for male inmates in Salters, South Carolina. The facility is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons within the agency's Southeast Region and is paired with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp that holds a much smaller population. Although reported counts vary by source, the main institution typically houses on the order of 1,300 to 1,400 men, while roughly 90 to 150 additional inmates reside at the camp. The camp and the main institution are treated as distinct facilities because they have separate custody levels. Consequently, the fraud and terrorism cases among the prison's better-known inmates are held at the medium-security FCI, not the camp.
At FCI Williamsburg, daily life adheres to the standard medium-security federal routine of structured inmate counts, work assignments, meals, and scheduled recreation periods. Most medically able inmates are assigned to institutional jobs, such as food service, maintenance, landscaping, and janitorial work. These positions provide pay generally in the range of about 12 to 40 cents per hour, and the associated work assignments can generate First Step Act time credits. Furthermore, the facility's education and reentry programming includes GED instruction, English as a Second Language, post-secondary and adult continuing-education (ACE) classes, parenting courses, and vocational apprenticeships reported in areas such as custodial maintenance, HVAC, and plumbing. Notably, FCI Williamsburg does not host the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP); instead, non-residential drug education and counseling serve as the substance-abuse options available on site. Finally, recreation includes a gymnasium, basketball and handball, soccer, a jogging track, weight and fitness equipment, along with hobbycraft and intramural sports.
The institution commenced operations in the mid-2000s, a timeframe commonly cited as around 2004, as a component of the early-2000s prison capacity expansion initiated by the Bureau. By 2010, the facility appeared in federal labor relations records when its local union participated in negotiations regarding staffing and working conditions. Issues related to contraband and personnel shortages have been recurring themes throughout its history. In a case documented by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina, former FCI Williamsburg correctional officer Angela Crosland accepted bribes from inmates between about September 2021 and June 2022 to smuggle methamphetamine and Suboxone into the prison. She was subsequently convicted by a federal jury in January 2025 and sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. This ongoing situation regarding drugs and staffing is echoed in a corrections officer discussion thread about working at the facility, during which a staff commenter described the prison as chronically short-staffed, reliant on mandatory overtime and augmentation, and dealing with a significant drug problem and a few inmate fights each month.
First-hand accounts
First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.
- FCI Williamsburg (r/OnTheBlock) - corrections-officer thread with first-hand staff reply - Reddit -. A prospective staffer asks about working at FCI Williamsburg; a first-hand reply from someone at the facility describes it as short about 15 staff, running on mandates and augmentation, with 'a lot of junkies to deal with' and roughly 2-3 inmate fights a month. Staff-side account, not an inmate account.
- FCI Williamsburg (r/PrisonReceptionCenter) - facility-specific Q&A thread - Reddit -. A facility-specific thread in the former-inmate Q&A forum asking what to expect at FCI Williamsburg (25 comments). The original post has since been deleted and only limited verifiable first-hand text remains, so it is included as a facility-specific discussion rather than a substantive narrative account.
Notable inmates
| Name | Sentence | Offense | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farid Fata | 45 years; projected release around 2050 | Health care fraud: administered medically unnecessary chemotherapy to hundreds of patients, plus kickbacks and money laundering (Reg. 48860-039) | Incarcerated at FCI Williamsburg (independently reported still held there as of 2025) |
| Amine El Khalifi | 30 years; projected release around 2037 | Attempted suicide bombing of the U.S. Capitol; al-Qaeda-inspired 2012 terrorism plot (Reg. 79748-083) | Listed at the main FCI; current placement per Wikipedia, not independently confirmed here |
| Art Schlichter | 10 years; released 2020 | Wire fraud, bank fraud, and filing a false tax return via a fraudulent football-ticket scheme; former NFL quarterback (Reg. 30044-048) | Held at the main FCI |
| Allen Loughry | 24 months; served the initial portion at FCI Williamsburg; released December 2020 | Mail and wire fraud; former Chief Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (Reg. 15022-088) | Held at the main FCI |