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FMC Devens (minimum-security camp)

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FMC Devens. Public domain photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.

FMC Devens is a minimum-security satellite camp for men in Ayer, Massachusetts, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It held about 89 people as of November 2025. It does not offer the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The institution's main number is 978-796-1000.

MALE
Gender
MINIMUM
Security Level
89
Population (Nov. 2025)
No RDAP

Location

Physical location: AYER, MA 1432

Mailing address: 42 PATTON ROAD, AYER, MA 01432

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 FMC Devens allow conjugal visits?

No. FMC Devens 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 FMC Devens?

FMC Devens 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

FMC Devens sits in the Devens area of Ayer, Massachusetts, roughly 39 miles west of Boston, on the grounds of the former Fort Devens U.S. Army base, which operated from 1917 until it was closed under the 1996 Base Realignment and Closure process. The Bureau of Prisons opened the Federal Medical Center there in January 1999 as one of its specialized institutions for men needing long-term or specialized medical and mental-health care, reusing the base's existing hospital infrastructure. The complex pairs an administrative-security medical center (the main institution) with an adjacent minimum-security satellite prison camp for men, and this page concerns that CAMP specifically. The camp is small, holding roughly 114 to 128 men depending on the source and year, and stands apart from the main hospital on the grounds of a former golf course: a low industrial-style building beside a worn recreation yard ringed by tall pines, with the main prison visible through the trees. As at most BOP camps, its residents supply much of the labor that keeps the larger facility running.

The intake process at Devens can be jarring even for camp-bound men. Writings by both former McKinsey managing director Rajat Gupta and Stamford real-estate developer John DiMenna indicate that new arrivals are first processed through cells in the main prison before being moved out to the camp. Gupta recalled spending his first nights in a cell, and DiMenna described a stay in the Special Housing Unit, characterized by cold ventilation and constant noise, as an initiation of sorts. Life in the camp itself is dormitory-style rather than cell-and-bar, featuring open cubicles, shared bathrooms, and a communal mess hall. DiMenna's published account describes crowding, as he cites 128 men housed two to a bunk in a space built for about 72. His narrative further details mold and disrepair, a social world organized into informal groups by background, and kitchen and food-service work that he found grounding. Although these vivid specifics come from one man's first-person telling and should be read as such, the broad picture of open dorms, food-service and maintenance labor, and a largely non-violent, near-release population is consistent across sources.

Programming at Devens includes the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), the BOP's roughly nine-month, 500-hour intensive treatment track. Completion of this program can earn eligible inmates up to a 12-month sentence reduction plus additional halfway-house time. Available education services span GED preparation, English-as-a-second-language, parenting, and adult continuing-education classes, and reporting on the camp lists apprenticeships such as cook and animal trainer. Additionally, an in-house psychology department provides counseling. Recreation options described for the institution include floor hockey, basketball, soccer, a hobby-craft room, and a music-practice room. Because camp inmates are minimum-security and often close to release, they typically perform food service, orderly, groundskeeping, and maintenance work in support of the medical center.

Several controversies attach to the broader FMC Devens complex, though they largely concern the main medical center rather than the camp. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has published an inspection of the facility, and the ACLU litigated over COVID-19 conditions and sought releases in 2020. Additionally, a senior correctional officer, Seth Burget, was convicted and imprisoned for a civil-rights violation tied to the 2019 beating of a mentally ill inmate, and a staffer was charged with accepting money from a wealthy inmate. To maintain content integrity, readers should note a crucial distinction: many high-profile names commonly linked to 'FMC Devens', including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, former congressman Anthony Weiner, hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, Peter Madoff, and various organized-crime figures, were held in the main administrative and medical facility, not in this minimum-security camp. The camp's population is minimum-security, non-violent, and heavily white-collar, and confidently attributable camp residents are far fewer than the main institution's roster suggests.

First-hand accounts

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

Notable inmates

Name Sentence Offense Dates
Rajat Gupta 2 years Securities fraud and conspiracy (insider trading tied to the Galleon Group / Raj Rajaratnam case). Former managing director of McKinsey & Company and Goldman Sachs board member. His memoir 'Mind Without Fear' states that after his first nights in a cell he was moved to 'the camp,' the minimum-security facility at Devens. Reported June 17, 2014; released to home confinement January 5, 2016 (served about 19 months)
John DiMenna[1] 85 months Two counts of wire fraud tied to the collapse of his Stamford, Connecticut real-estate firm (Seaboard Properties). In his own published first-person account he describes being held at the FMC Devens minimum-security satellite camp. Incarcerated at the Devens camp per his account (published circa 2020s)

References

  1. ↑ "John DiMenna". '. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
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