FCI Beckley (medium-security)
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Location
Physical location: BEAVER, WV 25813
Mailing address: 1600 INDUSTRIAL ROAD, BEAVER, WV 25813
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 Beckley is a medium-security federal prison for men located in Beaver (Raleigh County), West Virginia. Activated in 1995, the facility occupies a rural, mountainous site roughly 51 miles southeast of Charleston and about 300 driving miles from Washington, DC. The grounds feature an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp that houses lower-custody men separately from the main population. Staff have described the facility as the largest stand-alone medium-security FCI in the BOP that is not part of a federal prison complex. Although overall census numbers have fallen over time from roughly 2,200 to about 1,700 including the camp, a 2017 independent inspection recorded 1,486 men in the main institution against a rated capacity of 1,127 (about 132 percent of capacity). Additionally, the institution holds a sizable group of DC Code offenders sentenced under District of Columbia law rather than the federal code.
The main institution operates on a structured daily schedule encompassing counts, meals, work, programming, and recreation. General-population men reside in housing units organized around one- and two-person cells, and the facility maintains dedicated residential program units as well as a Special Housing Unit (SHU) for disciplinary and administrative segregation. A 2018 report by the DC Corrections Information Council documented serious concerns raised by incarcerated DC residents. These complaints included disrespectful and racist treatment by some staff, difficulty obtaining grievance and sick-call request forms, long medical and dental wait times, and reduced food quality following the removal of microwaves from the units. The report also noted that new restrictions on incoming mail had been introduced over concerns about drugs entering the facility.
FCI Beckley operates two residential programming units. The Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), the BOP's intensive substance-abuse treatment track that can shorten an eligible inmate's sentence by up to a year, ran with roughly 116 participants at the time of the 2017 inspection. The institution is also one of only two BOP sites to run the BRAVE program (Bureau Rehabilitation and Values Enhancement), a cognitive-behavioral unit aimed at young men newly committed to long sentences, which had about 90 participants. (Some secondary prison-information websites state that Beckley does not offer RDAP, but the primary CIC inspection contradicts that.) Employment centers on a UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) factory that produces office chairs and furniture for government agencies, offering higher pay and job certifications, though inspectors noted the factory had seen a production downturn. Outside the residential units and UNICOR, the CIC found relatively few academic and vocational offerings and reported that access to those programs was difficult.
Men at FCI Beckley maintain contact with the outside world through monitored telephone calls, the TRULINCS email system, postal mail, and scheduled visitation that includes video visiting. Furthermore, the commissary imposes a monthly spending limit of about $360 in recent years, an amount excluding stamps and over-the-counter items. Health services are rated at Medical Care Level 2, indicating that the facility is designed for generally stable outpatients. The 2017 inspection team documented a medical staff that included physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and a pharmacist, while also noting long wait times and vacancies attributed in part to a hiring freeze. For reentry purposes, the CIC specifically recommended transferring DC-sentenced men who would be released back to Washington to facilities closer to home and ensuring adequate halfway-house time.
First-hand accounts
First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.
- FCI Beckley Inspection Report (April 2018) - DC Corrections Information Council. Independent oversight inspection of the medium-security main institution with direct first-person quotes from incarcerated DC residents about staff treatment, health care, mail, food, and access to programs.
- Trying to get hired on to FCI Beckley - Reddit. Prospective correctional officer seeking first-hand information about working at the facility (corrections-staff perspective, not an inmate account).
- Anybody here working at FCI Beckley? Thinking about going from state to BOP - Reddit. Someone weighing a state-to-BOP transfer asking current or former FCI Beckley staff about the facility (corrections-staff perspective, not an inmate account).
Notable inmates
| Name | Sentence | Offense | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Kopp | Life | Anti-abortion extremist convicted in the 1998 sniper killing of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian | Held at FCI Beckley; later transferred to FCI Mendota |
| Eric DeWayne Boyd | 18 years (federal) | Accessory after the fact to a carjacking in the 2007 Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom case | Released June 2022 |
| Steven Warshak | Originally 25 years, later reduced | Fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering (Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals / Enzyte) | Released 2016 |
| Sylvester Cuevas | Additional 8 years; transferred to ADX Florence | Assaulted correctional officers at FCI Beckley on multiple occasions (2010-2012), causing broken bones and facial injuries | 2010-2012 |