Federal Prisons

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is the agency of the United States Department of Justice that operates the federal prison system. It was established in 1930 and holds people convicted of federal crimes, along with some pretrial detainees and individuals held on behalf of other federal agencies. The system runs more than 120 institutions across the country and supervises a custody population that has generally ranged between roughly 150,000 and 220,000 people over the past two decades.

The BOP assigns each person in its custody to a facility based on a security and custody classification. That classification turns on factors such as the length of sentence, the nature of the offense, criminal history, and any history of violence or escape. The agency sorts its institutions into five broad security levels. Where a person serves time depends heavily on where they land in this system.

This page is a navigation hub. It explains how the federal security levels work and links to the individual facility profiles, category indexes, and life-inside guides covered on Prisonpedia.

Security Levels

The Bureau of Prisons groups its institutions into five security levels, defined mainly by perimeter security, staff-to-inmate ratios, and the level of internal movement controls.

Minimum security institutions are known as Federal Prison Camps (FPCs). They have dormitory housing, no perimeter fencing or only a low fence, and a high staff-to-inmate work ratio. Camps house people serving shorter sentences and those near the end of longer terms. Many sit adjacent to larger institutions and supply labor to them.

Low security Federal Correctional Institutions (FCIs) have double-fenced perimeters and mostly dormitory or cubicle housing. They carry a stronger staff presence than camps and a higher degree of internal controls.

Medium security FCIs use strengthened perimeters, often double fences with electronic detection, and cell-based housing. Internal movement is more closely controlled than at low-security sites.

High security institutions are United States Penitentiaries (USPs). They have highly secured perimeters, walls or reinforced fencing, cell housing, and close staff supervision of nearly all inmate movement.

Administrative facilities serve special purposes rather than a single security level. This category includes pretrial detention centers, medical and mental health referral centers, and the administrative-maximum penitentiary. These institutions hold people across the full range of security classifications.

Many sites operate as a Federal Correctional Complex (FCC), grouping institutions of different security levels at one location, often with an adjacent camp.

Facilities Covered on Prisonpedia

The facilities below are grouped by security level. For the complete index, see Category:Federal Prisons.

Minimum security (camps):

• Facilities/FPC Alderson
• FCI Otisville (minimum-security camp)
• FPC Lompoc (minimum-security camp)
• FPC Montgomery (minimum-security)
• FPC Pensacola (minimum-security)
• FCI Big Spring (minimum-security camp)

Low security:

• FCI Terminal Island (low-security)
• FCI Allenwood (low-security)
• FCI Englewood (low-security)
• Facilities/FCI Waseca (low-security)
• Facilities/FCI Danbury (low-security)

Medium security:

• FCI Otisville (medium-security)
• Facilities/FCI Beckley (medium-security)

High security (penitentiaries):

• USP Atwater (high-security)
• USP Tucson (high-security)

Complexes and multi-level sites:

• Facilities/FCI Coleman
• FCI Oxford

Life Inside

Daily routine inside a federal facility runs on a set of standardized programs and policies that apply across institutions. The guides below cover the parts of incarceration that touch nearly everyone in BOP custody.

• Visiting Policies and Procedures
• Commissary Operations and Inmate Accounts
• Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP)

See Also

• Category:Federal Prisons
• Federal Criminal Law
• Prison Conditions