USP Lee (minimum-security camp)

USP Lee is a minimum-security satellite camp for men in Pennington Gap, Virginia, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It held about 67 people as of November 2025. It does not offer the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The institution's main number is 276-546-0150.

MALE

Gender

MINIMUM

Security Level

67

Population (Nov. 2025)

No RDAP

Location

Physical location: PENNINGTON GAP, VA 24277

Mailing address: LEE COUNTY INDUSTRIAL PARK, PENNINGTON GAP, VA 24277

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 USP Lee allow conjugal visits?

No. USP Lee 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 USP Lee?

USP Lee 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

The United States Penitentiary, Lee (USP Lee) is a high-security federal prison for men operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, with an adjacent minimum-security satellite prison camp that houses male offenders. It sits in the Lee County Industrial Park, an unincorporated area of Lee County in far southwestern Virginia off U.S. Route 58 near Pennington Gap, roughly eight miles east of Jonesville, deep in the Appalachian coalfield region. Construction of the complex was completed in August 2001 and the institution began receiving inmates in 2002. The satellite camp is the minimum-security component of this complex and is entirely distinct from the high-security penitentiary that shares the Lee name and grounds.

The satellite camp accommodates sentenced, minimum-security men who are judged to be neither a threat to public safety nor a flight risk. As a result, the internal controls and security measures at the camp are far less strict than those enforced inside the penitentiary. Although the reported bed capacity for the camp is about 172, the actual population runs well below that limit. Bureau of Prisons figures cited roughly 46 men at the camp in September 2023, while other counts have placed the population around 81. Rather than residing in individual cells, camp inmates are typically housed in barracks-style dormitories. Furthermore, as at most federal prison camps, these individuals generally supply labor that supports the operation and grounds of the larger institution and the surrounding facility. Because the complex is remote and set in rural Appalachia, families and visitors commonly face long drives to reach it. This geographical burden has been repeatedly noted by relatives of the men held at the Lee complex.

Programming at the Lee complex incorporates several adult education options, including GED instruction, English as a Second Language, Adult Continuing Education, and parenting classes. The facility also provides substance abuse services, featuring a Drug Education class, a Non-Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program, and regular meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups. Furthermore, inmates have access to recreation, religious services, and mental health screening and counseling. Work assignments across the institution are distributed among food service, facilities and mechanical services, laundry, and UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries), with the specific UNICOR operation at Lee functioning as a textile factory. Because much of this published program and work description applies to the penitentiary complex as a whole, detailed and camp-specific program documentation remains sparse in public sources. As a result, the availability of residential RDAP at the camp specifically could not be confirmed and should not be assumed.

A firm distinction must be drawn between the camp and the penitentiary. While media and reference sources list numerous high-profile inmates connected to USP Lee, including cartel figures, convicted terrorists, and men convicted of murder or violent racketeering, every one of those individuals was or is held at the high-security penitentiary. They are not housed at the minimum-security camp, which by Bureau of Prisons policy holds only nonviolent, low-risk offenders. Likewise, the incidents that dominate public discussion of USP Lee, including allegations of guard violence, gang conflict, and inmate-on-inmate killings, all describe the high-security institution. For an encyclopedic entry about the camp, those people and events belong to the penitentiary and are deliberately excluded here to avoid misattributing them to the minimum-security facility.