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Federal Prisons in Mississippi

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By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

Federal prisons in Mississippi at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates 3 institutions in Mississippi, all of them on one campus at Yazoo City, holding 4,602 people as of September 2026. All three are in the Bureau’s Southeast Region, run from Atlanta, and one of them carries the state’s only prison camp.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FCI Yazoo City Low IIFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,457—Yazoo CitySouthern District of Mississippi
FCI Yazoo City MediumFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,467—Yazoo CitySouthern District of Mississippi
FCI Yazoo City LowFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen1,490Camp: 188Yazoo CitySouthern District of Mississippi
Total3 institutions4,414188
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

Two of the three took new names in 2024, and one now carries a name its security level contradicts. On April 4, 2024 the Bureau renamed six penitentiaries as correctional institutions, Yazoo City among them, so USP Yazoo City became FCI Yazoo City Medium. That name had belonged to the prison next door, called FCI Yazoo City Low II by June 2024. Low II keeps its name while the roster and its own facility page record it as medium security, and this page prints the roster’s Medium. A record written before the spring of 2024 that says “Yazoo City Medium” means a different building from one written after it.

How many federal prisons are in Mississippi?

Three, and all three stand on one campus on Haley Barbour Parkway in Yazoo County, which the Bureau lists together as FCC Yazoo City, a federal correctional complex. Two are medium security; the third, FCI Yazoo City Low, is low security and carries the state’s only satellite camp, counted inside its own row above. All three hold men, so there is no federal institution for women here and no detention center. The levels are explained under security levels; the Bureau of Prisons directory lists every state, and our guide to women’s federal prisons covers where a woman sentenced here is held.

What is each federal prison in Mississippi like?

All three, in the table’s order.

FCI Yazoo City Low II

Medium security for men, and the institution whose name misleads: the Bureau’s roster and its own facility page both record it as medium, the one place in the roster where a name and a security level point different ways. Until 2024 it was FCI Yazoo City Medium, which is now the prison next door. It has no camp, and its visiting was suspended in September 2026. See FCI Yazoo City Low II.

FCI Yazoo City Medium

Medium security for men, and the former penitentiary here. The Bureau’s own change table, reproduced by the Inspector General in July 2025, records it moving from high to medium security on April 22, 2022, with the name following on April 4, 2024. On September 17, 2026 its Bureau page said visiting “has been suspended until further notice.” It has no camp. See FCI Yazoo City Medium.

FCI Yazoo City Low

Low security for men, the largest of the three, and the only one with a satellite camp beside it, counted on a row of its own. Its name did not change in 2024, so a record reading “Yazoo City Low” without the “II” means this prison. The complex’s residential drug abuse program runs here, not at either neighbor. See FCI Yazoo City Low.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Mississippi?

The Southeast Regional Office, on McDonough Boulevard in Atlanta; all three Mississippi institutions are recorded in the Southeast Region. Because they share a complex, an appeal from any of them reaches the same Regional Director. Program Statement 1330.18 records at p. 7 that “Appeal to the General Counsel is the final administrative appeal.” Start with filing a BP-9 and the administrative remedy program.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Mississippi?

One office, and it is across the state line. 28 U.S.C. § 104 provides that “Mississippi is divided into two judicial districts to be known as the northern and southern districts of Mississippi,” and the Bureau’s page for RRM Montgomery, in Alabama, prints both of them alongside the three Alabama districts. Neither is claimed twice or left out.

The office follows the address a person is going home to rather than the prison they leave, so a release from Yazoo City to Gulfport is an RRM Montgomery matter and one to Memphis is not. Program Statement 7310.04 puts the referral decision 11 to 13 months before release and requires at p. 14 that the packet reach it “at least 60 days prior to the maximum recommended range or date.” See halfway-house placement procedures and federal halfway houses.

How do I find, write to, visit or send money to someone in a Mississippi federal prison?

Finding someone here is a national search and then a careful read of the screen. The inmate locator takes a name or a register number, and its answer for Yazoo City names one of three institutions sharing a campus, so read the facility line, not the town.

All three institutions and the camp share one post office box, so the line that routes an envelope is the institution’s name — and a name written before 2024 routes it to the wrong building. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting differs between neighbors here: on September 17, 2026 the Bureau’s pages carried a suspension notice for the Medium and for Low II and none for the Low. Check each before you reach the gate. See visitation.

Deposits go to national channels, never to the institution itself: the Bureau’s lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect or MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Fund transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST are posted by 7:00 a.m. the following day.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in Mississippi are closing or have closed?

None of the three is closing and none has closed: no Mississippi institution was named in the Bureau’s closure announcement of July 1, 2026.

One Mississippi page on this site is not a Bureau institution and is not counted in the three: Adams County Correctional Center, a former Bureau contract facility, at Natchez. CoreCivic’s release of September 3, 2019 records an amended Bureau contract there “that expired on August 30, 2019,” and its facility page, read on September 18, 2026, names Immigration and Customs Enforcement as its partner today. Our explainer on major federal prison closures follows the Bureau’s withdrawal from contract prisons like this one.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau of Prisons run in Mississippi?

Three, on the roster snapshot behind this page, all on one campus at Yazoo City: two medium-security institutions and one low-security institution with a satellite camp. The Bureau lists them together as a federal correctional complex and counts the camp inside its institution’s row.

What is the largest federal prison in Mississippi by population?

FCI Yazoo City Low, at 1,490 people as of September 2026, with a further 188 at its satellite camp. It stays the largest once each camp is counted with its own institution, and the Bureau prints the two as separate rows of one report.

Is FCI Yazoo City Low II a low-security prison?

No. Despite the name, the Bureau’s roster and the institution’s own facility page both classify it as medium security. It was called FCI Yazoo City Medium until 2024, when that name passed to the penitentiary next door. Confirm a designation with the Bureau before relying on it.

Is there still a United States Penitentiary in Mississippi?

No. USP Yazoo City was renamed FCI Yazoo City Medium on April 4, 2024, one of six penitentiaries renamed that day because their missions had already changed. Medium is now the highest security level in the state, and two of the three carry it.

Does Mississippi have a federal prison for women?

No. The roster records all three Mississippi institutions as holding men, and the state’s only satellite camp belongs to a prison for men. A woman sentenced here is designated out of state, and where she goes turns on her security level and medical needs rather than on the state of conviction.

How do I look up someone held in a Mississippi federal prison?

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which searches the whole system rather than one state, by name or register number. Because three institutions share one campus, read the facility name in full: the words after “Yazoo City” decide the building and the rules.

Which reentry office handles halfway-house placement for someone releasing to Mississippi?

RRM Montgomery, in Alabama, whose Bureau page prints both Mississippi districts as well as the three Alabama ones. No second office claims part of the state and neither district is left out. Which office takes a case turns on the release district.

Can someone ask to be designated to a federal prison in Mississippi?

A request can be made and a sentencing court can recommend a place, but the Bureau decides. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it may designate any suitable facility “whether within or without the judicial district in which the person was convicted.”

How can a federal defense firm help a family with someone in a Mississippi federal prison?

Three problems recur at FCC Yazoo City, each evidenced on a facility page here. Identity: two changed names in 2024 and one is classified above the level its name suggests, so a transfer request drafted from an old record can name the wrong prison — among the problems we work on inside. Contact: the visiting suspension at two of the three is open-ended, and a break in visits is where family contact and discipline meet. Programs: the complex’s drug abuse program runs at the Low only, so First Step Act time credit questions here are transfer questions, which is early release and designation work.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Mississippi places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.

Call 843-620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

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