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Federal Prisons in Maryland

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

Federal prisons in Maryland at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates one institution in Maryland, FCI Cumberland, with a satellite camp beside it; the two held 1,202 men as of September 2026. Maryland also holds the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, at Annapolis Junction.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FCI CumberlandFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen940Camp: 262CumberlandDistrict of Maryland
Total1 institution940262
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in Maryland?

One. FCI Cumberland is the state’s only institution on the Bureau of Prisons roster, and roster institutions are what this page counts. It is a medium-security prison for men in Allegany County, with a minimum-security satellite camp counted inside its row; the camp is a large one, holding 262 of the site’s people. Both hold men, and the state has no penitentiary, medical center or detention center. Cumberland carries one mission no other institution carries today: it houses the Bureau’s Communications Management Unit, and in September 2025 the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana recorded that “counsel for Defendants have represented to the Court that FCI – Cumberland is now the only BOP prison with a CMU.” Security levels are explained under security levels, and the system as a whole in the Bureau of Prisons directory.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Maryland?

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, which is itself in Maryland, on Sentinel Drive at Annapolis Junction. That makes the state unusual: one federal prison in the west, and at the other end of the state the office running the Mid-Atlantic Region across Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Families meet it one rung above the warden, because Program Statement 1330.18 provides at pp. 6–7 that an inmate who is not satisfied with the Warden’s response “may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-10) to the appropriate Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response.” The rung below is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Maryland?

One office, and one district to cover. Maryland constitutes a single judicial district under 28 U.S.C. § 100, divided into a Northern and a Southern Division rather than into separate districts, and the Bureau’s page for RRM Baltimore prints Maryland whole, alongside Eastern Virginia and the District of Columbia. No other office prints any part of Maryland: no overlap, no gap.

The office follows the release address, not the prison. Program Statement 7310.04 tells the Warden at p. 12, where there is significant doubt about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” A man at Cumberland going home to Baltimore is an RRM Baltimore matter; one in the same housing unit going home to Ohio is not.

The referral is decided well before release. Program Statement 7310.04 provides at p. 13 that “Normally 11 to 13 months before each inmate’s probable release date, the unit team shall decide whether to refer an inmate to a Community Corrections program,” and 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(1) caps the final period at “not to exceed 12 months.” See federal halfway houses.

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

Start by ruling out the two prisons next door. The inmate locator searches the federal system only, by register number or by a first and last name together; a surname alone errors. Cumberland holds two Maryland state prisons as well, and nobody sentenced in a state court appears in it.

Mail takes the address block the institution publishes; the camp’s differs by one satellite-camp line above the same post office box, and the Communications Management Unit adds rules of its own. The blocks are on our FCI Cumberland page; the general rules are under writing to someone inside.

Visiting is governed by the institution’s own supplement. Cumberland visits on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, while the Communications Management Unit keeps weekday hours of its own, so two families traveling to one address can be given different days. Read the current supplement, and see visitation.

Money travels through the Bureau’s national channels, not to Allegany County: the lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Ordinarily, funds sent to an inmate via the Western Union Quick Collect/MoneyGram Program are posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in Maryland are closing or have closed?

Neither the institution nor its camp is closing, and nothing in Maryland has closed. The Bureau’s announcement of July 1, 2026 listed six institutions for closure and two camps for conversion; no Maryland facility appears on it, and both Cumberland rows carry populations on the roster snapshot behind this page.

Closure has moved a mission into Maryland rather than out of it. The Bureau ran Communications Management Units at Terre Haute and Marion until 2025; the court record says both closed and a single unit opened at Cumberland, with no Bureau announcement. The national picture is in our explainer on major federal prison closures.

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

One. FCI Cumberland, in Allegany County, is the state’s only Bureau of Prisons institution: a medium-security prison for men with an unusually large minimum-security satellite camp, which the roster folds into the institution’s row instead of listing separately. Nothing else in Maryland belongs to the Bureau except its Mid-Atlantic Regional Office.

What is the largest federal prison in Maryland by population?

Maryland has one federal prison rather than several, so nothing here needs ranking. FCI Cumberland and its satellite camp held 1,202 men between them as of September 2026, printed by the Bureau as two rows: 940 at the institution and 262 at the camp.

Does Maryland have a high-security penitentiary or a federal prison camp?

There is no United States Penitentiary in Maryland; medium, at FCI Cumberland, is the highest level the Bureau operates in the state. There is a camp, but it is that institution’s minimum-security satellite, sharing its roster row rather than standing as a prison of its own.

Are any women held in federal custody in Maryland?

Not in a Bureau of Prisons institution here. The roster records FCI Cumberland and its camp as holding men, and the state has no other federal prison, so a woman serving a federal sentence is held in another state. Our guide to women’s federal prisons explains the pattern.

Does FCI Cumberland have a Communications Management Unit?

Yes, and on the government’s own representation to a federal court it is the only one the Bureau operates. Units at Terre Haute and Marion closed in 2025. Placement is a classification decision about monitoring communication, taken above the institution, and it is not a disciplinary sanction.

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

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which covers the federal system nationally, by register number or by a first and a last name together; a surname alone returns an error. It will not find anyone held by the Maryland state system, including at the two state prisons in Cumberland.

Which regional office covers the federal prison in Maryland?

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, at Annapolis Junction in Maryland, which also covers Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. It is the second rung of the administrative remedy program: the BP-10 goes to the Regional Director within twenty calendar days of the date the warden signed the response.

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

RRM Baltimore, whose Bureau page prints Maryland alongside Eastern Virginia and the District of Columbia. No other reentry office prints any part of Maryland. Which office handles a case turns on the district a person is going home to rather than on where the sentence was served.

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

Anyone may ask, and a sentencing court may recommend a facility, but the choice is the Bureau’s. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment” and, subject to the statutory factors, place the prisoner “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence.”

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

Three problems recur at Maryland’s one institution, each of them on its own record. Medical care has been the leading complaint in both independent inspections of this prison, in 2014 and again in 2021, and the route runs from a written request to staff through the administrative remedy process, every rung on a clock — one of the problems we work on inside. Placement: whether a man is at the institution or at the camp, and whether he can be moved closer to home, turns on security points, a Public Safety Factor and a management variable. Monitoring: designation to the Communications Management Unit is decided well above the warden and reaches mail, telephone and visits. First Step Act time credit disputes are early release work.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Maryland 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

Audits and inspections

Court records and statutes

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026

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