FCI Butner Low: Visiting, Mail, Programs and Records

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

FCI Butner Low at a glance

FCI Butner Low is the low-security federal prison for men at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, one of four prisons on the complex and one of the federal prisons in North Carolina. It held 942 men as of September 2026, most of them in open dormitories, and it has no camp of its own.

Official name	FCI Butner Low (LSCI)
BOP code	BUF · complex BUX
Security level	Low; men
Population	942 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Inmate mail	Inmate name and register number · FCI Butner Low · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 999 · Butner, NC 27509
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	919-575-5000 · Fax 919-575-5023
Street address	Old NC Hwy 75, Butner, NC 27509 · Granville County
Judicial district	Eastern District of North Carolina
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Designated capacity	992
Housing	Nine units: eight open dormitories and one multiple-occupancy cell unit; no single cells
Special Housing Unit	See where men from the low are held in segregation
Medical care level	Care Level 3
Mental health care level	Care Level 2
RDAP	None; the complex’s programs are at Medium I and Medium II
Sex offender treatment	None approved at Butner
UNICOR	Yes; factory jobs
Camp	None; the Butner camp belongs to FCI Butner Medium I

It stands off Old North Carolina Highway 75 in Granville County and reports to the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region. It lies in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which 28 U.S.C. § 113(a) defines to include Granville County and the part of Durham County that holds the Butner prison. The Bureau’s web page for the low also shows a camp mailing address that belongs to another institution; use P.O. Box 999 for anyone held here.

Which of the four Butner prisons is FCI Butner Low?

FCI Butner Low is the Butner prison with facility code BUF, P.O. Box 999, and the 919-575-5000 switchboard. Four federal prisons and a satellite camp share one reservation, one street address, and the complex code BUX, and the Bureau’s Inmate Locator names each of them in full, so match any fact about “Butner” to a single institution before relying on it.

Each institution has its own code, box, and telephone number, and the Bureau counts each population separately (figures as of September 2026):

Institution	Code	Security level	Population	Inmate mail	Telephone
FCI Butner Low (this page)	BUF	Low	942	P.O. Box 999	919-575-5000
FCI Butner Medium I and its satellite camp	BUT	Medium; the camp is minimum	823: 536 at the FCI and 287 at the camp	P.O. Box 1000	919-575-4541
FCI Butner Medium II	BTF	Medium	1,304	P.O. Box 1500	919-575-8000
FMC Butner	BUH	Administrative (medical center)	801	P.O. Box 1600	919-575-3900

The complex’s own paperwork calls this prison the LSCI, for Low Security Correctional Institution, and the 2020 court orders call it “FCI Butner-low”; both mean BUF. In the same documents, FCI I is Medium I, FCI II is Medium II, and FPC is the camp. A document that says only “FCI Butner,” as a 2017 prosecution release does, does not say which of the three correctional institutions it means.

The camp address on the Bureau’s page for this prison

The Bureau’s web page for FCI Butner Low shows two mailing addresses: P.O. Box 999 for the institution and, beneath it, a block headed “For inmates at the Camp:” that reads, in the Bureau’s capitals, “INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER / FCI Butner Low / FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION / SATELLITE CAMP / P.O. BOX 1000 / BUTNER, NC 27509.” The low has no camp, and the Bureau’s roster records none; the block appears because the Bureau’s location data carries a camp entry for BUF as well as for BUT, which does have a camp.

P.O. Box 1000 is Medium I’s box, and Medium I runs the camp. If the Locator shows “Butner Low FCI,” write to P.O. Box 999; if it shows “Butner Medium I FCI,” use Medium I’s address, adding the Satellite Camp line only for someone at the camp.

What is the security level at FCI Butner Low?

FCI Butner Low is a low-security institution for men, the level between the minimum-security camps and the mediums. Under Program Statement 5100.08, a man scoring 12 to 15 security points is a low-security case, with OUT or IN custody, and many men here score less: a man with 0 to 11 points still goes to a low rather than a camp if he carries a Public Safety Factor such as Sex Offender, Deportable Alien, or more than ten years left to serve. Placement also weighs bed space, program needs, “mental and medical health needs,” and the sentencing court’s recommendation, aiming for a prison within 500 driving miles of home where practicable.

Housing at the low is open space rather than cells: eight of its nine units are open-bay dormitories. The Inspector General wrote in January 2021 that the low’s and the camp’s men “have beds in unenclosed cubicles in dormitory-style housing units.”

Designated capacity is 992, and the population was 942 as of September 2026, below capacity. Counts have run higher: in June 2020 the federal court, relying on a declaration from the complex’s case management coordinator, described the low as “over capacity by 172 inmates,” and the declaration itself gave a rated capacity of 992 and a population of about 1,162. Figures from the January 2026 PREA audit appear further down this page.

FCI Butner Low is a Care Level 3 institution for medical care and Care Level 2 for mental health on the Bureau’s own care-level charts (2024). The same medical chart puts Medium I, Medium II, and the camp at Level 3 and the medical center at Level 4, and the Inspector General wrote in January 2021 that Medium I with its camp, Medium II, and the low “are all Medical Care Level 3 institutions.” Under the Bureau’s patient care policy, Program Statement 6031.06 (2026), Level 3 institutions house people who “have more complex medical conditions and are more fragile” and need frequent clinical contact. Our guides to medical designations and medical care levels explain the system.

Where men from the low are held in segregation

The Bureau’s records point three ways. The April 2026 complex visiting supplement still sets visiting rules for a Special Housing Unit “located at the LSCI, and FCI II.” The Inspector General found in 2020 that the low’s unit “was used only for the quarantine and medical isolation of inmates” and that its men needing restricted housing “were placed in the FCI II SHU.” The January 2026 PREA audit counts no segregation cells at the low and all 96 of the complex’s at Medium II.

No published record settles which of these applies now. Before planning a Monday visit to someone in segregation, call 919-575-5000 and ask which building he is in.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Butner Low?

The two widely reported men the Bureau’s Inmate Locator places at FCI Butner Low, Arthur James Walker of the Walker spy ring and former Buncombe County sheriff Bobby Lee Medford, both died in custody. Most well-known Butner names belong to FMC Butner or FCI Butner Medium I, not the low.

Name and register number	Inmate Locator record	Who he was
Arthur James Walker, 21998-083	Deceased July 5, 2014; last facility on the record BUF	A retired Navy lieutenant commander and older brother of John Walker, convicted in 1985 of seven espionage-related charges and sentenced to three life terms plus 40 years. The Washington Post reported that the Bureau gave July 5, 2014, as his date of death; a friend gave July 4.
Bobby Lee Medford, 22161-058	Deceased June 3, 2020; last facility on the record BUF	Buncombe County sheriff from 1994 to 2006, sentenced in 2008 to 15 years for corruption tied to video poker. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that he died of COVID-19 on June 3, 2020, at a hospital near the prison, some 16 months before his projected release date of October 11, 2021.

Troy Aurelius Titus (58299-083) and Samuel Israel III (84430-054) were both once held at the low and are no longer there. The Locator shows Titus at FCI Ashland in Kentucky, with a projected release date of January 8, 2034, and shows Israel released on June 5, 2026; The News & Observer reported in June 2025 that Israel had moved from the low to a reentry office in Dallas. Charles Hallinan (75207-066), who was 79 and held at the low when he led the 2020 COVID-19 lawsuit, is now carried by the New York residential reentry office. The October 2017 sentencing of a guard for sexually abusing a prisoner is not attributed to the low: the U.S. Attorney’s release says only “FCI Butner” and describes the victim as a woman, which does not fit a men’s prison.

How do I find someone at FCI Butner Low?

To find someone at FCI Butner Low, search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator by eight-digit register number or by first and last name, and look for “Butner Low FCI” on the line after “Located at.” “Butner Medium I FCI,” “Butner Medium II FCI,” and “Butner FMC” are the other Butner institutions, and the Bureau files the Butner camp under Medium I. Several people can share a name, so confirm the register number and age before relying on a match. The Bureau uses “IN TRANSIT” for someone moved out of a Bureau facility who may or may not be returned, such as a pretrial prisoner removed by the U.S. Marshals Service; that record names no facility, and the screen shows “NOT IN BOP CUSTODY,” usually with “Release Date: UNKNOWN.” Our Inmate Locator guide covers searches, and our page on designation explains how a prison is chosen.

How do I write to someone at FCI Butner Low?

Address mail for someone at FCI Butner Low to the person’s committed name and register number at P.O. Box 999, the box the Bureau and the April 2026 complex supplement both give for this institution. Set the envelope out like this:

Letters, cards, and photographs	Inmate Name and Register Number FCI Butner Low Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 999 Butner, NC 27509

Leave off the Satellite Camp block shown on the Bureau’s page. Staff open, inspect, and may read ordinary correspondence. A lawyer’s letter is handled as special mail only if the envelope identifies the sender as an attorney and its front is marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate”; the Bureau’s correspondence policy, Program Statement 5265.14, makes it the prisoner’s job to tell the lawyer, and qualifying mail is opened in front of him, checked for contraband, and not read.

Under the Bureau’s mail rules, packages from home need the unit team’s written approval and are limited to release clothing and authorized medical devices, while paperback books and magazines may be mailed from any source at this low-security prison; hardcover books and newspapers must come from the publisher, a book club, or a bookstore. What the mailroom turns back is covered in our guide to writing to someone in federal prison.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Butner Low?

Money for someone at FCI Butner Low goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or electronically through MoneyGram or Western Union, never to the prison, and every route needs the committed name and register number. The Bureau’s instructions are these:

Route	What to use	When it posts
Mail: money order, government check, cashier’s or certified check, or bank draft	Federal Bureau of Prisons, the committed name, the eight-digit register number, Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001, with your return address	Available the day after it arrives. U.S. postal money orders and government checks ordinarily post without a hold; most other instruments are held for 15 days, and foreign ones payable in dollars for 45
MoneyGram ExpressPayment	Receive code 7932; company Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC; account number is the register number followed by the last name (12345678DOE); $300 cap online	Sent from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Eastern time: within two to four hours; later transfers post by 7:00 a.m. the next day
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC; the same account number; the committed name on the attention line	Same as MoneyGram

Cash and personal checks are refused, other enclosures are thrown away, and funds without a valid name and number go back to the sender or, with no return address, to the U.S. Treasury. The Bureau’s money page gives two to four hours for wires, while the Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13 (2026), says two, and the money page still links the superseded manual. The costs of each route are set side by side in our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner.

The low’s 2009 handbook said foreign checks were held for 60 days, a period the 2026 manual sets at 45, and that withdrawals over $250 needed the Associate Warden of Programs’ approval. Whatever is deposited, the monthly commissary limit described below still caps store spending.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Butner Low?

Visiting hours at FCI Butner Low are 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays, under Complex Supplement BUX 5267.09A of April 1, 2026. Apart from Monday visits for men in the Special Housing Unit, there is no weekday or evening visiting, and there are no visiting points: the supplement places “no limitations” on how often men at the low may have visits, though the warden may limit frequency and length to avoid chronic overcrowding.

Processing stops at least 30 minutes before closing, and on weekends and holidays also at 9:15 a.m. until the 10:00 a.m. count clears; late arrivals wait in their cars, not the lobby. If the room overflows, one passage of the supplement ends visits “starting with volunteers” and then “the first visitor in,” while another weighs where visitors live, how often the prisoner is visited, and how far they traveled, giving consideration to infrequent out-of-state visitors. Tell the desk if you have come from another state.

Which schedule controls: 2026, 2017, or 2009?

The 2026 complex supplement controls: it is the current document, and the Bureau links it from this prison’s page. Older schedules still circulate, two of them from the Bureau itself:

Document	Days and hours at the low	Visit limits	Status
Complex Supplement BUX 5267.09A (2026)	Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; Special Housing Unit visits on Mondays	No limit on frequency; three adults at a time	Current; linked from the Bureau’s page
Institution Supplement BUF 5267.09.02A (2017)	Thursday and Friday, 2:30 to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	12 points a month; five adults; weekends rotated by housing unit	Superseded; the Bureau still serves the file but no longer links it
Inmate handbook (2009)	Thursday and Friday evenings; Monday, weekend, and holiday daytime	Contradicts itself: 12 points and five adults in one section, 16 points and three adults in another	Historical

Listings that give Thursday and Friday evenings, Mondays, or 8:00 a.m. starts are out of date. The 2017 supplement also split weekends by housing unit, Vance and Durham on the first and third, Wake and Granville on the second and fourth; the 2026 supplement has no such rotation for the low. The April 2026 supplement itself replaced one issued in October 2025, so call 919-575-5000 before you travel.

Who can visit, and how many

Immediate family and up to 10 friends and associates can be placed on the list by the correctional counselor, ordinarily within seven days of receiving the information; friends ordinarily need a relationship from before the imprisonment unless the warden approves an exception. Three adults, meaning anyone 16 or older, may visit at once, with no limit on children under 16, and a 16- or 17-year-old without a parent, guardian, or adult immediate family member needs written approval from one of them.

During admission and orientation, or in holdover without a verified list, only immediate family may visit. Clergy, employers, sponsors, parole advisers, and attorneys can be approved for special visits through the unit team. Every visitor signs the Notification to Visitor form, BP-224, and a visitor who refuses is turned away. The national rules are in the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our federal prison visiting guide.

What visitors can wear and bring

Shorts and dresses must reach the knee while the visitor is standing, and the supplement bars khaki, camouflage or ranger green, outerwear, revealing, form-fitting or sleeveless clothing, offensive words or logos, and open-toed shoes; the operations lieutenant or duty officer settles disputes. The men wear a visiting-room jumpsuit, not the khakis the 2017 supplement specified.

Visitors may carry up to $20 in coins in a clear bag no larger than 8 by 6 by 2 inches, a wedding ring set, one religious medallion, one religious head covering, stud earrings, and sanitary products, and no one is refused for needing the last. Phones and other devices, bags, wallets, watches, sunglasses, hats, pens, paper, photographs, cosmetics, food, tobacco, and paper money stay in the car or in the lockers the supplement provides, which it says only Medium II lacks. For a child three or under, bring up to three bottles, unopened formula, three jars of baby food, a spoon, two blankets, three diapers, sealed wipes, a change of clothes, and a pacifier, but no stroller or carrier. Nursing mothers may use the low’s private tent in the visiting room.

Identification and screening

Visitors 16 and older need valid, unaltered government photo identification, such as a driver’s license, state ID card, passport, or federal or military ID. Nothing may be handed to a prisoner without the captain’s approval. The 2017 supplement described x-ray screening and required medical documentation for implants; the 2026 text is silent, so bring the paperwork if you have one. Men surrender their ID cards during the visit and are searched visually and with a handheld metal detector afterward. Anyone convicted of a sex offense involving a minor sits nearest the officer, and men with that classification or an escape history stay off the patio.

Visiting someone in the Special Housing Unit

Segregation visits for the low and Medium II are on Mondays, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and noon to 2:00 p.m., with no make-up day when a federal holiday falls on a Monday: two hours for administrative detention and one for disciplinary segregation. A man from the low’s unit “will remain in ambulatory escort restraints during the course of their visit,” whereas Medium II removes restraints in the room, and these visits take place in a designated area in front of the officer’s desk, never on the patio. Because the records disagree about where the low’s segregation cases are held, confirm the building before you travel.

Getting there

The complex is off Interstate 85 north of Durham. From Raleigh, take U.S. 70 West to Interstate 85 North and go nine miles to exit 189; from Durham, take Interstate 85 North nine miles to the same exit. Turn left on Central Avenue, continue to Veazy Street, turn right to the stop sign, then left on Old Highway 75 for about a mile. The low and Medium I share the first entrance on the right, the camp the second and the medical center the third; park only in the visitor lot.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Butner Low?

Men at FCI Butner Low place outgoing calls through the Bureau’s Inmate Telephone System to up to 30 numbers on an approved list, and email runs through TRULINCS. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, each person has 510 minutes per calendar month: 300 at no charge for those eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and another 210 that anyone, eligible or not, may buy after using up the 300. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls, the phones run from 6:00 a.m. to no later than 11:30 p.m., and the monthly limit does not apply to unmonitored legal calls. The November and December holiday minutes of the rescinded 2008 policy did not survive.

The low’s 2009 handbook describes an older system, with a nine-digit access code, a dial-118 balance line, and list changes up to three times a month; the 2026 policy allows one change a calendar month unless staff see a need for more. Call blocking, monitoring, and unmonitored attorney calls follow the national rules in our guide to federal inmate phone calls.

TRULINCS email, explained on our page about CorrLinks and TRULINCS, needs an approved prisoner and a consenting contact; messages are text only, capped at 13,000 characters, and monitored. The Inspector General reported that the Bureau raised the then-standard 300 minutes to 500 in March 2020, an emergency measure and not today’s allowance.

What can people buy at the FCI Butner Low commissary?

The commissary spending limit at FCI Butner Low is $460 a month. Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, raised it from $360, and in the November and December holiday period the limit rises by $50 for no more than one validation period. The $290 in the low’s 2009 handbook and the $360, split into two $180 halves, on older listings are both out of date. Stamps, over-the-counter medications and vitamins, copy cards, footwear, and a few other items fall outside the limit; telephone credit does not.

The limit revalidates monthly, though the policy allows weekly or bi-weekly validation, which is how a monthly limit comes to be quoted in halves. The 2009 handbook says shopping days rotate among the units and that sneakers, gym clothes, sweat suits, and radios are special purchases requested through the unit manager. See our guide to commissary items for the national rules.

The low’s own commissary list (2022), signed by the LSCI’s acting warden, marks local-only items with an asterisk and items that “Do Not Affect Spending Limit” with a caret, and the carets sit on the medicines, vitamins, stamps, and copy card, as the national rule predicts. Once the form is handed in, nothing is added or swapped. Prices will have moved since 2022, but the stock shows what the store carries:

• Typewriter supplies: a Brother daisy wheel at $58.20, a Swintec print wheel at $49.35, and Swintec correction ribbon at $7.75, a sign that typewriters were still in use at the low in 2022.
• Radios and listening: a clear Sangean radio at $55.85, a Diamond Audio radio at $19.50, Koss earbuds at $6.80, and Koss headphones at $40.95, along with MP3 player covers and mailing envelopes.
• Watches and electronics: G-Shock models at $72.80 and $99.95, a Timex Ironman at $46.30, and a Casio solar scientific calculator at $16.00.
• Health and clothing: diabetic socks at $2.10, reading glasses at $3.25, and sweatpants up to size 8X at $29.90.
• Religious items, which the form says “REQUIRE CHAPLIN APPROVAL” (sic): kufis at $6.89 and $5.69, yarmulkes at $2.09, and a Rastafarian crown at $10.95.

What programs are available at FCI Butner Low?

FCI Butner Low is approved for Federal Prison Industries, the Alternatives to Violence Project, nonresidential drug treatment, literacy and vocational training, and wellness, anger-management, parenting, faith-based, and veterans’ programs, but not the Residential Drug Abuse Program, according to the Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026). The guide names the low by its code, BUF, in the location entry of only one program, Federal Prison Industries, and names “FCC Butner” as a whole for the Alternatives to Violence Project; everything else rests on the guide’s by-institution grid, which marks what a prison is approved to offer, not what is meeting this month. Treat the grid as a list of questions for the unit team and get the answers in writing; how programs earn First Step Act time credits is explained on our policy page.

RDAP and drug treatment

FCI Butner Low has no Residential Drug Abuse Program. The guide’s RDAP list (June 2026), with 57 programs at 50 locations, includes FCI-I Butner and FCI-II Butner and no other Butner institution, and neither the grid nor the program’s entry marks the low: the complex’s two programs are at Medium I and Medium II.

A man at the low who wants the program, and the reduction of up to one year that 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B) allows a prisoner convicted of a nonviolent offense who completes it, needs a transfer, which starts with a unit-team referral. Meanwhile, the grid marks the Nonresidential Drug Abuse Treatment Program, Drug Education, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous at the low, and the 2009 handbook made the 40-hour drug education course mandatory for arrivals whose offense involved drugs or alcohol or whose judge recommended treatment. The Bureau’s psychology treatment programs policy governs the program; our RDAP guide explains eligibility, and the early-release procedures explain who receives the reduction.

Education and vocational training

The grid marks the Bureau Literacy Program, English as a Second Language, occupational education, vocational training, and apprenticeship training at the low. In 2009 the handbook required men testing below the eighth-grade level to spend at least 120 days in the GED program, tied promotions in the factory and institution jobs to finishing the literacy program, and listed Word, keyboarding, PowerPoint, and Excel classes through Vance-Granville Community College and Durham Technical College; one-year Vance-Granville certificates in office systems, carpentry, electrical work, and automotive technology; and a Meineke vocational program. No newer Bureau document confirms which of those still run. The low is not among the sixteen sites the guide names for Pell-funded college classes. See our guide to vocational training in federal prison.

Work and UNICOR

Federal Prison Industries is the one program the guide places at the low by code, and the 2009 inmate handbook described the factory in its own words: “LSCI Butner has a significant number of inmate jobs in the factory operated by Federal Prison Industries, also known as UNICOR. There is a waiting list for factory employment.” The 2026 guide still says factory workers are ordinarily hired from waiting lists.

No current public record says what the low’s factory makes. In August 2020, the Inspector General reported, the low moved current and prospective UNICOR workers into dedicated housing units. Our guides to UNICOR and prison jobs cover pay and assignments under the Bureau’s work and performance pay rules, and our page on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program explains how court-ordered debts are collected from prison wages.

Faith, health, and reentry programs

The Alternatives to Violence Project, an 18-hour workshop led by credentialed volunteers, is the program whose guide entry names the whole complex, and the grid marks it at the low. Much of the rest of the grid’s list for the low suits an aging population, from Healthy Steps for Older Adults, Brain Health As You Age, AARP Finances 50+, and Managing Your Diabetes to Talking With Your Doctor, alongside Anger Management, Criminal Thinking, Victim Impact, and parenting, faith-based, and veterans’ programs. The grid shows what may be offered; only the unit team can say what is meeting.

The faith-based Life Connections Program is not at any Butner institution, neither sex offender treatment program is approved at Butner, and the guide places the Mental Health Step Down Program at Medium I, not here, so each is a transfer question; the Bureau’s religious and mental health policies set the national rules. For the end of a sentence, our pages on halfway-house placement and home confinement explain how placement is decided.

What is daily life like at FCI Butner Low?

Daily life at FCI Butner Low runs on a dormitory, a count schedule, and a work assignment. The only published account of the day is the 2009 inmate handbook, written for the LSCI but evidently adapted from a Medium II template, since several passages still say “FCI II”; treat it as the pattern of the place rather than this week’s timetable:

Time	What happens (2009 handbook)
6:00 a.m.	General wake-up; units go to breakfast on a rotating schedule called by the correctional supervisor
6:30 to 7:30 a.m., weekdays	Laundry turn-in and clothing exchange, except on holidays
6:45 to 7:15 a.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday	Sick-call sign-up at Health Services; the weekday pill line runs at the same time
7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Work day; a pass is needed to move between areas
10:00 a.m., weekends and holidays	Official count, standing at the bed
4:00 p.m.	Official count, standing at the bed; the next day’s call-outs are posted afterward
9:00 p.m., midnight, 3:00 a.m., and 5:00 a.m.	Further official counts; every man must be seen, even if he has to be woken

Housing

Eight of the low’s nine housing units are dormitories. The 2020 habeas petition describes eight dormitories holding about 140 to 160 men each, divided into cubicles that mostly sleep two or three, and a July 2020 graphic by The News & Observer and The Marshall Project drew a three-man cubicle 8 feet by 11 with 5-foot walls, a bunk bed, and a single bed. The units carry North Carolina county names, including Vance, Durham, Wake, and Granville, which the 2017 supplement used to split weekend visiting, and the court’s 2022 order describes “Wake A” as a unit for men who had tested positive.

Health care

In 2009 the low’s Health Services sat on the east side of the compound beside the Lieutenant’s Office, with emergency care around the clock, while hospital administration for the complex was at the medical center. Sick call ran four mornings a week, dental sick call three, and insulin lines three times a day. A $2.00 co-payment applied to sick-call visits a man requested, but not to staff referrals, chronic-care follow-up, preventive or emergency care, chronic infectious disease or mental health care, and no one was to be refused necessary care for inability to pay.

The 2009 handbook put the medical social worker in charge of the compassionate release program and had social workers help men prepare North Carolina living wills and health-care powers of attorney, naming an agent who could not be another prisoner or a staff member. The Inspector General chose the Butner institutions for its aging review, published in May 2015, because they had “the highest percentage of aging inmates in the BOP,” and the January 2026 audit recorded men aged 20 to 86 at the low. See our guides to compassionate release for elderly prisoners and release on medical grounds.

House rules

Marriages are rationed and held in the visiting room. The 2009 handbook caps them at twelve a quarter across the complex and then allots three to each of the complex’s five institutions, counting the camp, which makes fifteen, so ask the unit team for the current figure. The fiancée obtains the license from the Granville County Register of Deeds in Oxford and brings it with $20 in cash for the magistrate, and up to four approved visitors may attend. The same handbook allows one radio and one watch within a value limit of about $75, makes a harmonica the only instrument a man may buy, keeps living areas smoke-free, and bans pets so completely that “feeding the birds is a violation of our local policy.”

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Butner Low?

Most of what inspectors have said about FCI Butner Low comes from reviews of the whole Butner complex, above all the Inspector General’s 2020 remote inspection of the pandemic response and the January 2026 PREA audit. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its evaluators did visit the low in person during 2014 fieldwork for a Bureau-wide review of aging prisoners, published in May 2015, and its auditors worked at the complex for a November 2013 report on a medical-services contract, but neither was an inspection of conditions. By the Inspector General’s own count in a May 2026 inspection report (Report 26-055), it had inspected 14 Bureau institutions since 2023, none of them at Butner.

The Inspector General’s February 2026 audit of the national menu reviewed one week of the complex’s records without a visit and found no record of the required vegetables for 71 percent of the certified religious meals sampled, while cautioning that missing paperwork “does not necessarily mean the items were not served.” No inspection by the District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council covers any Butner institution. The Council did survey District of Columbia prisoners here in June 2020: its July 2021 final report lists 14 questionnaires sent to FCI Butner Low and 10 answered, and it says its staff could not travel to confirm what respondents described.

The 2020 outbreak, in the Inspector General’s numbers

The Inspector General’s Remote Inspection of Federal Correctional Complex Butner, Report 21-031 of January 28, 2021, is the fullest public account of the low under stress, compiled from a staff survey, telephone interviews, and documents between May 6 and July 25, 2020. By July 25, 2020, 698 men at the low, which then held 1,097, had confirmed COVID-19 cases, about 64 percent of its population and more than the other four Butner units combined, and 25 people held at the complex had died.

The report traces the path into the dormitories. The low confined men to their units, with carryout meals, on March 27. In late April three men released after at least 14 days of quarantine in the low’s Special Housing Unit tested positive, two of them after rejoining the low’s general population, and on April 29, 13 of the 17 men then quarantined there were positive; the Inspector General believed the releases “likely contributed to the spread of COVID-19 at the LSCI.” The low tested all 1,006 of its men on June 1 and 2, but in May it had lacked room to quarantine every departing man, and afterward it did not run its three negative units as quarantine units; its warden acknowledged they were not being screened as of mid-June.

By then the low’s Special Housing Unit was a medical unit holding only quarantined and isolated men, including positive men from the camp. On June 23 and 24, 2020, it lost power three times, for under 30 minutes each: some patients’ oxygen treatments stopped for a time, the temperature reached at least 80 degrees because the air conditioning was hard to restart, and the temperature did not return to normal until late on June 25 or on June 26. Two medically fragile patients were not moved, for fear of spreading the virus; the report records that some oxygen patients felt “panicky” and that there were no negative health outcomes.

Staffing shortages kept officers at the low, Medium I, and the camp from being held to single posts, which the Inspector General said likely increased the spread, and before mass testing, staff wore the same N95 respirators in the isolation unit as elsewhere. The first video call between a man at the low and his lawyer came on October 28, 2020, seven months after Medium I’s.

The January 2026 PREA audit

The complex passed its latest Prison Rape Elimination Act audit with all 45 standards met, none exceeded, and none unmet. The auditor, Brian Sutherland of Corrections Consulting Services, was on site January 13–15, 2026, and reported on February 26, 2026. The Bureau’s page for the low links the report as the “FCI Butner Low PREA Report,” but it covers the whole complex. The form breaks some figures out by institution, and the low’s column reads:

Measure	FCI Butner Low (LSCI), January 2026 audit form
Designated capacity	992
Population on the facility questionnaire	1,023
Population on the first day of the audit	1,009
Average daily population over the prior 12 months	960
Admissions over the prior 12 months	1,147, of whom 1,079 stayed at least 72 hours and 959 at least 30 days
Age range	20 to 86
Buildings and housing units	7 buildings; 8 open-bay dormitories and 1 multiple-occupancy cell unit; no single cells
Segregation cells	None; all 96 of the complex’s are at Medium II
Limited English proficient, first day	110 of the complex’s 232

Complex-wide, staff logged 13 sexual-abuse allegations, 10 against prisoners and 3 against staff, and 46 of sexual harassment, 36 against prisoners and 10 against staff, in the 12 months before the audit, and none led to a criminal investigation. Administratively, no abuse allegation was substantiated, 9 were unsubstantiated and 4 unfounded, and 2 harassment allegations against prisoners were substantiated. The form does not say which institution any allegation came from, and “unsubstantiated” means the evidence could not settle what happened, not that the report was false.

On the first day of the audit 1,179 staff were on board against 1,462 authorized positions, and the warden put the complex at “an 81% staffing level.” The facility had identified “several blind spot areas” and was covering them with extra rounds and mirrors. Forensic examinations go to Duke Medical Center under an agreement of December 3, 2025, with victim advocacy from the Durham Crisis Response Center.

Sexual-abuse allegations counted by GAO

The Government Accountability Office’s report GAO-26-107343 of May 2026 gives FCI Butner Low its own rows. Table 7 counts 13 allegations with an incarcerated perpetrator for incidents in 2020 through 2024, at 2, 3, 3, 2, and 3 a year, and Table 8 counts 5 with a staff perpetrator by the year reported, at 2, 0, 1, 1, and 1. The tables come from different Bureau systems and counting rules, so they cannot be added together, and GAO does not adjust for population, so they cannot rank one prison against another. They are allegations, not findings. The national rules are on our page about the Bureau’s sexual abuse prevention policy.

The 2020 COVID-19 lawsuit, and why it failed

On May 26, 2020, eleven men at the complex, eight of them held at the low, petitioned the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina for release and a mitigation plan in Hallinan v. Scarantino, No. 5:20-HC-2088-FL, under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. On June 11, 2020, Judge Louise W. Flanagan denied a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and writ. She concluded that conditions claims of that kind are not cognizable in habeas, while noting that the question is unsettled; that the petitioners had not clearly shown likely success in any event, because the evidence showed a reasonable response to the pandemic; and that, although irreparable harm was shown, the balance of equities and the public interest did not favor relief. The petition was voluntarily dismissed on June 29, 2020.

A follow-on class action, No. 5:20-CT-3333-FL, ended on March 29, 2022, when Judge Flanagan granted the government summary judgment and denied class certification because the named plaintiffs had not exhausted the Bureau’s administrative remedies. Hallinan had taken his grievance through every level, but it asked the low’s warden to reverse the denial of his own request for home confinement or compassionate release, and the court held that such grievances did not “alert[] the prison to the nature of the wrong” the suit alleged, such as the impossibility of social distancing. The dismissal was without prejudice to refiling after exhaustion or with other class representatives.

FCI Butner Low in the news

Recent news about FCI Butner Low centers on the prosecution of four former staff members over an alleged 2024 assault on a prisoner; older items concern the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak and two well-known men who died in custody. Items about this institution rather than Butner generally, newest first:

• September 2026: the docket in United States v. Hayes, No. 5:25-cr-00223 (E.D.N.C.), records an arraignment and plea for former lieutenant Brandon Marquis Hayes on September 3, 2026, before a magistrate judge, to whom he consented, followed by a plea agreement and supplement filed on September 10 and 11. The docket’s readable entries do not say what he pleaded or to which count, and as of September 17, 2026 the case index marks none of the four cases closed and the docket records no sentencing.
• July 2026: an order of July 24, 2026, set the trial of former investigative technician Brandon Jermaine Evans for January 11, 2027; the charges against him are allegations.
• May 2026: former lieutenant Brandon Perez Jones pleaded guilty on May 5, 2026, to Count 2 of the three-count indictment. A July 22 order moved his sentencing to the court’s September 2026 term, and a further motion to continue it was filed on August 27 and decided in an order the next day.
• March 2026: former Lt. Darryl Antron Campbell pleaded guilty on March 9, 2026, to Count 3, obstructing the investigation, under a plea agreement whose terms were not disclosed, with the remaining counts to be dismissed at sentencing; a prosecutor said the attack followed the prisoner’s complaint about a strip search after a visit (The News & Observer, March 10, 2026).
• September 2025: the Inspector General announced the arrests of three lieutenants and a former technician “assigned to the Federal Correctional Institution Butner Low,” charged with civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, and conspiracy to obstruct justice over an alleged assault on a prisoner in the Lieutenant’s Office on or about April 22, 2024.
• March 2022: the federal court dismissed the COVID-19 class action brought by men at the complex for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
• May 2020 to September 2021: the Bureau posted 18 news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FCI Butner (Low); the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• June 2020: former Buncombe County sheriff Bobby Lee Medford died of COVID-19 on June 3 while serving his sentence at the low.
• July 2014: Arthur James Walker of the Walker spy ring died in Bureau custody; the Locator carries him at BUF.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Butner Low

Problems at FCI Butner Low: where we can help

The problems that recur at the low are the ones its own record shows: an older, medically fragile population in open dormitories, a grievance system that decided the one major lawsuit brought from here, a drug program the low does not have, and Bureau documents that contradict each other about visiting, segregation, and mail.

• Compassionate release. The low holds men into their eighties in a Level 3 institution. The request goes to the warden first, and a prisoner may file his own motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) once he has exhausted the Bureau’s appeals or once 30 days have passed since the warden received the request, whichever is earlier. The Bureau’s compassionate release policy, Program Statement 5050.51, issued September 3, 2026, dropped the Bureau’s category for elderly prisoners who had served a set share of their terms, realigned the categories for U.S. Code offenders with USSG § 1B1.13 (Nov. 1, 2023), and added the criteria of D.C. Code § 24-403.04, relevant here because men serving D.C. Code sentences were among the 2020 petitioners. See our page on the request to the warden.
• Administrative remedies written with a lawsuit in mind. The 2020 class action from this complex was dismissed because the grievances did not describe the conditions the suit challenged. Under the Bureau’s regulations, after an attempt at informal resolution, a BP-9 is due within 20 calendar days of the incident, an appeal to the regional director within 20 days of the warden’s response, and an appeal to the General Counsel within 30 days of the regional response, and a missing response can be treated as a denial once its time runs out.
• RDAP and the early release of up to a year it can bring, which a man at the low can reach only by transfer, and release-date calculations, including whether First Step Act time credits are being earned for the programs the grid marks here.
• Discipline and segregation. The September 2025 indictment, as The News & Observer reported it, alleges that staff tried to send the prisoner they are accused of assaulting to the Special Housing Unit on a false account of a threat; where an incident report or a segregation order rests on one officer’s word, the surrounding record matters.
• Habeas petitions under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 for sentence-computation and credit disputes. The Supreme Court has held that for core habeas petitions challenging present physical confinement, “jurisdiction lies in only one district: the district of confinement” (Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004)), and 28 U.S.C. § 113(a) places the Butner prison in the Eastern District of North Carolina by name.
• Federal Tort Claims Act claims where medical care or conditions cause injury, and home confinement or halfway-house placement at the end of a sentence.
• Challenges to the conviction or sentence itself, through a direct appeal or a § 2255 motion.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal criminal defense, appeals and post-conviction matters nationwide, and advises families on Bureau of Prisons issues at institutions across the system. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to talk through a specific situation.

Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, the firm’s Managing Director, writes and maintains the federal prison policy material on this site. He is not counsel of record; legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

• FCI Butner Low, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Complex Supplement BUX 5267.09A, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Butner, 2026.
• LSCI Commissary Shopping List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Low Security Correctional Institution, Butner, 2022.
• Institution Supplement BUF 5267.09.02A, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2017. Superseded by the 2026 complex supplement.
• Inmate Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Low Security Correctional Institution, Butner, 2009.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Compassionate Release/Reduction in Sentence Procedures, Program Statement 5050.51, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Correspondence, Program Statement 5265.14, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011.
• Incoming Publications, Program Statement 5266.11, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011.
• Patient Care, Program Statement 6031.06, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Includes the Residential Drug Abuse Program location list.
• Institution Care Levels for Medical Assignment and Institutional Mental Health Care Levels, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. Released under Freedom of Information Act request 2024-03455 and published by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
• About Federal Inmate Records, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. What the location and status entries on a prisoner’s record mean.
• Community Ties, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s mail, email, and money instructions.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020–2021. The Bureau’s index of its news releases.

Audits and inspections

• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Report 26-055, cited for its count of institutions inspected since 2023.
• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Report GAO-26-107343; tables 7 and 8 count allegations at the low.
• PREA Audit Report: Federal Correctional Complex Butner, Corrections Consulting Services, 2026.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Documentation of its Compliance with Select National Menu Requirements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Report 26-021.
• COVID-19 Survey Final Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2021.
• Remote Inspection of Federal Correctional Complex Butner, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Pandemic Response Report 21-031.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015, revised 2016. Evaluation and Inspections Report 15-05.
• Follow-up Audit of Medical Development International’s Performance Under the Federal Correctional Complex Butner Medical Services Contract, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2013. Audit Report 14-02.

Court records

• United States v. Hayes, No. 5:25-cr-00223, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 2025–2026.
• 3 BOP Lieutenants and 1 former BOP SIS Technician Indicted and Arrested, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2025. The arrests of Hayes, Jones, Campbell, and Evans.
• Hallinan v. Scarantino, No. 5:20-CT-3333-FL, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 2022. Order granting summary judgment and denying class certification (ECF No. 83).
• Hallinan v. Scarantino, No. 5:20-HC-2088-FL, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 2020. Order denying a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and writ (ECF No. 62).
• Former FCI Butner Correctional Officer Sentenced for Criminal Sexual Abuse of a Ward, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 2017. The release names only “FCI Butner.”
• Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, Supreme Court of the United States, 2004.

News and other sources

• Former Butner prison guard pleads guilty to inmate assault cover-up, The News & Observer, 2026.
• R. Kelly, Tiger King, the Unabomber. These infamous inmates have spent time in NC prison, The News & Observer, 2025.
• Freed From Prison, Dead from COVID-19, Not Even Counted, The Marshall Project, 2020.
• Bobby Medford’s family, loved ones: Why didn’t feds release him?, Asheville Citizen-Times, 2020.
• Former Sheriff Bobby Medford dies in federal custody of COVID-19, Asheville Citizen-Times, 2020.
• Navy spy Arthur Walker dies in prison, HeraldNet (The Washington Post), 2014.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), Imposition of a sentence of imprisonment, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 113(a), North Carolina, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Power to grant writ, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.71, Procedures (incoming publications), Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. §§ 542.13–.15, 542.18, Administrative Remedy, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• D.C. Code § 24-403.04, Motions for compassionate release for individuals convicted of felony offenses, D.C. Code (D.C. Law Library).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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