FCI Victorville Medium I: Visiting, Mail and Women’s Camp

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

FCI Victorville Medium I at a glance

FCI Victorville Medium I is a medium-security federal prison for men in Victorville, California, one of three prisons at Federal Correctional Complex Victorville and one of the federal prisons in California. The Bureau of Prisons also files the minimum-security women’s camp beside it under this prison, and as of September 2026 it counts 1,595 people under its code: 1,369 men in the prison and 226 women at the camp.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution Victorville Medium I
BOP code	VIM · complex VIX
Security level	Medium; men · satellite camp: minimum; women
Population	1,595 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Prison: Saturday, Sunday, Monday and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · Camp: Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Victorville Medium I · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 3725 · Adelanto, CA 92301 Camp: Committed Name · Register Number · Satellite Camp Prison · P.O. Box 5300 · Adelanto, CA 92301
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	760-246-2400 · Fax 760-246-2461 · Camp calls: 760-530-5700
Street address	13777 Air Expressway Boulevard, Victorville, CA 92394 · San Bernardino County
Judicial district	Central District of California
BOP region	Western
Housing	Prison: two-person cells · Camp: cubicles and dormitories in two units, G-North and G-South
Special Housing Unit	Yes
RDAP	No
UNICOR	Yes
Camp	Minimum-security satellite camp for women; see which prison the camp belongs to

The complex sits in San Bernardino County and the Bureau’s Western Region, about 97 miles northeast of Los Angeles by the Inspector General’s measure; its other two prisons are FCI Victorville Medium II and USP Victorville. The women’s camp is what sets Medium I apart, and the Bureau’s own records disagree about which of the complex’s two medium-security prisons it belongs to.

Which Victorville prison is this, and where does the women’s camp belong?

FCI Victorville Medium I, code VIM, is one of three separate federal prisons on one campus off Air Expressway Boulevard, and the Bureau’s core records file the women’s satellite camp beside it under Medium I, though not all of its records agree. The Bureau keys its public records to a three-letter code, and mail or a visit planned under the wrong code goes to a different prison.

Codes, post office boxes and phone lines on the campus

Each institution has its own warden, telephone line and post office box in Adelanto.

Institution	Code	Security	Inmate mail (Adelanto, CA 92301)	Main line
FCI Victorville Medium I (this page)	VIM	Medium	P.O. Box 3725	760-246-2400
Victorville satellite camp (women)	Recorded under VIM	Minimum	P.O. Box 5300	760-530-5700 per the 2022 supplement
FCI Victorville Medium II	VVM	Medium	P.O. Box 3850	760-530-5700
USP Victorville	VIP	High	P.O. Box 3900	760-530-5000
Staff mail for the complex	VIX (complex code)	Not a prison	P.O. Box 5400, listed for all three institutions	None listed

The box numbers are easy to confuse, and each one belongs to a different institution’s mail room. The camp’s box, 5300, is missing from Medium I’s own address listing.

The camp is filed under Medium I, but not everywhere

The Victorville satellite camp holds women, and the Bureau’s core records attach it to this prison: the Bureau’s roster marks Medium I, not Medium II, as having a camp, the population report has a line headed “Victorville Med I-Camp,” the Bureau’s Medium I page describes “an adjacent minimum security satellite camp,” and the camp’s commissary list carries the approval line “FCI 1 Acting Warden.”

Other records point the other way. The Bureau’s address listing puts the camp’s mail box under Medium II’s code, and Medium II’s own bop.gov page links the identical camp commissary file under a Medium II camp label. The 2022 visiting supplement gives the camp Medium II’s telephone number, 760-530-5700, heads its nursing-mothers paragraph “FCI II Victorville – SCP,” and offers “FCI II/SCP” as a choice on its visitor-denial form. The Inspector General’s 2018 report on women in custody labels the camp “Federal Correctional Institution Victorville II” on its map key.

These records, dated from 2018 to 2026, do not settle which warden runs the camp now. For a family the practical rules do not depend on the answer: letters to a woman at the camp go to P.O. Box 5300, letters to a man at Medium I go to P.O. Box 3725, and calls about the camp go first to 760-530-5700, with Medium I’s 760-246-2400 as the fallback. If the answer matters, ask the complex’s executive assistant at VIX-ExecAssistant-S@bop.gov which warden the camp answers to, and keep the reply.

How the records drifted apart

The Bureau’s annual reports trace how the records diverged. The 1999 State of the Bureau projected a medium-security FCI Victorville rated for 1,152 and a women’s “FPC Victorville,” “Minimum (Female),” rated for 256, both due to be finished late in 1999. The fiscal 2000 edition lists the new prison as “Medium/Male (adjacent Low/Female Camp),” with 1,053 men and 86 women.

By 2005, with a second medium open on the campus, the directory called this prison FCI Victorville I, called its camp “Minimum/Female,” and gave the prison P.O. Box 5300 — the women’s camp’s box today — while Medium II had a men’s camp of its own, the only camp the directory counted, at 273. In November 2007 an Inspector General audit listed 1,513 people at Medium I and 242 at a camp it filed under Medium II.

What is the security level at FCI Victorville Medium I?

FCI Victorville Medium I is a medium-security prison for men, and its satellite camp for women is minimum security. The roster records VIM as a medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, and the complex handbook states: “The FCI Victorville I is a medium security institution.” The camp handbook calls the camp “a minimum security institution.”

The two populations are scored on different scales. Under the Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, a man with 16 to 23 security points scores medium. A woman’s scale has no medium level at all: 0 to 15 points is minimum, 16 to 30 low and 31 or more high, because in the policy’s words “Female security level institutions are classified as Minimum, Low, High and Administrative.” A woman ordinarily comes to a camp like this one only if her score is in the minimum range and no Public Safety Factor or Management Variable holds her higher.

Those factors can override the score: a Deportable Alien factor requires at least a low-security institution for a man or a woman, and for women a Violent Behavior factor does the same, so unless the factor is waived, a woman carrying either will not be placed here however low her score. Bureau statistics dated February 2014, published by the DC Corrections Information Council, show how Medium I’s population sorted then: 1,460 of 1,557 (93.8 percent) were classified medium, 80 low, 11 minimum and 6 high. Points, factors and any Management Variable are written down, and each can be questioned in writing.

Who is held at the Victorville satellite camp?

The Victorville satellite camp holds women in minimum-security custody, 226 of them as of September 2026. The camp handbook assigns every new arrival to one of two housing units, G-North or G-South, laid out as cubicles and dormitories, and the roster lists the complex’s other two prisons as institutions for men. Our guide to women’s federal prisons covers the Bureau’s other sites.

The Bureau’s page for Medium I lists “Male and Female Offenders” without saying who is where, but the institution’s own documents are specific. The 2022 visiting supplement dresses “Female inmates” at the camp in standard issue clothing and sets aside a “Lactation Room” in the camp visiting room; the camp handbook offers “additional Religious Counseling available during pregnancy”; the camp’s commissary list sells tampons, bras, mascara and Midol; and the Bureau’s national page on women in its custody names “Victorville Medium I FCI.”

Women here are covered by the Female Offender Manual, Program Statement 5200.09 (2025), which requires free tampons, maxi pads and panty liners in common areas, without rationing or monthly issue, restocked within 24 hours of a report that something has run out. Program Statement 4500.13 also requires “a standardized female specific commissary list” wherever women are held.

A pregnant woman here should ask about two things early. The complex handbook waives the $2 medical co-pay for prenatal care, and the camp handbook offers pregnancy counseling through Religious Services. The Bureau’s Mothers and Infants Together program places women in contract halfway houses, generally from the last two months of pregnancy until at least three months after the birth; the manual limits it to women “pregnant upon commitment, with an expected delivery prior to release,” and makes the mother or a guardian pay for the child’s care. The Bureau lists its locations as Phoenix, Tallahassee, Springfield (Illinois), Fort Worth and Hillsboro (West Virginia).

In April 2025 the Bureau reported a first here: four women from SCP Victorville had begun off-site classes at an unnamed community college in January 2025, “the first federal inmates to attend college outside of a correctional facility.”

The camp has no residential drug treatment: no Victorville institution is on the Bureau’s 2026 list of residential program locations, so a woman who needs it must be transferred. That list gives her two routes: a residential program at one of the women’s institutions on it (FPC Alderson, FPC Bryan, FMC Carswell and FCI Waseca), or one of the five Female Integrated Treatment programs, each with a residential drug component, of which the Western Region’s only one is at SCP Phoenix.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Victorville Medium I?

As of September 2026, the Bureau’s Inmate Locator placed three men with national cases at Medium I; two others were released from here, and a reality-television figure was held at the camp. The register numbers let you check each record.

Name and register number	Bureau record	The case
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 33230-068	At Medium I; projected release June 21, 2033	Fired at least eight rounds at the White House on November 11, 2011; sentenced in Washington, D.C., in 2014 to 25 years after admitting the attack was a terrorist act, which made a guidelines enhancement applicable
Jerry Alfred Whitworth, 78095-011	At Medium I; projected release date in 2224	Member of the Walker espionage ring; sentenced in 1986 to 365 years and $410,000 in fines, affirmed except for two tax-count fines, United States v. Whitworth, 856 F.2d 1268 (9th Cir. 1988)
Javier Vasquez-Velasco, 91039-012	At Medium I; life sentence	Convicted in 1990 of violent crimes in aid of racketeering for the 1985 Guadalajara murders of U.S. citizens John Walker and Alberto Radelat; two consecutive life terms, affirmed, United States v. Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d 833 (9th Cir. 1994)
Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero, 02921-748	Released July 19, 2019; last facility Medium I	Extradited in 2009 and sentenced in Colorado in 2010 to 204 months; prosecutors tied him to the Sonora Cartel and more than 100 tons of marijuana between 1985 and 1988
Lenny Kyle Dykstra, 57780-112	Released June 14, 2013; last facility Medium I	All-Star outfielder for the Mets and Phillies; pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court in July 2012 to bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering
Abigale Lee Miller (“Abby Lee Miller”), 35991-068	Released May 25, 2018; last facility RRM Long Beach	The Dance Moms star, sentenced to a year and a day for bankruptcy fraud and unreported Australian currency; a prison spokesperson told ABC News she was held at the Victorville camp from July 12, 2017

Some people often linked to Victorville are not there. Auburn Calloway (14601-076) is serving a life sentence at USP Canaan in Pennsylvania, not at Victorville. Michael James Pratt (05210-511) is at FCI Oakdale II in Louisiana, and the Bureau’s records show that George Trofimoff (39090-018) died in federal custody on September 19, 2014, at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. When a source says someone is “at Victorville,” ask which of the three prisons, or the camp, it means.

How do I find someone at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator by the eight-digit register number, or by the first and last name exactly as the judgment spells them. For a man held here the result gives his location as “Victorville Medium I FCI.” Medium II displays as “Victorville Medium II FCI,” which differs from this prison’s name by a single “I,” and the penitentiary as “Victorville USP.” The codes VIM, VVM and VIP sit in the locator’s record, not on the screen.

For the camp, read the facility line carefully and call if it is unclear, because the Bureau counts the camp under Medium I’s code. Someone moved to a halfway house shows the supervising Residential Reentry Management office instead; Abby Lee Miller’s record still names RRM Long Beach, but since her 2018 release the screen shows only “Not in BOP Custody as of:” and the date.

An empty search does not prove release: the locator does not cover people held only by a state or county, and a name search needs a first name as well as a last.

How do I write to someone at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Write to a man at FCI Victorville Medium I at P.O. Box 3725 and to a woman at the camp at P.O. Box 5300; both boxes are in Adelanto, CA 92301, not Victorville.

For a man at Medium I	For a woman at the satellite camp
Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Victorville Medium I Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 3725 Adelanto, CA 92301	Committed Name Register Number Satellite Camp Prison P.O. Box 5300 Adelanto, CA 92301

The left block is the one on the Bureau’s Medium I page. The right is the camp handbook’s, though an earlier page of the same handbook prints “Federal Prison Camp” on the third line, and the Bureau’s address listing files the camp box under Medium II’s code. The box number and ZIP code are what route the letter.

Both handbooks reject incoming letters that come in anything but white envelopes and white paper, carry address labels or perfume, or are homemade cards; commercial greeting cards and attorneys’ envelopes are photocopied, and the originals are not delivered. Letters between prisoners are limited to immediate family and active co-defendants, and the complex handbook notes that California does not treat a common-law partner as immediate family. More rules are in the Bureau’s correspondence rules and our guide to writing an inmate.

A lawyer’s letter gets special handling only when the envelope identifies the attorney and is marked “Special Mail – Open only in the presence of the inmate”; otherwise it is read like any other letter. Legal and special mail reaches the prisoner through staff open house or within 24 hours of receipt, the complex handbook says; its daily legal and certified mail hours, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Medium I and 11:00 a.m. to noon at the camp, are for mail going out. For confidential calls and visits, see attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons.

One rule applies to mail going out. The complex handbook says general outgoing mail from the prisons is left unsealed and that prisoners must spell out “Federal Correctional Complex,” “Federal Correctional Institution,” “United States Penitentiary” or “Satellite Prison Camp” on all outgoing mail. The camp handbook tells women to seal outgoing mail and drop it in the box on the compound.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Money for someone at FCI Victorville Medium I goes through one of the Bureau’s three national channels, not to the prison itself, and the complex handbook says the institution will not accept money from visitors for a prisoner’s account. The Bureau’s deposit instructions and our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner cover fees and timing.

• MoneyGram ExpressPayment: receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, city and state Washington, DC. The account number is the eight-digit register number followed immediately by the last name, as in 12345678DOE. The Bureau says funds sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern post within two to four hours.
• Western Union Quick Collect: code city FBOP, DC, with the register number and the committed name.
• By mail: a money order, U.S. government check, or cashier’s check, certified check or bank draft, with the committed name and register number on it, sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, then the name and the register number, then Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001. The Bureau holds money orders other than U.S. postal ones, and non-government checks, for 15 days; personal checks and cash are refused, and money mailed to the prison itself is returned with a letter giving the lockbox address.

Money follows the person: the handbook expects funds within 24 hours of a transfer from another Bureau prison, and after a move from a jail or state prison it tells people to ask the unit team if nothing has posted within three to four weeks.

Spending is capped. Commissary purchases are limited nationally to $460 a month, and telephone credit is not among the policy’s exclusions from that limit. The handbook caps the telephone account at $400 and cuts a person who refuses the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program to $5.25 a month in maintenance pay, and the complex order form limits anyone on commissary restriction to $25 a month for hygiene items and medication.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Visiting at FCI Victorville Medium I runs Saturday, Sunday, Monday and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; the women’s camp keeps the same hours on Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays only, with no Monday visiting. Both schedules come from the complex’s own visiting supplement, VIX 5267.09, dated March 1, 2022, which replaced the October 2015 supplement and covers all three prisons and the camp.

Plan around the cutoff: the supplement stops processing social visitors at 2:00 p.m., and in the last 30 minutes of visiting no prisoner is processed out of the room until every visitor has been escorted out. Its body and social handout say processing begins at 8:30 a.m.; its legal handout says 8:00 a.m., so plan on 8:30, the time the body of the supplement sets. Call 760-246-2400 before a long drive, and see the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our guide to federal prison visitation for the national rules.

The supplement also authorizes outside visiting at the camp. Men in Medium I’s Special Housing Unit visit by non-contact video on the prison’s days, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., ordinarily in two-hour blocks unless on visiting restriction, and no Special Housing Unit visitor is processed after 1:00 p.m. When a woman from the camp is held in a county jail, the unit team faxes her visiting list to the jail, and a visit there is capped at three hours without the associate warden’s or warden’s permission.

Prison visits are also rationed: under the 2021 complex handbook each man receives 40 points a month, a weekend or holiday hour costs two and a weekday hour one, and unused points lapse. The camp handbook describes no point system.

Who can visit, and how many

Four visitors at a time, plus up to three children under 10 who sit on a lap or use the play area rather than a chair; a child who takes a seat counts as a visitor. The approved list holds 20 names, and a person can change it through the unit team’s open house as often as needed. The camp handbook still says 30 names, but the 2022 supplement is newer and controls.

The Unit Manager approves or denies each proposed visitor and tells the prisoner, who must tell the visitor. Visitors ordinarily knew the prisoner before incarceration, a prior conviction is not an automatic bar, and a prisoner whose sex offense involved a minor is flagged and kept out of the children’s area. Children under 16 need a responsible adult; the complex handbook adds that 16- and 17-year-olds must be on the list and that a passport needs a current U.S. entry stamp.

What visitors can wear and bring

The supplement’s dress code and its own visitor handout disagree; follow the stricter one. The body allows shorts, skirts and dresses no shorter than two inches above mid-knee for anyone over 10, while the handout bans shorts, plain white or brown T-shirts, and any hem above the bend of the knee. Both ban tank tops, see-through and skin-tight clothing, sweatpants, forest green and non-religious headwear or hoods, and the body also requires closed-toe shoes and bars sunglasses and any clothing sold in the commissary. Attorneys are told to avoid plain white T-shirts and olive-green pants.

A visitor may bring a clear bag no larger than 8 by 12 inches, up to $20 in coins for the vending machines, photo identification, and essential medication such as an inhaler, which the officer holds; the 2021 handbooks allowed dollar bills as well. For each infant, the supplement allows two diapers, one unopened pack of wipes, one change of clothes, two clear bottles, two unopened jars of food, a receiving blanket, a clear cup and a clear bag no larger than 12 by 16 inches. Phones, purses and coats you are not wearing stay in the car, food and drinks may not come in, cameras need the warden’s written permission, and keys and remotes go to the lobby officer’s key box.

A visitor who is breastfeeding may use an attorney-client room off the visiting area, and the prisoner may not go along. At the camp, a woman nursing her own infant during a visit uses the area marked “Lactation Room” in the camp visiting room, which the camp visiting officer unlocks and checks first.

Identification, searches and legal visits

Every visitor 16 or older needs a valid state or government photo ID; consular cards and foreign documents other than a passport are refused. Visitors sign form BP-A0224, must clear the walk-through metal detector, and on the way out are checked by photo ID and hand stamp at the desk, the door and the Control Center. Any vehicle on the complex can be searched, and visitors may not wait in a parked car.

The searching continues after the visit. Every man leaving the Medium I visiting room is visually searched and scanned with a metal detector, and his clothes and shoes go through a Scanmax 15 scanner. At the camp, the supplement requires a visual search of at least 10 percent of the women.

Lawyers visit Medium I and the camp under the same rule: send the Unit Manager a bar-verification printout or form BP-A0241 with a written request, by fax or mail, ahead of time. On-the-spot verification for an attorney who arrives unannounced is limited to “bona fide attorneys with current pending litigation (within 10 days).” Paralegals and investigators need form BP-A0660 for a criminal history check and form BP-A0243. Papers can be reviewed and signed in the visiting room but not handed to the client, and the supplement requires advance approval for electronic discovery everywhere except Medium II. Weekday legal visits at the camp should be scheduled in advance.

Getting there

The supplement’s directions: from Interstate 15, take the “D” Street exit — left onto Highway 18 if you are northbound, right if southbound — follow Route 66/Highway 18 to Air Expressway Boulevard and turn left, then turn left at George Boulevard onto the complex. From Highway 395, turn left on Air Expressway Boulevard and right at George Boulevard. Once inside, the 2021 handbook says, Medium I is “the last institution on the left”; Medium II is the first on the left and the penitentiary the last on the right.

The supplement lists Greyhound at 800-231-2222 and Amtrak at 800-872-7245; the handbook puts the Greyhound station about ten minutes away by taxi.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Victorville Medium I?

People at FCI Victorville Medium I can place calls but not receive them, to up to 30 approved numbers, within 510 minutes a calendar month. That limit comes from the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026: people eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives get 300 of those minutes free, and only after using up 300 may anyone, eligible or not, buy the other 210. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, with at least 30 minutes between calls; phones run no earlier than 6:00 a.m. and no later than 11:30 p.m.; and properly arranged unmonitored legal calls do not count toward the limit.

Both 2021 handbooks still describe the rule the 2026 policy replaced — 300 minutes a month, reset on each person’s commissary revalidation date — and the program statement controls. The local mechanics in the handbook still apply: a nine-digit PAC and a voice-verification enrollment before the first call, a $5 charge for a replacement PAC, no more than two transfers a day from commissary to the telephone account, and a $400 cap on the telephone balance. The camp handbook allows women to use the phones only during off-duty hours. Our guide to federal prison phone calls explains the national system.

Email runs through TRULINCS. Under the complex handbook a session lasts up to 60 minutes and is followed by a 15-minute lockout, a person may keep up to 100 active postal contacts, and using third-party email providers to send texts or emails or to post on social media is prohibited.

What can people buy at the FCI Victorville Medium I commissary?

Commissary spending at FCI Victorville Medium I is capped at $460 a month in ordinary purchases, the national limit in the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026. The limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. A short national list of items, among them postage stamps, over-the-counter medicines and footwear, falls outside that limit, which is revalidated monthly unless the institution uses a weekly or two-week cycle.

The three local documents are all older than that figure. Both 2021 handbooks say “$360.00 per month, $90.00 per week,” the national limit until May 2026. The complex’s 2023 list prints “SPENDING LIMIT $180” with no period stated, above signed approval lines for the complex warden and both medium wardens, Medium I’s included, yet the Bureau posts it only on the Medium II and penitentiary pages. The list the Bureau links from Medium I’s page dates from 2014; it prints no limit and still sells a Sansa MP3 player, Zantac and 46-cent Forever stamps.

The complex handbook gives a formula for the monthly reset: multiply the fifth digit of the register number by three and add one to get the day of the month; the formula predates the 2026 policy, so confirm it with the unit team. All sales are final, and the camp handbook says the commissary closes every Friday. See our overview of commissary items.

The camp’s 2023 list, approved by an acting warden of Medium I, shows what women here can buy: Kotex tampons at $8.60, Always panty liners at $10.65, a Hanes bra at $19.45, Maybelline eyeshadow at $14.90, Midol at $10.05, hoop earrings at $16.25, hair dye at $7.45 and Timberland boots at $99.45, beside chilorio and Tajín. Hygiene items and batteries are limited to two each, and the list says a chest binder can be bought through the special purchase order program. The free hygiene products the Female Offender Manual requires are separate from anything on this list.

The complex’s 2023 list for the three prisons sells a 7-inch Score tablet for $131.30, a G-Shock watch for $99.95, typewriter ribbon for $9.80 and a combination lock marked “FCI only,” and has a short section headed “Transgender” with women’s razors, foundation, a sports bra and briefs, two of each. Every list prices a visiting-room photo ticket at $1.00.

Items the commissary does not stock come by special purchase order: one a month, up to $600 a quarter including markup and shipping under the 2026 program statement (the 2021 handbooks print $300), and never more in one cycle than the spending limit.

What programs are available at FCI Victorville Medium I?

FCI Victorville Medium I offers education, vocational training, the complex’s largest factory and programs for women at the camp, but no residential drug treatment. The Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (2026) names Medium I in the location cells of three programs: Federal Prison Industries, the RESOLVE trauma program and the BRAVE unit. Its other marks are blanket permissions or grid entries, and neither proves a class is meeting; get the unit team’s answer in writing.

RDAP and drug treatment

There is no Residential Drug Abuse Program at Medium I or at the camp. The list inside the 2026 guide counts “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations,” and its Western Region entries are FCI Herlong, FCI Lompoc, FCI Phoenix, FCI Safford and FCI Sheridan. Both 2021 handbooks tell people the residential program is available “at another institution,” and the complex handbook says eligibility interviews are scheduled by nearest projected release date. Our guide to the Residential Drug Abuse Program explains how the interview and the list work.

The guide’s grid marks Medium I for the non-residential drug program, drug education, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Anyone Psychology Services does not screen at intake is to be seen within 14 to 30 days, and the complex handbook warns that anyone who declines drug education the court or the Bureau requires is held to the lowest pay grade and kept out of community programs. The same handbook states that a deportable prisoner, or one with “a detainer, warrant, and/or pending charges,” is “unqualified for RDAP” — a local summary to check against the national rules.

The records disagree about BRAVE, a residential unit whose program usually runs six months of half days. The guide’s program cell lists Medium I among six institutions, with the criteria in force since November 1, 2021: age 40 or younger, at least 36 months left, a first Bureau commitment, and within the first 18 months of the sentence. The complex handbook, written just before that change, places BRAVE at Medium II under the older criteria of age 32 or younger and a sentence of 60 months or more, so ask which prison runs it now. The guide also names Medium I for RESOLVE, the Bureau’s cognitive-behavioral trauma program, which the Bureau says now reaches all of its female facilities.

Education, vocational training and UNICOR

Education at Medium I is open 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 3:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday, and the camp’s department from 12:15 to 8:45 p.m. on weekdays. The DC Corrections Information Council, reporting on a September 2021 visit to the penitentiary, noted that Medium I then had three teachers. Anyone without a verified GED or diploma must attend literacy classes for at least 240 hours or until earning one, and the handbook pays $25 for a GED or for completing English as a Second Language.

College is at the student’s expense. Coastline Community College offers an associate degree in liberal arts or specialized business, with tuition, books and fees paid by the student and a GED or diploma required first. The guide’s grid marks Medium I for post-secondary education, but the guide’s program cell names sixteen Pell-funded sites and Medium I is not one of them, so do not assume federal aid.

The 2021 handbooks list vocational courses in building trades with NCCER credentials, horticulture, recycling and solid-waste management, solar panel installation (NABCEP), Microsoft Office, ServSafe and ManageFirst, culinary arts and forklift operation (Cal-OSHA), plus Department of Labor apprenticeships in plumbing, HVAC, electrical work and dental assisting. Bicycle repair is offered only at Medium II.

Medium I is also where the complex manufactures: the 2021 handbook describes “two factories, one at the FCI-I and an Annex Factory at the USP,” rebuilding trailers, forklifts, HMMWVs and five-ton trucks for the Defense Department, Homeland Security and the Forest Service. The UNICOR shift runs 7:10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on weekdays with a 35-minute lunch. Pay starts at 23 cents an hour in grade 5 and reaches $1.15 in grade 1, with a $1.35 premium rate and longevity raises that begin after 18 months; a worker without a GED tops out at grade 4. Hiring runs from five waiting lists, so ask where a name stands.

Faith-based and reentry programming

Religious Services supports about 15 faith groups, and religious medallions can be ordered up to $100. Ready-To-Work meets quarterly in four-hour sessions taught by United States probation officers, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Mexican Consulate hold seminars, and parenting classes run eight to twelve weeks. See our guide to religious programs in federal prison.

For the camp, the guide’s by-institution grid marks Medium I for women’s programs including Foundation; Square One: Essentials for Women; Assert Yourself for Female Offenders; Women’s Relationships and Women’s Relationships II; Women’s Reflections Group; Women’s Basic Financial Literacy; Women in the 21st Century Workplace; Women’s Aging; and Seeking Safety. The grid does not mark Medium I for ROSE, the program for mothers of newborns, or for the Survivor Therapy Empowerment Program. A grid mark is not a schedule, so ask which groups are enrolling.

What is daily life like at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Daily life at FCI Victorville Medium I follows a fixed schedule, and it differs on each side of the fence. Men at Medium I live two to a cell — the complex handbook requires every prisoner to be celled with another — while women at the camp live in cubicles and dormitories in two units. The table sets the two routines side by side from the 2021 handbooks, the newest the Bureau’s Medium I page links.

Routine	Medium I	Satellite camp
Lights on and off	5:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.	5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Weekday meals	Breakfast from 6:00 a.m.; lunch 10:30 a.m.–noon; dinner after the 4:00 p.m. count	Breakfast 6:00 a.m.; lunch 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.; dinner after the 4:00 p.m. count
Stand-up counts	4:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. daily, plus 10:00 a.m. on weekends and holidays	The same
Sick call sign-up, Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri	7:30–8:00 a.m.	6:15–6:30 a.m.
Education	7:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Mon–Thu; to 3:30 p.m. Fri and Sun	12:15–8:45 p.m. Mon–Fri
Outgoing legal and certified mail	Daily, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.	Daily, 11:00 a.m.–noon (complex handbook)
Laundry	Pick-up the morning after drop-off	Pick-up the same afternoon
Haircuts	An inmate barbershop	Only in the salon beside the commissary

A few local rules stand out. Men may not do push-ups, pull-ups or weight training in the housing units, a combination lock on anything but the locker is treated as a weapon, and a man may not keep his own presentence report, statement of reasons, dockets or transcripts. Women at the camp stay in uniform from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, keep no more than five magazines and five books, and must check in at the message center before leaving or returning to camp grounds.

Recreation includes fitness classes, painting and music taught in English and Spanish, but not ceramics, which the complex handbook says Medium I does not offer. Hobby-craft projects must be mailed out within 30 days. The camp is non-smoking, and the handbook calls the FCI tobacco-free.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Victorville Medium I?

Inspectors have published little that is recent or complete about FCI Victorville Medium I. The one independent inspection on record was stopped at midday in 2014, the Inspector General’s visits here have examined particular programs rather than conditions as a whole, and the most detailed recent record treats all three prisons and the camp as one facility.

The 2014 inspection that ended at midday

The DC Corrections Information Council, an oversight body created under federal and District law to inspect prisons holding people sentenced in the District, came to Medium I on May 2, 2014, after inspecting the penitentiary and Medium II on the two previous days. It had asked for 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. After an opening meeting and a tour from about 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., the inspectors were called to a closeout at which complex Warden Richard Ives told them the inspection was over, and three confidential interviews with DC prisoners never took place.

Its report, published January 7, 2016 (the cover misprints the year as 2015), calls this “the first time the CIC was forced to leave a facility prior to fully completing its inspection” and describes “a level of unprofessionalism and lack of transparency that was both surprising and disappointing.” It issued no conditions report. The Bureau’s published response attributes the early finish to “a miscommunication” and says the warden “welcomes the return of the CIC to conduct a full inspection of FCI I.” The Council’s list of inspection reports shows no later report on Medium I.

The report still carries a rare profile of the prison from Bureau statistics dated February 2014: 1,557 men against a rated capacity of 1,152 (135 percent); 72.1 percent white, 22.3 percent Black and 59.9 percent Hispanic; a median sentence of 70 months; and 36.9 percent in the Council’s “violent” category, which includes weapons and explosives offenses. Six were DC Code prisoners.

What the Inspector General has examined

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. On the Inspector General’s own count in May 2026 (Report 26-055), its inspections since 2023 have covered 14 Bureau institutions, and Medium I is not among them.

Its reviews have looked at particular programs instead, and several did part of their fieldwork at the complex: health care in 2007 (Report 08-08), furloughs (Report 10-44, September 2010) and release-preparation classes in 2015 (Report 16-07). The 2008 report said the complex’s medical officials were not providing routine tests and vaccines, calling them too costly for so large a population, and that the audit prompted bone-density screening for women.

The closest look came in Report 17-20 (March 2017), which examined the Bureau’s contract with Spectrum Services Group for four dental assistants at the complex; its auditors toured the four clinics, one each at the penitentiary, Medium I, Medium II and the camp. They found one of the four positions vacant for 25 of 46 months; nearly 1,000 people, one in four at the complex, on the routine dental waiting list in May 2016, some of them since 2008; and a Medium I contractor log that complex officials said mold had made unreadable. The same report counted “approximately 4,055 male inmates and 240 female inmates as of February 2016” at the complex.

The 2018 review of women in custody reached FCC Victorville by video teleconference and listed the camp, as FPC Victorville, among eight institutions keeping women and men in “buildings separated by fences.” The 2021 review of immigration removal hearings lists FCI Victorville I in the expanded hearing program and records hearings at the complex suspended from June to November 2018 at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s request. A 2021 staff survey, published as percentages only, found 73.7 percent of Medium I respondents reporting increased stress during the pandemic and 50.0 percent asked to work overtime. The May 2025 evaluation of colorectal cancer screening (Report 25-057), which interviewed the complex’s health staff by video, found that in April 2024 only 12 percent of FCC Victorville’s 1,085 average-risk prisoners had a current screening offer, and described a Victorville prisoner sent three times in two years for a pre-colonoscopy evaluation who never got the colonoscopy.

The December 2023 PREA audit

Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, audited the whole complex on site December 19–21, 2023, and her final report of February 6, 2024, found FCC Victorville exceeded six standards and met the other 35. The report records a complex holding “Both females and males,” over capacity at some point in the prior year, with 4,389 people present on December 19, 2023, the first day of the audit, 35 of them transgender or intersex and 1,337 with limited English.

Seven of the 25 randomly selected prisoners the auditor interviewed said staff of the opposite gender did not announce themselves when entering their housing units, which Bureau policy requires, and the complex answered with reminder training at daily roll calls. Forensic examinations after a sexual assault are done at Kaiser Permanente, three during the audit period, with advocates from San Bernardino Sexual Assault Services. In the 12 months before the audit the complex recorded 24 sexual-abuse allegations, 17 against prisoners and 7 against staff; all 7 staff cases were open criminal investigations, and the outcome table shows 13 prisoner cases unsubstantiated and 1 substantiated. The audit breaks none of this out by institution and never mentions the camp; reporting routes are on our PREA policy page.

Sexual-abuse allegations and prosecutions

The Government Accountability Office’s May 2026 report on sexual abuse in federal prisons lists, for Medium I, 13 allegations against incarcerated people from 2020 through 2024 (Table 7, by year of incident) and 52 against Bureau employees (Table 8, by year reported), 27 of them reported in 2024. The tables come from different systems and cannot be added together, and they count allegations, not findings: nationally, 77 percent of staff-perpetrated allegations from 2014 to 2022 ended unsubstantiated, which does not mean false. GAO does not adjust for population or say whether this row includes the camp.

Two prosecutions arose from the women’s side of the complex. In 2016 federal prosecutors charged officer Cynthia Flores with assaulting a woman “at the women’s prison camp in Victorville” on June 2, 2013, kicking her in the head after she had been handcuffed and held chest-down, and with lying in her report; Flores pleaded guilty in April 2017. In January 2019 former officer Apolonio Gamez was sentenced to 24 months, seven years of supervised release and sex-offender registration for sexually abusing female prisoners at the complex from September 2016 to July 2017; the announcements do not name the unit, and the Bureau’s records place the complex’s women at the camp.

FCI Victorville Medium I in the news

Recent news about FCI Victorville Medium I centers on the camp’s first off-site college classes and on deaths in custody; older items concern the 2018 immigration detentions, the 2010 indictment of a warden and the prison’s opening.

• April 30, 2025 — The Bureau reported that four women from the camp had begun off-site community college classes in January 2025.
• March 31, 2023 — Binh Tran, 55, serving 180 months from the District of Nevada, was found unresponsive about 7:20 p.m. and, the locator records, died that day at Medium I; Victor Valley News Group quoted a Bureau statement that the prison housed 1,533 men.
• January 30, 2022 — Rocky Joe Miller, 69, serving 360 months from the Western District of Oklahoma, died after a hospitalization that began January 16; he had recovered from COVID-19 in 2020, and the Bureau’s February 2022 notice said the prison housed 1,372 men.
• December 7, 2020 — Horace Nelson, 64, serving 722 months from an Alaska state court for second-degree murder, died after testing positive for COVID-19 in July and spending nearly eight weeks in the hospital; the Bureau’s December 2020 notice said the prison housed 1,028 men.
• August 2020 — The Bureau posted one news release reporting the death of a person held at FCI Victorville I (Medium); the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• June–September 2018 — Immigration detainees were housed at Medium II from June 8, 2018, and to make room the Bureau first moved about 600 Medium II prisoners to Medium I, according to a sworn declaration by the complex’s executive assistant, which says the last detainees left on September 14, 2018; the Inspector General later reported the Bureau’s statement that they left in October 2018.
• March 3, 2010 — A federal grand jury indicted Scott A. Holencik, then warden of FCI Victorville I, on charges of lying to Inspector General agents about posts on prisonofficer.org and disclosing confidential information, including facts about an August 2009 homicide at the prison. An indictment is only an accusation; the court’s docket shows the case closed on February 19, 2014, and the public docket index does not show how. The San Bernardino Sun reported in June 2014 that three of the counts had been dismissed in December 2010 and that U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips dismissed the remaining three, agreeing that Holencik’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial had been violated, and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had appealed to the Ninth Circuit. No decision in that appeal has been published.
• Fiscal year 2000 — The Bureau opened FCI Victorville with a women’s camp beside it and activated a Federal Prison Industries factory there the same year.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Victorville Medium I

Problems at FCI Victorville Medium I: where we can help

This campus’s record shows the same problems returning, each with a paper trail a lawyer can use.

• A woman at the camp who needs residential drug treatment. No Victorville institution runs it, so the request is a transfer request, and its timing against the release date matters; see RDAP and early release.
• Pregnancy and a newborn. Mothers and Infants Together referrals, prenatal care and the limits on restraining pregnant women run under the Female Offender Manual, and a late referral can leave no time to use the program.
• Sexual abuse or retaliation by staff. Two officers were prosecuted for abusing women at this complex, GAO counts 52 staff-perpetrator allegations for Medium I from 2020 through 2024, and prisoners told the 2023 auditor that opposite-gender staff did not always announce themselves; see sexual assault in prison.
• Dental and medical care that is not happening. The Inspector General found nearly 1,000 people at the complex waiting for routine dental care in May 2016; the route is a written request, then the administrative remedy process, and where negligence causes harm, a tort claim.
• Designation and placement. Whether a woman belongs at this camp or a low, and whether a man belongs at a medium, turns on points and Public Safety Factors that can be contested; see federal prison transfers.
• Long sentences. Compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules, First Step Act time credits (see our time-credit review), halfway-house timing and home confinement each have their own rules and deadlines; our early-release practice covers them.
• Discipline and Special Housing Unit placements that put good conduct time at risk.
• 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 Victorville Medium I, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s page for the institution, with its address, phone numbers and posted documents.
• FCI Victorville Medium II, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The neighboring prison’s page, which links the camp commissary list under a Medium II camp label.
• Camp Victorville Commissary Shopping List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2023.
• FCC Victorville Commissary Shopping List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2023. The complex list for the three prisons, posted on the Medium II and penitentiary pages.
• Visiting Regulations, Complex Supplement VIX 5267.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2022. Replaced supplement VIX 5267.08h.
• FCC Victorville Inmate Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2021.
• Federal Satellite Prison Camp (SPC) Inmate Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2021.
• FCC Victorville Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Victorville, 2014. The list linked from the Medium I page.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the commissary spending limit.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026. Security points, female security levels and Public Safety Factors.
• Female Offender Manual, Program Statement 5200.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. Hygiene products and the Mothers and Infants Together program.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Includes the list of residential drug program locations.
• Send Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s instructions for the lockbox, Western Union and MoneyGram.
• Female Offenders, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• State of the Bureau 2005, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006.
• State of the Bureau 2000, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2000.
• State of the Bureau 1999, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1999.
• FCC Victorville Female Inmates Attend Community College, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025.
• Inmate Death at FCI Victorville I (Medium), Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Rocky Joe Miller’s death.
• Inmate Death at FCI Victorville I, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Horace Nelson’s death.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Includes the August 2020 release reporting a death at FCI Victorville I (Medium).

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026.
• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan (Report 26-055), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Gives the Inspector General’s count of institutions inspected since 2023.
• Evaluation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Colorectal Cancer Screening Practices for Inmates and Its Clinical Follow-up on Screenings (Report 25-057), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2025.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: Final, FCC Victorville, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. On-site audit of December 19–21, 2023, by Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America.
• USP Victorville Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2022. Covers a September 2021 visit to the penitentiary.
• Staff Perceptions of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Survey of BOP Staff (Report 21-126), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Review of the Institutional Hearing and Removal Program Expansion for Federal Inmates (Report 21-123), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of Its Female Inmate Population (Report 18-05), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2018.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract No. DJBP0616BPA12004 Awarded to Spectrum Services Group, Inc., Victorville, California (Report 17-20), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2017.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Release Preparation Program (Report 16-07), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• FCI Victorville Medium I Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2016. Covers the May 2014 inspection.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Furlough Program (Report 10-44), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2010.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Efforts to Manage Inmate Health Care (Report 08-08), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2008.

Court records

• Declaration of Jess Pino, Teneng v. Trump, No. 5:18-cv-01609 (C.D. Cal.), ECF No. 49-3, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2018. The complex executive assistant’s account of the 2018 immigration detentions.
• Class Action Complaint, Teneng v. Trump, No. 5:18-cv-01609 (C.D. Cal.), ECF No. 1, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2018. Published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
• Correctional Officer at Federal Prison Facility in Victorville Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Sexually Abusing Female Inmates, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2019. Apolonio Gamez’s sentence.
• Correctional Officer at Federal Prison in Victorville Arrested on Charges of Sexually Abusing Female Inmates, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2018. Apolonio Gamez’s arrest.
• Federal Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Federal Civil Rights Offense for Kicking Inmate in Head and Lying about Incident, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2017. Cynthia Flores’s guilty plea.
• Federal Correctional Officer Arrested on Charges of Assaulting Inmate, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2016. Cynthia Flores’s arrest.
• Idaho Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for November 2011 Shooting at the White House, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, 2014. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez’s sentence.
• Former Major League Baseball Player Lenny Dykstra Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Bankruptcy Fraud and Money Laundering, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2012.
• United States v. Holencik, No. 5:10-cr-00017 (C.D. Cal.), U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2010. Docket.
• Warden of Victorville Federal Prison Indicted for Making False Statements to Criminal Investigators, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 2010. Scott A. Holencik’s indictment; published by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General.
• Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero Sentenced to Federal Prison for Trafficking Massive Amounts of Marijuana from Mexico to the United States, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, 2010.
• United States v. Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d 833 (9th Cir. 1994), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1994.
• United States v. Whitworth, 856 F.2d 1268 (9th Cir. 1988), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1988.

News and other sources

• Inmate Found Unresponsive Inside Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, Victor Valley News Group, 2023.
• ‘Dance Moms’ Star Abby Lee Miller Released from Prison, Sent to Halfway House, ABC News, 2018.
• Inmates Killed at Victorville Prison Identified, San Bernardino Sun, 2014. The dismissal of the charges against Scott A. Holencik and the appeal that followed.

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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