Administrative-Security Prisons | Metropolitan Detention Centers

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

An administrative-security federal prison is one with a special mission, where people are assigned “based on factors other than security and/or staff supervision (for example, medical/mental health, pretrial and holdover),” and which is “designed to house all security level inmates.” That definition is the Bureau of Prisons’ own, at Program Statement 5100.08, Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, p. 16.

The Bureau’s public roster carries 19 of them, in six varieties: metropolitan detention centers, metropolitan correctional centers, federal detention centers, one federal transfer center, seven medical facilities, and one administrative-maximum penitentiary. Administrative is the only classification that takes all point totals and all custody levels — from the lowest to MAXIMUM — in a single building.

Administrative security at a glance

What it is	A federal facility with a special mission, holding people assigned on grounds other than their security score (PS 5100.08 at p. 16)
Security point range	All point totals (PS 5100.08 at p. 14)
Custody levels housed	All custody levels — COMMUNITY, OUT, IN and MAXIMUM (PS 5100.08 at p. 14)
Facilities on BOP’s roster	19
Combined published population	17,909 (the ADX publishes no population figure)
Facility types	MDC (3) · MCC (2) · FDC (5) · FTC (1) · FMC (6) · MCFP (1) · ADX penitentiary (1)
Federal transfer centers	One — FTC Oklahoma City
Governing policy	PS 5100.08 (designation); PS 7331.05 (pretrial); PS 6270.02 (medical designations)
Governing regulation	28 C.F.R. pt. 524; 28 C.F.R. pt. 551 subpt. J (pretrial, as quoted in PS 7331.05)
Off the roster	MCC New York — closed, removed from BOP’s facility roster

Facility counts, types and populations read from the Bureau’s own facility records, retrieved 11 June 2026 and reconciled field-by-field against BOP’s live roster on 5 September 2026.

A Program Statement is the Bureau’s instruction to its own staff — agency policy, not law. What binds the Bureau is the regulation and the statute: 28 C.F.R. pt. 524 for classification, and 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), which directs the Bureau to place a prisoner “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence, and to the extent practicable, in a facility within 500 driving miles of that residence,” subject to bed availability, security designation, programmatic needs, mental and medical health needs, faith-based requests, court recommendations and the Bureau’s security concerns.

“Administrative security” is not “administrative detention”

These two phrases get confused constantly, and confusing them costs people time.

Administrative security is a facility classification. It sits alongside Minimum, Low, Medium and High in the Bureau’s five-level scheme (PS 5100.08 at p. 13). It describes the building, not the person. Someone can be scored minimum-security and be housed in an administrative facility because that facility runs the medical unit, the pretrial unit or the transfer hub they need.

Administrative detention is a housing status inside a Special Housing Unit — a non-punitive form of restrictive housing used while an investigation runs, while a transfer is pending, or for protection. It is governed by PS 5270.12, Special Housing Units (CN-1, 6 March 2025), and covered in full on our page about solitary confinement and Special Housing Units.

A person in administrative detention is almost never in an administrative-security facility, and a person in an administrative-security facility is almost never in administrative detention. If a staff member said “administrative,” ask which one they meant.

The six kinds of administrative facility

Type	What the letters mean	What it does	How many
MDC	Metropolitan Detention Center	Holds pretrial defendants and detainees in a major city, plus convicted people awaiting sentencing, awaiting designation, or returning for court	3
MCC	Metropolitan Correctional Center	Same detention mission as an MDC; the naming difference is historical, not functional	2
FDC	Federal Detention Center	Same detention mission, generally on a stand-alone site rather than in a downtown high-rise	5
FTC	Federal Transfer Center	The Bureau’s air hub. Holds people in transit between institutions and to and from court	1
FMC / MCFP	Federal Medical Center / U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners	The Bureau’s medical referral centers — its Care Level 4 institutions, for people who may need extensive medical or nursing care (PS 6031.06 at p. 12)	7
ADX	Administrative-maximum U.S. penitentiary	One institution, USP Florence ADMAX, for people referred individually after other high-security placements have been considered and rejected (PS 5100.08 at p. 100)	1

The Bureau’s own policy groups the first three together. PS 7331.05, Pretrial Inmates, names the Bureau’s detention institutions as “Metropolitan Detention Centers (MDCs), Federal Detention Centers (FDCs), and Metropolitan Correctional Centers (MCCs)” and adds that “these institutions may also house convicted inmates awaiting sentencing or movement to designated institutions, or sentenced inmates who require further court appearances” (PS 7331.05 at p. 5).

Every administrative-security federal facility

Nineteen facilities, read from BOP’s own records. Populations are the Bureau’s published totals from the June 2026 capture; where a facility has an adjacent camp, the total includes it.

State / territory	Facility	Type	BOP population	Houses	Region
California	MCC San Diego	MCC	606	Male and female	Western
California	MDC Los Angeles	MDC	937	Male and female	Western
Colorado	USP Florence ADMAX	ADX penitentiary	not published	Male	North Central
Florida	FDC Miami	FDC	1,246	Male and female	Southeast
Hawaii	FDC Honolulu	FDC	316	Male and female	Western
Illinois	MCC Chicago	MCC	532	Male and female	North Central
Kentucky	FMC Lexington	FMC + camp	1,332 (1,101 FMC, 231 camp)	Male and female	Mid-Atlantic
Massachusetts	FMC Devens	FMC + camp	1,205 (1,094 FMC, 111 camp)	Male	Northeast
Minnesota	FMC Rochester	FMC	835	Male	North Central
Missouri	MCFP Springfield	MCFP	1,117	Male	North Central
New York	MDC Brooklyn	MDC	1,290	Male and female	Northeast
North Carolina	FMC Butner	FMC	777	Male	Mid-Atlantic
Oklahoma	FTC Oklahoma City	FTC	1,435	Male and female	South Central
Pennsylvania	FDC Philadelphia	FDC	891	Male and female	Northeast
Puerto Rico	MDC Guaynabo	MDC	1,058	Male and female	Southeast
Texas	FDC Houston	FDC	835	Male and female	South Central
Texas	FMC Carswell	FMC + camp	1,237 (1,005 FMC, 232 camp)	Female	South Central
Texas	FMC Fort Worth	FMC	1,569	Male	South Central
Washington	FDC SeaTac	FDC	691	Male and female	Western

Two things about that list are worth noticing. Twelve of the nineteen hold both men and women — a far higher proportion than any other security level, because detention and medical missions do not sort by sex the way general-population designation does. And FMC Carswell is the Bureau’s only female medical center, which makes it the destination for a set of designations that have nothing to do with medicine: see below.

MCC New York is closed and off the roster

If you are working from an older list, check this one first. MCC New York has been closed since 2021 and no longer appears on BOP’s facility roster. Its facility URL no longer resolves to a facility page, and its published population is zero. It is retained in reference sets only as a historical record.

That verification was done field-by-field on 5 September 2026 against the Bureau’s live locations data, alongside three other records that came off the roster in the same review — FCI Dublin, FPC Pensacola and FCI Terminal Island. Anyone with a current federal register number is housed somewhere else. Confirm through the BOP Inmate Locator rather than a list; how DOC inmate number search works explains the mechanics.

The site retains a reference page for MCC New York for people searching the old name; treat it as history, not as an operating facility.

Detention centers: MDC, MCC and FDC

Ten of the nineteen administrative facilities are detention centers. Their population is mostly pretrial — people who have not been convicted — and the rules for them are genuinely different, which is what most families get wrong.

A “pretrial inmate” is defined broadly.

Under the regulation quoted in PS 7331.05, it “means a person who is legally detained but for whom the Bureau of Prisons has not received notification of conviction,” and it “also includes a person awaiting sentencing after having pled or been found guilty, but the Bureau has not received official notification of conviction.” People held for civil contempt, as deportable non-citizens, or as material witnesses are pretrial inmates too (PS 7331.05 at p. 6).

Separation from convicted people is the rule, but it is qualified

18 U.S.C. § 3142(i)(2) requires that pretrial detainees be separated “to the extent practicable, from persons awaiting or serving sentences or being held in custody pending appeal.” The Bureau’s gloss: “Practicable is dependent on the institution’s design, structure, and operation,” and where separation is not practicable, staff may permit pretrial inmates who do not present a risk to have regular contact with convicted inmates (PS 7331.05 at p. 5).

Pretrial detainees cannot be compelled to work

“Pretrial inmates may not be compelled to work other than to perform housekeeping tasks in their cells and in the community living area,” although they may waive that right in order to take an institution job (PS 7331.05 at p. 5).

There is a 48-hour assessment on admission

Among the program’s stated objectives: “An initial assessment of pretrial inmates will be conducted within 48 hours of admission,” and the status of pretrial and holdover inmates “will be reviewed regularly and each time they return from court” (PS 7331.05 at p. 2).

Pretrial detainees are Marshals Service prisoners

Pretrial detainees are U.S. Marshals Service prisoners housed under a memorandum of understanding, with a fixed number of USMS beds at specific Bureau institutions (PS 7331.05 at p. 5). That is why questions about a pretrial detainee’s movement often have to go to the Marshals rather than the Bureau, and why a detention center’s own answer is sometimes “that is not our call.”

Practically, a detention center is a harder place to do time than the sentenced institution that follows it. Movement is restricted, program access is thin, outdoor recreation is often limited by the physical plant, and the population turns over constantly. Our pages on the first day in prison, the intake process, visiting, telephone calls and TRULINCS email describe the national rules; what actually happens in a given detention center is set by that institution’s own supplement. Our policy explainer on pretrial inmates goes through the full program statement.

FTC Oklahoma City: the only federal transfer center

There is exactly one. FTC Oklahoma City sits at 7410 S. MacArthur Boulevard in Oklahoma City, holds both men and women, and had a published population of 1,435 at the June 2026 capture. It is administrative security, like every other facility on this page.

Its function is transit. Routine inmate movement between federal institutions is accomplished by the Bureau/USMS airlift, and PS 6270.02 at p. 14 describes the system: the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) “partners with the Bureau and the USMS to transfer inmates/defendants. They have an intricate system of airlifts and buses strategically structured to transport inmates across the United States. JPATS utilizes airlifts to transport a large number of inmates to a region who are then transferred to their designated institution by bus.”

Two consequences follow, and both surprise families.

“Holdover” is a real status with real effects.

Someone in transit is held at whatever facility the route requires, sometimes for weeks. Holdovers “retain their initial custody level assignments until their first regularly scheduled custody review at their designated facility for service of sentence” (PS 5100.08 at p. 63). Mail and property lag behind the person. The inmate locator may show a facility nobody expected.

Medical condition can bar the airlift

A USMS-employed flight nurse accompanies every airlift flight and “has the authority to exclude any inmate, including a medically re-designated, routine level inmate, from the flight,” including for lack of medication or the absence of a seven-day medication supply. PS 6270.02 at p. 15 lists conditions that generally will not be considered for airlift transport at all — among them type I diabetes (which “must be direct transfer”), unstable cardiac conditions, severe COPD, third-trimester pregnancy, acute psychosis, symptomatic sickle cell disease, anyone requiring oxygen or other respiratory equipment, anyone unable to walk, and any inmate whose hemoglobin “is not at least Hgb 8 mg/dL [sic] or above.” If no current laboratory information is available, “travel will be approved for ground transportation only.”

Nothing moves without paperwork either. An Exit Summary generated through the electronic health record “must accompany all inmates in transit regardless of physical or mental condition or reason for transfer,” and tuberculosis screening must be completed before transfer — “transporting officials will not accept any inmate for transfer unless the TB clearance section” is complete (PS 6270.02 at pp. 12–13).

The medical facilities

Seven of the nineteen administrative facilities are medical: FMC Butner, FMC Carswell, FMC Devens, FMC Fort Worth, FMC Lexington, FMC Rochester, and MCFP Springfield. They are the Bureau’s Care Level 4 institutions — its Medical Referral Centers. As PS 6031.06, Patient Care, at p. 12 puts it: “Care Level 4 institutions are the Bureau’s MRC. Inmates housed at MRCs may require extensive medical and nursing care. Some inmates may require 24-hour nursing care including assistance with activities of daily living such as feeding, toileting, and dressing.”

Placement is not made by the designation staff who handle everyone else. Medical and mental-health designations are made by the Office of Medical Designations and Transportation (OMDT), which “assign[s] inmates to the most appropriate and cost-effective Bureau of Prisons institutions, Medical Referral Centers (MRC), or non-Bureau community contract care facilities,” and which — with the National Utilization Review Advisory Board — holds “full authority over all Care Level 4 (inpatient) medical bed management decisions including admission and discharge” (PS 6270.02 at p. 2). OMDT designates Medical Care Level 3 and 4 and Mental Health Care Level 4 cases; everything else goes back to the Designation and Sentence Computation Center for ordinary placement (p. 5).

Our page on federal medical centers covers the care-level framework, the referral forms, the urgency tiers and each facility in full, and our policy explainers cover medical designations and care levels and patient care. Two facts belong here, though, because they are administrative-security facts rather than medical ones.

The Lexington camp is closing

The Bureau’s 1 July 2026 press release announced closure of the Lexington FMC Satellite Camp — along with Beaumont FCI Low, Big Spring FCI and camp, La Tuna FCI/FSL/camp, Petersburg FCI Low and Taft FCI, and the conversion of Morgantown and Duluth camps to Federal Satellite Lows — citing a deferred-maintenance backlog exceeding $4 billion. The FMC itself was not announced for closure; staff at the Lexington camp are being transferred onsite or nearby. See major federal prison closures and deactivations.

FMC Carswell holds a unit that is not about medicine

The Carswell Administrative Unit is where two Public Safety Factors send women regardless of their medical condition: a serious escape within the last ten years, including in the current term, and a prison disturbance finding (PS 5100.08 at p. 59). The unit “is designed to house females exhibiting any of the following: a history of escape or attempted escape from a secure institution; demonstrated repeated incidents of assaultive or predatory behavior; demonstrated chronic behavior problems; and/or special management concerns,” referrals go to the DSCC Administrator on a Request for Transfer/Application of Management Variable, and “the DSCC Administrator has final review authority” (PS 5100.08 at p. 102). Because the federal system has no high-security penitentiary for women — female institutions are classified Minimum, Low, High and Administrative only (PS 5100.08 at p. 15) — Carswell’s administrative unit performs a function that for men is spread across fifteen penitentiaries. See women’s federal prisons.

USP Florence ADMAX

One facility, in Florence, Colorado, and the only penitentiary the Bureau classifies as administrative security rather than high. People are referred there individually, and PS 5100.08 sets out the route: consider another high-security institution first; the Warden refers to the North Central Regional Director with a fixed packet — a rationale memorandum, all disciplinary reports and investigative material, a current Progress Report, the latest Presentence Report, and a recent psychiatric or mental health evaluation; the person must be assigned MAXIMUM custody before transfer; people “currently diagnosed as suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses should not be referred”; and the Regional Director’s answer ordinarily comes “within 60 calendar days after receiving the referral packet” (PS 5100.08 at pp. 100–102).

Alongside the general population sits the Control Unit, governed by PS 5212.07, Control Unit Programs. On admission, staff must give notice of the projected duration of confinement — “unit status” — which “may range from one month to any definite number of months” and is reduced day-for-day for time already spent in administrative detention awaiting placement, though not for time in disciplinary segregation (PS 5212.07 at p. 16).

We cover the ADX at greater depth on high-security federal prisons, the referral and appeal machinery on Control Unit Programs, and restrictive housing generally on solitary confinement and Special Housing Units.

Violence and safety in administrative-security facilities

We will not publish a violence rate for administrative facilities, because the Bureau does not publish one in the policy documents that govern designation and a figure nobody can source is no use to a family at 2am.

What is documented is that administrative facilities carry a structural risk no other level has: they mix every security level in one building. A facility “designed to house all security level inmates” (PS 5100.08 at p. 16) at “all custody levels” (PS 5100.08 at p. 14) can put a first-time defendant with a 3-point score on the same tier as someone scoring in the twenties, because neither is there on account of their score. Detention centers add constant population turnover and a large proportion of people who have not been convicted of anything.

The Bureau’s own mechanisms for managing that are the ones worth knowing:

• Separations. 28 C.F.R. § 524.72(f) creates the Central Inmate Monitoring separation assignment for people “who may not be confined in the same institution … with other specified individuals,” expressly including those who have testified or given authorities information about others. PS 7331.05 requires staff to “question the USMS employee about separatees” on admission (p. 9).
• Screening on arrival. The 48-hour initial assessment for pretrial inmates is separate from the medical and psychological screening (PS 7331.05 at p. 2), and identifies people who are escape risks, high-profile, or otherwise in need of closer supervision.
• Protective custody, which in practice means the Special Housing Unit — see protective custody.
• Appeal. A Central Inmate Monitoring classification may be appealed “at any time” through the Administrative Remedy Program (28 C.F.R. § 524.76); see prison grievances and our explainer on the Administrative Remedy Program.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

MCC New York came off BOP’s roster, verified 5 September 2026, along with FCI Dublin, FPC Pensacola and FCI Terminal Island. None of the four should be described as operating.

PS 6270.02, Medical Designations and Referral Services for Federal Prisoners, issued 7 May 2026 and rescinded PS 6270.01 (15 January 2005) — a twenty-one-year-old policy replaced. Among the changes: the local-management standard for hospitalization moved from five-to-ten days to seven to 14 days; new sections were added for Treatment Complete Referral Requests, forensic designations and Mental Health Care Level 4 designations; and the airlift hemoglobin requirement was set at 8 g/dL (PS 6270.02 at pp. 1–2).

PS 6031.06, Patient Care, took effect 22 June 2026 as part of a mass reissue of Bureau program statements, and carries the four-level medical classification quoted above (PS 6031.06 at p. 12).

PS 5214.05, Communications Management Units, took effect 26 February 2026, rescinding the 2015 edition and adding three CMU phases and an Enhanced Classification Range (PS 5214.05 at p. 1). See Communications Management Units.

PS 5100.08 picked up CN-3 on 6 May 2026, which rewrote Section 1 to record that in certain circumstances the Attorney General may exercise the designation authority directly, consistent with 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), and that absent notice of that intention the Bureau follows its own procedures (PS 5100.08 at p. 1).

The 1 July 2026 closure announcement removed six facilities and converted two camps to Federal Satellite Lows; the only administrative facility affected is the Lexington FMC satellite camp (BOP press release).

Where families get stuck with pretrial detention centers

“He’s at a detention center and nobody can tell us when he moves.”

That is normal and it is usually a Marshals question, not a Bureau one: pretrial detainees are USMS prisoners held under a memorandum of understanding (PS 7331.05 at p. 5). After sentencing, designation is made by the DSCC, and supporting documents are forwarded to the designated institution within two working days — or within one working day, by overnight mail, fax or electronically, if DSCC staff believe the person will arrive in under five calendar days (PS 5100.08 at p. 27).

“The locator shows a city we’ve never heard of.”

That is usually holdover status in transit. Mail and property follow later. Do not assume a designation has changed; check again in a week and confirm with the unit team at the designated institution.

“The scoring on his paperwork looks wrong.”

There is a documented route for this, and almost nobody uses it. On arrival, the Case Management Coordinator reviews the classification material and “verif[ies] the scoring of the Inmate Load and Security Designation form (BP-337). If a scoring issue and/or error is discovered, the CMC will contact the DSCC Administrator.” If the CMC and DSCC disagree about whether an error was made, “the Central Office, Correctional Programs Administrator, will make the final determination” (PS 5100.08 at p. 27). If the classification material has not arrived within 10 calendar days of designation, the institution is supposed to contact the DSCC.

“He needs medical care and they say he has to be transferred.”

Transfer to a medical referral center runs through a Re-Designation Referral Request (770) completed in the electronic health record and reviewed by OMDT. Critically, the institution keeps the duty to treat in the meantime: institutions “are responsible for scheduling and continuing all medically necessary treatment and ongoing medical care for inmates who have been approved for re-designation by OMDT, but who have not physically transferred” (PS 6270.02 at p. 8). That sentence is the answer to “we’re waiting on the transfer.” See medical care in federal prison.

Working with our team

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a nationwide federal practice with more than 20 years of federal and appellate criminal defense experience, run on an intentionally small caseload from offices in Columbia and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The administrative-security population is where our prison-side work is most time-sensitive, because so much of it happens before or around a designation: pushing a scoring error to the Case Management Coordinator and the DSCC Administrator on the route the policy actually provides, building a Re-Designation Referral Request package that OMDT can act on, documenting a separation before it becomes an incident, and making sure a medical condition that bars airlift transport is on the Exit Summary before somebody puts the person on a plane. Where the underlying question is legal — a challenge to a conviction, a sentence, or a term of confinement — the legal work is handled by Elizabeth Franklin-Best and the firm’s attorneys.

We cannot promise a designation, a transfer, or any other outcome; those are discretionary decisions of the Bureau under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b). To talk through a situation, contact our office at (843) 620-1100. If the underlying question is getting out earlier, see federal prison early release, compassionate release, or First Step Act time credits.

For the rest of the system, see minimum security, low security, medium security, high security and federal medical centers, or the overview at federal prison security levels.

Frequently Asked Questions About Administrative-Security Facilities

Authorities Cited

Every source relied on above, cited in full and linked once. Page references in the text are to the editions listed here.

• BOP Program Statement 5100.08 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification (Sept. 12, 2006), as amended by Change Notice CN-3 (May 6, 2026)
• BOP Program Statement 5212.07 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Control Unit Programs (Feb. 20, 2001)
• BOP Program Statement 5214.05 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Communications Management Units (Feb. 26, 2026)
• BOP Program Statement 5270.12 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Special Housing Units, as amended by Change Notice CN-1 (Mar. 6, 2025)
• BOP Program Statement 6031.06 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Patient Care (June 22, 2026)
• BOP Program Statement 6270.02 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Medical Designations and Referral Services for Federal Prisoners (May 7, 2026)
• BOP Program Statement 7331.05 — U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pretrial Inmates, as amended by Change Notice CN-1 (Feb. 27, 2025)
• 18 U.S.C. § 3142 — Release or detention of a defendant pending trial
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621 — Imprisonment of a convicted person
• 28 C.F.R. pt. 524 — Classification of Inmates
• 28 C.F.R. § 524.72 — CIM assignment categories (Subpart F — Central Inmate Monitoring System)
• BOP press release, July 1, 2026 — Federal Bureau of Prisons, Facility Closures and Conversions

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