FMC Lexington: Federal Medical Center, Kentucky

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

FMC Lexington at a glance

FMC Lexington is an administrative-security federal medical center at 3301 Leestown Road in Lexington, Kentucky, with a minimum-security satellite camp beside it. It held 1,262 people as of September 2026: 1,064 men in the medical center and 198 women at the camp. It is one of seven federal medical referral centers, and the only one the Bureau’s roster records as holding both men and women.

Official name	Federal Medical Center, Lexington
BOP code	LEX
Security level	Administrative; men (medical center) · Minimum; women (camp)
Population	1,262 (as of September 2026): 1,064 at the medical center, 198 at the camp
Visiting	Medical center: Monday, Thursday and Friday, 2:25–8:30 p.m. · Camp: Friday, 5:00–8:30 p.m. · Both: weekends and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Medical center: Inmate Name & Register Number · FMC Lexington · Federal Medical Center · P.O. Box 14500 · Lexington, KY 40512 Camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · FMC Lexington · Federal Medical Center · Satellite Camp · P.O. Box 14525 · Lexington, KY 40512
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	859-255-6812 · Fax 859-253-8821
Street address	3301 Leestown Road, Lexington, KY 40511 · Fayette County
Judicial district	Eastern District of Kentucky
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Housing	8 multiple-occupancy cell units and 8 open-bay or dormitory units; no single-cell units
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 72 segregation cells
Medical care level	Levels 3 and 4 (medical center); 1 and 2 (camp) · see care levels
Mental health care level	Level 3 (medical center); Level 2 (camp)
RDAP	Yes · two programs, one for co-occurring disorders
Sex offender treatment	No residential program
Camp	Yes · minimum security, women · closure announced in July 2026 · see camp closure

FMC Lexington is one of the federal prisons in Kentucky and sits in the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region.

Is FMC Lexington one prison or two?

FMC Lexington is two institutions on one campus, holding different people: an administrative-security medical center for men and a minimum-security satellite camp for women. As of September 2026 the medical center held 1,064 men and the camp 198 women. The 2024 PREA audit states it directly: “Female inmates are housed at the Camp.”

The camp also has a name the Bureau’s roster does not use. Its own handbook is titled “FMC Lexington and SCP Atwood Camp,” and the visiting rules inside it refer to “SCP Lexington Atwood inmates.” The roster calls the same place LEXINGTON-CAMP. All three names point at the same buildings.

Three things differ between the two sides:

What differs	Medical center	Camp
Mailing address	P.O. Box 14500, Lexington, KY 40512	P.O. Box 14525, Lexington, KY 40512
Weekday visiting	Monday, Thursday and Friday afternoons and evenings	Friday evening only
Softcover books	Publisher, book club or bookstore only	From any source

Lexington also has a county jail, the Fayette County Detention Center, and someone sentenced in a Kentucky state court will not appear in the Bureau’s inmate locator at all. Kentucky holds four other federal institutions, and none of them is a medical center: USP Big Sandy at Inez, USP McCreary at Pine Knot, FCI Manchester and FCI Ashland. Two of the four are penitentiaries, so a family told only “Kentucky” may be looking at a high-security prison three hours from here rather than at this one.

Is the satellite camp at FMC Lexington closing?

The Bureau announced the closure of FMC Lexington’s satellite camp on July 1, 2026, and the camp has not closed. As of September 2026 the Bureau’s records still carried the camp: 198 women on its population report, the camp mailing address still published, and the roster record still marked as having a camp. Nothing in any Bureau record says when the women will move or where.

The Bureau’s press release of July 1, 2026 says “the BOP will close the following institutions,” and the list includes “Lexington FMC Satellite Camp.” It adds that staff assigned there “will be transferred to other units onsite or nearby for continued employment with the BOP.” The reasons given are “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges” and “a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $4 billion.” There is no closure date anywhere in the document.

What has happened since is a drawdown, not a closure, in the Bureau’s own numbers:

BOP population record	Medical center	Camp	Total
June 11, 2026 (before the announcement)	1,101	231	1,332
September 10, 2026	1,064	198	1,262

Thirty-three fewer women in three months, on a base of 231. At that rate the camp does not empty this year. Compare Taft, named in the same release: its Bureau page now returns a 404 and it has gone from the roster. Compare Petersburg Low, also named: its published count has fallen to zero. Lexington’s camp shows neither signal.

If someone you love is at the camp, she is still there and the camp’s address and visiting days are still the ones to use — but a transfer can be ordered without notice to the family, so check the inmate locator before you travel, every time. And the Bureau’s current guide lists both residential drug abuse programs here at the medical center rather than the camp, a point for any woman counting on the sentence reduction that completing one can produce.

Closing the camp would end the last federal women’s housing at Lexington, and it would not be the first time. In July 1993 the Bureau decided to convert FMC Lexington from an all-female to an all-male institution, effective January 1995, because the all-male medical center at Carville, Louisiana was closing and land at Carswell Air Force Base had been donated for a new women’s institution. Thirteen women sued to stop their transfers and lost: Archer v. Reno, 877 F. Supp. 372 (E.D. Ky. 1995). FMC Carswell exists because of that decision, and so does the arrangement that left the remaining women here outside the fence.

Why is there a prison hospital in Lexington?

There is a prison hospital in Lexington because Congress built one here in 1929, before the Bureau of Prisons owned it. The National Archives summarizes the institution’s history:

“Opened as the Lexington Narcotics Hospital, May 29, 1935, pursuant to the Narcotic Farms Act (45 Stat. 1085), January 19, 1929, as one of two narcotics treatment facilities (the other was at Fort Worth, TX) under the Narcotics Division, Office of the Surgeon General, PHS, for addicted federal prisoners. Began accepting neuropsychiatric patients, 1942. Placed under NIMH, 1967, and designated a clinical research center. Closed, with facility transferred to Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, February 1974.”

National Archives, Guide to Federal Records, Record Group 511 § 511.2.3

Known locally as the Narcotic Farm, it was a Public Health Service hospital run by the Surgeon General’s office, not a Justice Department prison, for its first thirty-nine years — which is why the place is laid out as a hospital with lettered clinical buildings rather than as a prison with numbered units.

The 1929 Act authorized two narcotic farms. Both survive, and both are now Bureau medical referral centers: this one and FMC Fort Worth.

What is the security level at FMC Lexington?

FMC Lexington’s medical center is administrative security, and its camp is minimum security. Administrative is not a rung on the low-medium-high ladder; it is the category the Bureau uses for institutions with a special mission, and it means the institution takes people whose security scores would otherwise send them to very different places. The 2024 PREA audit records the custody levels in use here as “Administrative/Community, In, Out.” What put a person here is a clinical judgment, not a point total — and when the clinical reason ends, the score he always had decides where he goes next.

The physical plant is unusual, and the PREA audit is the only public census of it: thirty-four buildings. Sixteen housing units — eight multiple-occupancy cell units, eight open bay or dormitory, and not one single-cell unit. Seventy-two segregation cells. Designed capacity 1,517 against an average daily population of 1,279 in the twelve months to December 2024, and the auditor records that it was not over capacity at any point that year. Two units are named in the institution’s own records: Bluegrass, next to the visiting-room entrance, and Commonwealth, which a federal appeals court described as “a housing unit at FMC Lexington designed for inmates with mental health problems or other special needs.”

How does someone get designated to FMC Lexington?

Someone is sent to FMC Lexington by medical redesignation, a different process from an ordinary designation, run through a different office. The Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, say: “Medical designations and transfers are approved by the Central Office Medical Designator, Office of Medical Designations and Transportation (OMDT).” The Designation and Sentence Computation Center at Grand Prairie, which designates everyone else, does not make this call. Redesignations are “initiated for inmates with acute medical, surgical, or psychiatric condition, or for those inmates who have chronic care needs that cannot be addressed at the parent institution.”

The four care levels, and where Lexington sits

The Bureau’s patient care rules, Program Statement 6031.06 (2026), grade institutions on four care levels by “an analysis of the physical plant, community-based resources, local labor market, and impact on other correctional programs.” Level 4 is the top of it: “Care Level 4 institutions are the Bureau’s MRC,” holding people who “may require extensive medical and nursing care,” including 24-hour nursing and help with feeding, toileting and dressing.

The policy defines Care Level 4 institutions as the Bureau’s medical referral centers, and the roster lists FMC Lexington as one of the seven. The other six are FMC Butner, FMC Carswell, FMC Devens, FMC Fort Worth, FMC Rochester and the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri. Carswell is the only one designated for women; Lexington is the only one the roster records as mixed. The Bureau’s 2024 care-level charts are less tidy: the medical chart rates the medical center Care Levels 3 and 4 and the camp 1 and 2, while the same chart’s list by level files Lexington under 4 only.

The same policy sets a follow-up schedule: “Medical Care Level 4 inmates. Must be seen by an APP or physician for CCC follow-up every three months, or more often as clinically indicated.” For a patient classified Care Level 4 that is a quarterly obligation, and the same section sets six months for Care Level 3. A Level 4 patient who has not been seen in six months has gone past the Bureau’s own written standard. The Bureau’s undated mental health care-level chart rates the medical center Care Level 3 and the camp Level 2.

The BP-A0770, and who signs it

The instrument is the Medical/Surgical and Psychiatric Referral Request, BP-A0770 on the current forms and BP-770 in the older text of Program Statement 5100.08, which fixes who does what: “The HSA, with input from the Clinical Director and other providers involved with the inmate’s care … is responsible for completing the BP-770. The referring institution Warden must review the BP-770 and authorize the request for transfer.” The Medical Designator then approves or denies it and may change its urgency level.

The sequence has no step for the family, the sentencing judge or defense counsel; no one outside the institution can file a 770. What outside help can do is get complete, current specialist documentation in front of the Clinical Director at the sending institution, because the form is written there or not at all.

What the referring clinician writes in the urgency box decides how someone actually travels here. An emergency transfer requires “immediate, direct transportation” — air ambulance, air charter or ground ambulance. A routine or urgent transfer must reach the medical center “typically within two to three weeks of designation,” and the policy adds, for anyone whose relative is sitting in a county jail on the way here: “Holdover housing at a county jail or Bureau general population institution is not permissible.” A routine transfer “may travel by any available means,” which is the airlift.

One provision changes the forum entirely. A written objection to a psychiatric or mental-health transfer — the patient’s own, or counsel’s — makes “the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 4245” potentially applicable, and staff “will suspend transfer action in such cases and refer the matter to their Regional Counsel for review.”

Getting out again: the parent-facility rule

A medical designation is presumptively temporary, and one sentence in Program Statement 5100.08 controls the return trip: “Medical cases are normally returned to their parent facility unless the DSCC approves a change in the parent facility based on clinical justification provided prior to redesignation by the Medical Designator.”

The key words are prior to redesignation. If the case for staying at Lexington permanently — proximity to the University of Kentucky consultants, continuity with a treating clinician, a condition that will not stabilize — is going to be made, it has to be made on clinical grounds while the 770 is still moving. Left until afterward, the same argument is just a transfer request in the ordinary queue. The return itself is initiated here, by the clinicians treating him, on a Discharge Transfer Summary.

There is one other route in, and Lexington is unusual in offering it. The same policy lists the specialized national programs for which a person is ordinarily transferred, and the first is the residential drug treatment program. At most medical centers a person cannot have both a hospital and RDAP. Here he can.

What medical care does FMC Lexington provide?

FMC Lexington provides round-the-clock emergency care on both sides of the campus, a full outpatient hospital inside the medical center, and specialist care bought from the city. The institution’s handbook states the first part: “On-site emergency medical care is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in both the FMC and Camp.”

The institution names its outside providers in its own notice of privacy practices: “We may share information with community health care provides (i.e. the University of Kentucky Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital).” The 2024 PREA audit adds the Clinical Director’s confirmation that “the facility has a comprehensive medical contract with UK.” A prisoner at Lexington who needs a specialist is, in practice, a patient of a Lexington teaching hospital with an escort.

That pathway is real and it can be slow. A federal judge traced one route through it: a man ruptured a bicep tendon, was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center where a surgeon recommended a prompt MRI and possible surgery, and did not get the MRI for about four months. By then the surgeon said direct repair was no longer possible. His constitutional claim was dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies before any court reached the medical facts. Washington v. Adams, No. 5:19-cv-00073 (E.D. Ky. Oct. 4, 2019). The administrative remedy process therefore matters even when it feels pointless; see how to file a BP-9.

Sick call, pill line and the copay

Sick call runs four days a week on each side of the campus, and the two sides skip different days. At the medical center it is Monday through Friday except Thursdays, and a man reports to the Central Clinic — second floor of the “B” building — between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. At the camp it is Monday through Friday except Tuesdays, and a woman reports to the Medical Clinic between 7:00 and 7:15 a.m. The camp has its own radiology and medical records on site, so not every appointment means a move across the campus. Emergencies are seen at any time, but the handbook defines the term narrowly: “a condition that threatens life, limb, or sight. It is not a house call for a minor problem that can wait until sick-call.” Both clinics are restricted areas; arriving without a pass or a call-out is “out of bounds” and a disciplinary matter.

Dental sick call keeps its own calendar: sign-up at the medical center is Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 7:15 to 7:30 a.m.; at the camp it is Tuesday only, 6:30 to 7:00 a.m. Camp pill line runs 6:15–6:45 a.m., 2:45–3:00 p.m. for insulin and 5:15–6:00 p.m. for oral medication, with a 6:00–6:30 a.m. line on weekends. Medical supplies are issued on Thursdays, and the diabetic supply line is the first Thursday of the month.

The copay has a wrinkle peculiar to medical centers. The $2.00 fee for a self-requested visit applies to everyone “except inmates in inpatient status at a Medical Referral Center (MRC). All inmates in outpatient status at the MRCs and inmates assigned to the General Population at these facilities are subject to co-pay fees.” Live on a hospital unit and there is no charge; live in general population inside the same hospital and there is. Staff referrals, chronic care, emergencies and several other services carry no fee, and an indigent person pays nothing.

Advance directives and DNR orders

Program Statement 6031.06 limits where a do-not-resuscitate order is honored, which matters most to a family with a dying relative. Under it, a do-not-resuscitate order “will only be invoked and honored when an inmate is housed at a Care Level 4 facility (i.e., MRCs) or Care Level 3 facilities having a long-term care or inpatient mission approved by the Medical Director.” The same policy adds: “Emergency resuscitative measures must always be performed on an inmate who suffers cardiopulmonary arrest at a general population institution.”

An advance directive is treated the same way, and is honored only “while the inmate is under a physician’s direct care at a community health care facility, Care Level 4 facility (i.e., MRCs), or Care Level 3 facility having an approved long-term care or inpatient mission.” A living will signed before prison has no operative effect at an ordinary institution and acquires one here. Get an executed directive to the social work department on arrival, not after a crisis.

Social work is also where release planning starts, on a clock: social workers “will provide release and treatment planning for all Care Level 3 and 4 medical and mental health care levels with serious/chronic medical and mental health issues at least 90 days prior to release,” covering end-of-life care, advance directives and reduction-in-sentence requests. At a medical center the social worker, not the case manager, often moves a compassionate release request.

Is compassionate release harder from an FMC?

Compassionate release can be harder from an FMC on one provision, and the reason should shape a motion before it is drafted. The governing policy statement is USSG § 1B1.13, and the medical subsection most often used at a hospital is § 1B1.13(b)(1)(C): “a medical condition that requires long-term or specialized medical care that is not being provided and without which the defendant is at risk of serious deterioration in health or death.”

Every word of that provision turns on care that is not being provided. A man at Lexington is already at one of the Bureau’s seven medical referral centers, in a building with a pharmacy, a laboratory, a radiology department and a contract with a university hospital, and the government will say — correctly, as a matter of how the system is designed — that specialized care is exactly what he is receiving. Designation to a medical referral center is the government’s best answer to subsection (C), and a motion that does not anticipate it is unlikely to survive the response brief.

What defeats that answer is dates, not adjectives. The named treatment. The date it was ordered and by whom. The date it was due under the Bureau’s own standard — for a Care Level 4 patient, a clinician every three months. The date it happened, or the fact that it did not. The clinical consequence of the gap. Lexington’s own record shows what that looks like: an orthopedic surgeon’s recommendation for a prompt MRI, four months, and a tendon that could no longer be repaired.

The Bureau’s parallel route runs through the warden under its reduction-in-sentence rules, Program Statement 5050.51, which replaced 5050.50 on September 3, 2026 and has each warden name a reduction-in-sentence coordinator to log requests; Program Statement 6031.06 requires a facility with social workers to write local procedures that cover “RIS processing.” A family that wants both routes moving should ask the unit team, in writing, which social worker is assigned and whether a reduction-in-sentence packet has been opened.

Who are the notable inmates at FMC Lexington?

Two well-known people are held at FMC Lexington as of September 2026: Joseph Maldonado-Passage and Jeremiah Harris. The table gives each name’s status in the Bureau’s records, including people released from here.

Name and register number	Status (September 2026)	Case
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 26154-017	Held here; aged 63; projected release April 28, 2036	Known publicly as “Joe Exotic.” Convicted of murder-for-hire counts and wildlife offenses; resentenced in 2022
Jeremiah Harris, 55287-424	Held here; aged 27; projected release January 18, 2031	The former cheerleading coach from the Netflix series Cheer; pleaded guilty in 2022 to receiving child pornography and to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct
Michael McClain, 27683-509	Released from here April 15, 2026	Illinois lobbyist and former state legislator, convicted in the Commonwealth Edison bribery prosecution
Julie Chrisley, 72601-019	Released from here May 28, 2025	Reality television figure convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion
Mutulu Shakur, 83205-012	Released from here December 16, 2022	Convicted over the 1981 Brink’s robbery and shootout in Nyack, New York; died July 2023
Norman Hsu, 60590-054	Released from here May 28, 2019	Convicted of campaign finance violations and fraud
Larry P. Langford, 27349-001	Released from here December 29, 2018	Former mayor of Birmingham, Alabama; died January 2019

Four people often listed at FMC Lexington have a different last facility in the Bureau’s records.

Leona Helmsley (15113-054) was released on January 26, 1994, last facility the Bureau’s New York reentry office, code CNK — and the locator still lists her as 106, because it computes age from a date of birth and does not record death. Daniel Cowart (22540-076) was released on September 25, 2020, last facility RRM Nashville. Narseal Batiste (76736-004) was released on March 23, 2018, last facility RRM San Antonio. Susan Rosenberg (03684-016) was released on January 20, 2001, last facility FCI Danbury.

For someone released, a locator result gives only a status and a date, never a custody history, so it does not prove the person was never at Lexington. The record’s codes CNK, CNV and CSA are reentry offices, not institutions.

How do I find someone at FMC Lexington?

To find someone at FMC Lexington, search the Bureau’s free public inmate locator, using the eight-digit register number if you have it. The number is the only reliable key, because the locator matches the committed name on the judgment rather than the name anyone uses. Search “Jerry Harris” here and you get nothing: the Bureau’s record is under Jeremiah.

Lexington produces two kinds of failed search beyond the usual. A woman at the camp and a man at the medical center both show as “Lexington FMC” — code LEX in the record — so the locator will not tell you which side of the campus she is on or which post office box to use. And a medical redesignation can happen in days, so a result is a snapshot. Check it again the week you travel.

How do I write to someone at FMC Lexington?

To write to someone at FMC Lexington, use one of two post office boxes, with the committed name and the eight-digit register number on the first line, and the housing unit too if you know it. Mail without a register number is returned, the boxes differ between the two sides of the campus, and under the institution’s handbook “mail service is ordinarily provided Monday through Friday, weekend and holiday mail services are not provided” — so a letter posted Thursday from out of state is a Monday letter. The Bureau’s correspondence rules apply underneath.

For someone at the medical center	For someone at the camp
Inmate Name & Register Number FMC Lexington Federal Medical Center P.O. Box 14500 Lexington, KY 40512	Inmate Name & Register Number FMC Lexington Federal Medical Center Satellite Camp P.O. Box 14525 Lexington, KY 40512

The book rule differs between the two sides of one institution: “At the Camp, an inmate may receive softcover publications (other than newspapers) from any source. At the FMC, an inmate may receive softcover publications only from the publisher, a book club, or a bookstore.” So a paperback mailed from your own shelf reaches a woman at the camp and is refused at the medical center. Hardcover books are authorized at either only when no paperback exists, and need prior authorization by electronic request to the education department.

Legal mail is treated differently only if it is marked as special mail from an attorney, and the handbook puts the burden on the person inside: “It is the responsibility of the inmate to advise his/her attorney of these requirements. If legal mail is not adequately marked, it will be opened, read, and inspected as general correspondence.” Outgoing special mail goes to the mailroom during legal mail hours, 7:30 to 8:00 a.m., Monday to Friday.

How do I send money to someone at FMC Lexington?

Send money to someone at FMC Lexington through the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or one of two wire services, never to Lexington itself; all three routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number. The Bureau’s Sending Money page sets out the routes.

Route	Where it goes	How fast it posts
Postal money order	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	Non-postal money orders and non-government checks carry a 15-day hold; personal checks and cash are not accepted
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC; register number entered with no spaces or dashes, followed immediately by the last name; committed name on the attention line	Two to four hours for transfers sent 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern; otherwise by 7:00 a.m. the next morning
MoneyGram Express Payment	Receive code 7932; company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC. Online transfers capped at $300	Same as Western Union

The lockbox envelope must hold the money order and nothing else, with your name and return address in the upper left corner so the funds can come back if they cannot be posted.

Before sending a large sum, know the two ceilings. Commissary spending is capped at $460 a month, so anything above that sits in the account. And a person in “refuse” status under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program has a limit of $25.00 a month, cannot work for UNICOR, and “will not be considered for any favorable requests, i.e. (vacations, furloughs, early release, etc.).” If deposits keep arriving and nothing is spent, ask the unit team about refuse status first.

What are the visiting hours at FMC Lexington?

Visiting at FMC Lexington runs Monday, Thursday and Friday afternoons and evenings at the medical center, Friday evenings at the camp, and Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays at both. Those hours come from the institution’s admission and orientation handbook, dated August 31, 2017, the only published source for them. The Bureau’s visiting regulations apply underneath.

	Medical center	Camp
Weekdays	Monday, Thursday, Friday — 2:25 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.	Friday only — 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Weekends and federal holidays	8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Last admission	Processing of visitors stops at 8:15 p.m. on weekdays and 2:15 p.m. on weekends and holidays

The Bureau publishes no visiting supplement for this institution, though most federal prisons post one and Lexington’s own handbook refers to it, calling the visitor guidelines “an attachment to the Institution Supplement on Visiting Regulations.” The hours above therefore rest entirely on a nine-year-old handbook. Call 859-255-6812 before you drive, and do not plan a long trip around a Monday evening on the strength of this page or any other.

Who can visit, and the 16-point system

Visits are rationed by points, and the arithmetic differs between the two sides of the campus in a way that rewards planning. Each person gets sixteen points a month. A weekday visit costs two points and a weekend or holiday visit costs four. Then comes the Lexington wrinkle: “Friday is considered a weekend day for FMC Lexington inmates and four (4) points will be deducted. However, for SCP Lexington Atwood inmates, Friday is considered a weekday and (1) point is deducted.”

One point, not two: the same handbook sets weekday visits at two points and the camp’s Friday at one. Ask the counselor before budgeting a month of visits. Either way, a Friday at the medical center costs the same as a Sunday, and four full-price Sundays exhaust the month.

The rest of the rules on who may come:

• Immediate family — spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters — are ordinarily approved after the presentence report is reviewed; others after criminal record checks.
• Five visitors at one time. If more than five arrive they must alternate, and the ones waiting cannot stay on institution grounds. Approval for additional visitors goes to the counselor at least three weeks ahead.
• Children under sixteen must be accompanied by an adult family member. There is a supervised playroom; the incarcerated person may not enter it at any time.
• Clergy visits through Religious Services do not count against the limit. Attorney visits are by advance appointment through the unit team, “subject to visual monitoring, but not audio monitoring.”
• Visits to a patient in a community hospital are allowed only where the patient is “determined they are in critical condition,” and the final approving authority is the Associate Warden for Clinical Programs.

What visitors can wear and bring

The property rule is strict: “Authorized items are identification, car keys, lifesaving medication, and up to twenty dollars cash. No other items are authorized.” Everything else goes in an institution locker or stays in the car. The twenty dollars is for the vending machines; no food may be brought in, though infant-care items and sanitary napkins may.

Identification means a state driver’s license or state ID card, or two other forms carrying a photograph, full name and signature. The handbook is explicit that “Birth Certificates are not considered proper identification.”

The dress code is written against the uniform, so an ordinary pair of khaki-colored pants is barred, along with short shorts, halter tops and anything suggestive or revealing. No flip-flops or open-toed shoes. Hats, scarves and bandannas are not permitted in the visiting room. A coat may be worn in after it has been through the X-ray machine.

Everyone passes a metal detector; purses and briefcases are searched, and a visitor may be asked to submit to a pat search or a narcotics test, which may be declined at the cost of that day’s visit. Nothing may be exchanged in the visiting room.

Getting there

The handbook’s directions (2017): “The Federal Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky, is located approximately seven miles north of Lexington on U.S. Highway 421 (Leestown Pike). To drive to FMC Lexington from Interstate 64 or 75, take exit 115 to Kentucky Highway 922 and proceed to Highway 4 (New Circle Road) drive west on New Circle Road to exit 7, and take Highway 421 North for approximately 4 miles. The institution is on the right and its location is well marked.”

How do phone calls and email work at FMC Lexington?

Phone calls at FMC Lexington are placed from the inside; you cannot call in. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, each person gets 510 minutes a month: 300 free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and the other 210 available to buy, eligible or not, once those 300 are used up. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, there must be at least 30 minutes between completed calls, and the approved list holds thirty numbers. Calls use a personal access code from the correctional counselor; sharing it, three-way calls and call forwarding are disciplinary offenses.

Every call is recorded except a properly arranged unmonitored attorney call, which is also outside the 510-minute limit, and the threshold is specific: the person must “demonstrate to the Unit Team the need, such as an imminent court deadline,” arrange it through the case manager, and bear the expense. Anything placed on the ordinary inmate phones is monitored, whoever is on the other end.

Email runs on TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks; nothing passes until the person inside adds your address and you accept the invitation.

Two TRULINCS services solve problems families otherwise try to solve by phone. Prescription refill sends a request for self-carry medication straight to the pharmacy, faster than a cop-out and leaving a record. And the electronic request-to-staff menu includes, in the institution’s own description, “a standard DOJ Sexual Abuse Reporting mailbox available that provides inmate with an additional method to report allegations of sexual abuse and harassment directly to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).” The 2024 PREA audit adds how that works: “Through TRULINCS, the inmate can contact Office of the Inspector General anonymously and the email is untraceable at the institution level.”

What is in the FMC Lexington commissary?

The monthly commissary spending limit at FMC Lexington is the national ceiling of $460, set by the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360; the limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. Stamps do not count against it.

Three documents the Bureau publishes for this institution state a spending limit, and all three are out of date.

Document the Bureau publishes	Its date	The figure it prints
FMC Lexington commissary list	Revised February 2016	“Spending limit is $360.00 a month”
Camp commissary list (headed “FPC Lexington”)	Revised September 2015	“Spending limit is $360.00 a month”
Admission and orientation handbook	Updated August 31, 2017	“The National Spending Limit is 320.00”

Ten and eleven years old, and the handbook’s $320 is labeled the national limit when no national limit has been $320 since well before it was printed. Plan on $460, and confirm with the unit team before a large deposit: a local restriction below the national ceiling is possible and would appear in no published document.

The order forms are more useful than their prices. The camp’s list tells you who lives there: reading glasses and sunglasses, an eyeglass cord, an eight-inch fan, envelopes by the box of fifty — and a whole column of over-the-counter medicine, multivitamins with and without iron, vitamins C, B and E and calcium, under the rule “ALL OTC MEDS LIMITED – 2 PER ITEM.” Both lists cap stamps at $9.80, the camp’s adding “for a total of 20 stamps” per week. Two vitamin columns, at an institution whose recorded age range runs to 85, is the clearest picture of this population the Bureau publishes.

What programs are available at FMC Lexington?

FMC Lexington runs two residential drug abuse programs at the medical center, one of them for co-occurring disorders, along with literacy and GED classes, a dental assistant vocational program, psychology services and a hospice program.

Drug treatment: two RDAPs at the medical center

Residential drug treatment separates this institution from the other federal hospitals. The Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (2026), published by its Reentry Services Division, lists, in the Mid-Atlantic Region column of its residential drug abuse program locations, two entries for this institution: “FMC Lexington 1 (KY)” and “FMC Lexington 2 (KY) «”. The key at the foot of the same page reads: “« Co-occurring Disorder Program.”

Only three entries in the entire national list carry that mark — FMC Lexington, MCFP Springfield and FMC Carswell — and all three are medical referral centers. A co-occurring disorder program is residential drug treatment built for people whose substance use disorder sits alongside a serious mental illness, which is precisely the population a prison hospital holds.

In sentence terms, completing the residential program can produce a reduction of up to a year under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), and the Bureau’s designation policy names residential drug treatment first among the specialized programs for which a person is ordinarily transferred. At FMC Devens and FMC Rochester there is no RDAP at all, so a man who needs both a hospital and the program must choose which comes first. At Lexington the choice does not arise — a concrete, citable reason to ask for this institution rather than another.

Three cautions. Both programs are listed at the medical center, not the camp — the October 2020 edition of the same guide listed “SCP Lexington,” and the 2026 edition does not. Approval to offer a program is not a class running this quarter with a seat in it. And admission turns on nearness to release: the handbook records that people are ordinarily interviewed between 42 and 24 months out, so the conversation with the unit team happens years before anyone feels ready to have it.

Drug abuse education and the non-residential program run here as they do everywhere, under the Bureau’s national drug treatment rules.

Education, vocational training and the law library

Literacy and GED classes follow the Bureau’s national literacy rules. The institution’s own note is that the 2014 GED was fully implemented here after July 1, 2016 and is taken on computer, and that scores from earlier versions cannot be combined with it — so anyone who half-finished a GED before 2016 is starting again.

The dental department has limited space in a Department of Labor vocational program for dental assistants, applied for by written request — the surviving trace of the regional dental laboratory a federal court recorded here in 1995, operating since 1976.

Legal work is done in the electronic law library, with a copying machine in the education department for a nominal fee. One exception: a person with no funds who “can demonstrate a clear need for particular copies may submit a written request for a reasonable amount of free duplication through the unit team.”

Psychology, hospice and reentry

Psychology Services sits in the main corridor past food service and education. Beyond screening and individual work it names crisis intervention, grief counseling and groups in stress management, anger management, relationships and values clarification — and it coordinates the institution’s hospice and companion programs. A hospice program is not a routine prison offering; it exists here because people die here, and a family facing that should know which department runs it.

Two limits apply. The residential sex offender treatment program is at FMC Devens, not here. And the institution’s 2017 handbook states that “this institution does not have a Resolve Program,” the Bureau’s trauma treatment program — though the October 2020 First Step Act guide listed Lexington among Resolve sites, and the 2026 guide lists it again, naming FMC Lexington in the Resolve Program’s institution column. Whether it runs today is a question for psychology services. Escorted trips for treatment, a bedside visit or a funeral, and furloughs, both go through the unit team, and both are foreclosed by refuse status.

What is daily life like at FMC Lexington?

Daily life at FMC Lexington follows a hospital timetable laid over a prison one. Wake-up is 6:00 a.m.; the uniform — khaki shirt and khaki pants — is required from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays; and the day is cut into pieces by counts and by movement rules that decide when a person can be anywhere.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Official counts	At least five in every 24 hours; stand-up counts at 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.	An additional count at 10:00 a.m.; stand-up counts at 10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.
Movement	Pass system 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; more than ten minutes in transit is a disciplinary matter	Controlled movement, beginning ten minutes before the hour; the compound is secured at 9:30 a.m. for the 10:00 a.m. count
Call-outs	Posted on the unit bulletin board after 4:00 p.m. the day before; checking them daily is the individual’s responsibility, and missing one can bring an incident report
Meals	Unit meal rotation is set by weekly sanitation ratings — the cleanest unit eats first and the lowest-rated eats last

The schedule is the 2017 handbook’s; schedules change without notice, so treat it as the shape of the day. Property rules are strict and enforced: one radio or MP3 player and one watch, a plain wedding band and a religious medallion without stones, no blue, black, red or camouflage clothing, and an identification card carried the moment a person leaves their cell.

What do inspectors say about FMC Lexington?

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its file on FMC Lexington is nonetheless one of the largest of any federal prison in the country, made of criminal cases rather than inspection reports.

The Inspector General has selected this institution into two national reviews. In a 2015 review of the aging federal prison population, the team held video teleconferences with five institutions — Fort Worth, Lexington, Carswell, Forrest City and Seagoville — chosen “because they had a combination of a high number and a high percentage of aging inmates in their populations.” In a 2020 review of pharmaceutical costs and procurement, Lexington was one of six institutions whose staff were interviewed. The Inspector General also publishes per-institution results for “Lexington FMC” in its 2021 survey of Bureau staff on the COVID-19 response. The DC Corrections Information Council has not inspected Lexington.

The 2024 PREA audit

FMC Lexington was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on December 3–5, 2024 by an independent auditor, Lori Fadorick of Corrections Consulting Services, who issued her final report on January 8, 2025. The Bureau’s facility page links that current report; the file still served at the older address, lex_prea.pdf, is the superseded audit of January 2022, by Brian Sutherland after an on-site visit of November 16–18, 2021. The institution passed: forty-five standards met, none exceeded, none unmet. The warden recorded is David Paul, the PREA compliance manager Corey Kirby, Associate Warden for Clinical Programs, and the health services administrator Gretchen Crouch.

The audit’s first-day census gives a detailed picture of who lives here. Of 1,280 people held on December 3, 2024: nine with a physical disability, thirty-four with a cognitive or functional disability, two deaf or hard of hearing, twenty-seven with limited English, four identifying as transgender or intersex — and eleven who had reported sexual abuse in this facility. The age range ran from 18 to 85.

In the twelve months before the audit the institution recorded nine allegations of sexual abuse — seven inmate-on-inmate and two staff-on-inmate — and two allegations of sexual harassment. Of the administrative investigations, two were ongoing, four were closed as unfounded and three as unsubstantiated. None was substantiated; the auditor’s narrative says there were “no substantiated allegations against staff during the audit period.” A PREA audit measures compliance over a twelve-month window using the institution’s own files. It is not a finding that nothing happened; here the public record of what happened is the Inspector General’s case file below.

Three things in the audit are immediately useful to a family. FMC Lexington has a written agreement with Ampersand, the rape crisis center in Lexington, reached through the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs; psychology staff here are separately trained as victim advocates. Forensic examinations are done by a sexual assault nurse examiner at a community hospital, at no cost. And on outside reporting the auditor is explicit: “Family and friends of inmates may report sexual abuse/harassment by using the BOP website, making a phone call to the OIG or by contacting facility staff.” A family does not have to wait for the person inside to report. See sexual assault in federal prison.

The Inspector General’s case file on this prison

Twenty-two public criminal and civil case announcements from the Office of the Inspector General are indexed to FMC Lexington, running from 2016 to July 2026. The Inspector General maintains a field presence here: its most recent announcement about this prison describes the investigation as conducted by “the OIG’s Lexington Locale and the FBI.”

A run of those cases concerns staff sexual abuse of women in custody, and the Inspector General named this institution in Senate testimony. Testifying to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on November 2, 2022, Michael Horowitz said: “Recently, a drug treatment specialist at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington was sentenced to 80 months in prison for sexually assaulting four women, each of whom was enrolled in his drug treatment classes.”

The announcements, newest first:

Date	What the Inspector General announced
July 23, 2026	Jonathan Vago, a former correctional officer, pleaded guilty to falsification of records — “on or about June 28, 2025, Vago falsified a report regarding a physical assault on an inmate by BOP staff”
May 20, 2026	A former correctional officer pleaded guilty to falsification of records and deprivation of rights under color of law
February 13, 2026	Ariell Zulewski, a former recreational specialist, sentenced to 12 months for abusive sexual contact and receipt of an illegal gratuity
February 11, 2026	A. Jade Howard, a former materials handler supervisor, sentenced to 12 months and a day for bribery of a public official
December 13, 2024	Jacob Salcido, a correctional officer, sentenced on three counts of sexual abuse of a ward — sexual acts with three women between September and December 2020
December 19, 2023	A senior officer specialist sentenced to 18 months for sexual abuse of a ward; the plea records that he later threatened and intimidated the victim
July 29, 2022	A drug treatment specialist sentenced to 80 months for sexual abuse of a ward
June 10, 2022	A correctional officer sentenced to 135 months for deprivation of rights under color of law and sexual abuse of a ward
2016–2019	A nurse and an officer prosecuted for bribery; a counselor convicted of smuggling tobacco for payments; a fourth person convicted at trial in a contraband scheme

Those are convictions and sentences, not allegations. They span four wardens and ten years.

Litigation out of FMC Lexington

Three federal decisions out of this institution decide questions a family would otherwise learn about the hard way.

• B.B. v. United States, No. 5:24-cv-00200 (E.D. Ky. December 12, 2024). A woman assaulted twice in a week in June 2022 by a Lexington officer who was later prosecuted and sentenced sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The court held that the FTCA does not waive sovereign immunity for the assaults themselves, because under Kentucky law and Sixth Circuit precedent sexual assault of a prisoner falls outside a correctional officer’s scope of employment; that the discretionary function exception barred her negligence claims about layout, camera coverage, staffing, supervision and training; but that the exception does not reach a claim that staff failed to timely report and investigate, because Program Statement 5324.12 and 28 C.F.R. §§ 115.61 and 115.71 impose nondiscretionary duties. That last claim cleared the jurisdictional bar and was then dismissed for failure to plead breach and causation.
• L.C. v. United States, No. 5:21-cv-00124 (E.D. Ky. April 19, 2022). The plaintiff was assaulted over three months in 2019 by the BOP employee who taught her RDAP aftercare class; he was barred from the institution after other women reported him and later prosecuted. The court dismissed her FTCA assault and battery claims and her negligent-confinement theory, and let the case proceed on negligent hiring and negligent training. Read with B.B., the two draw one line: the theories that survive here are about what the Bureau did before and after, not about the assault.
• Cuco v. Federal Medical Center, 257 F. App’x 897 (6th Cir. December 13, 2007). A deliberate-indifference case over the treatment of anemia here. One ground of decision surprises lawyers unfamiliar with prison hospitals: the FTCA’s exclusivity provision barred the constitutional claims against individual defendants who were commissioned officers of the U.S. Public Health Service. At an institution that began life as a Public Health Service hospital, the identity of the clinician decides which statute applies.

One further decision is a warning rather than a rule. In Gray v. Johnston, No. 5:21-cv-00137 (E.D. Ky. November 24, 2021), a transgender prisoner’s claims for declaratory and injunctive relief about conditions here were held moot once she was transferred to FMC Devens. A transfer can extinguish a case about the place a person has just left — a reason to file early and to plead damages where they are available.

FMC Lexington in the news

Recent news about FMC Lexington centers on a former correctional officer’s July 2026 guilty plea and the Bureau’s announcement that it will close the satellite camp; older items concern staff sentencings, the Inspector General’s 2022 Senate testimony and deaths reported by the Bureau from 2020 to 2023.

• July 23, 2026 — the Inspector General announced that Jonathan Vago, a former correctional officer at FMC Lexington, pleaded guilty to falsifying a report about a physical assault on a prisoner by Bureau staff in June 2025.
• July 1, 2026 — the Bureau of Prisons announced that it would close six institutions, among them the Lexington FMC satellite camp, citing “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges” and a maintenance backlog above $4 billion. Staff at the camp were to be moved to other units on site or nearby. As of September 2026 the camp is still open and holds 198 women.
• February 13, 2026 — a former recreational specialist was sentenced to twelve months for abusive sexual contact and receipt of an illegal gratuity; two days earlier a former materials handler supervisor was sentenced for bribery of a public official.
• May 2020 to April 2023 — the Bureau posted 11 news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FMC Lexington; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• November 2, 2022 — Inspector General Michael Horowitz named FMC Lexington in testimony to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on sexual abuse of women in Bureau custody.

Frequently asked questions about FMC Lexington

Problems at FMC Lexington: where we can help

The problems we help with at FMC Lexington are the ones its own record shows recurring, and they are worth raising early, in writing.

• Care ordered and not delivered — a consultation never scheduled, records from the University of Kentucky that never come back, a chronic care appointment missed past the three-month standard the Bureau sets for Care Level 4 patients. The route is a written request to staff, then the administrative remedy process — and, as the MRI case above shows, a claim can be lost on exhaustion before a judge reads the medical facts. Where negligence has caused injury, a Federal Tort Claims Act claim is the separate route, and it has its own obstacle here: when the estate of a man beaten to death in a housing unit at this institution sued under the Act, the Sixth Circuit held the claim barred by the discretionary function exception, because 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a) tells the Bureau to protect prisoners without telling it how. Montez v. United States, 359 F.3d 392 (6th Cir. 2004).
• Abuse by staff, and what can be brought. B.B. and L.C. together mark the line: the assault itself is outside the FTCA, and the theories that survive are about hiring, training, and the Bureau’s nondiscretionary duties to report and investigate under Program Statement 5324.12 and 28 C.F.R. §§ 115.61 and 115.71.
• Getting someone out. Compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), where designation to a medical referral center is the government’s strongest argument and the Bureau’s own treatment dates are the answer to it; and the reduction-in-sentence route to the warden, logged by the institution’s coordinator under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules, Program Statement 5050.51. See our federal prison early release practice.
• Designation and transfer — making the clinical case for a permanent change of parent facility before redesignation rather than after, objecting under 18 U.S.C. § 4245 to a psychiatric transfer, and arguing for the institution that has both a hospital and residential drug treatment.
• 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 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 the federal prison policy material on this site; he is not counsel of record, and legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

• FMC Lexington, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page.
• FMC Lexington and SCP Atwood Camp Inmate Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FMC Lexington, 2017.
• FMC Lexington Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FMC Lexington, 2016.
• Commissary List, FPC Lexington, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FMC Lexington, 2015. The camp’s list.
• 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. Replaced Program Statement 5050.50 (2019).
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Sexually Abusive Behavior Prevention and Intervention Program, Program Statement 5324.12, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015.
• 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.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (October 2020), Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2020.
• 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.
• Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020–2023.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FMC Lexington, Corrections Consulting Services, 2025. On-site audit of December 3–5, 2024, by Lori Fadorick, an independent auditor.
• PREA Audit Report: Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington, Brian Sutherland, independent auditor, 2022. On-site audit of November 16–18, 2021; superseded by the 2025 report.
• Statement of Michael E. Horowitz, Sexual Abuse of Female Prisoners in the Custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. Testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
• 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. Includes per-institution results.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Pharmaceutical Drug Costs and Procurement (Report 20-027), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Report 15-05), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015. Revised February 2016.

Court records

• Former BOP Correctional Officer Arrested and Pleaded Guilty to Falsification of Records, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Jonathan Vago’s guilty plea.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Arrested and Pleaded Guilty to Falsification of Records and Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026.
• Former BOP Recreational Specialist Sentenced for Abusive Sexual Contact and Receipt of an Illegal Gratuity, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Ariell Zulewski’s sentence.
• Former BOP Materials Handler Supervisor Sentenced for Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. A. Jade Howard’s sentence.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Correctional Officer Sentenced for Three Counts of Sexual Abuse of a Ward, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024. Jacob Salcido’s sentence.
• B.B. v. United States, No. 5:24-cv-00200, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 2024.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Sexual Abuse of a Ward, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. The senior officer specialist’s 18-month sentence.
• Former BOP Drug Treatment Specialist Sentenced for Sexual Abuse of an Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. The drug treatment specialist’s 80-month sentence.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Civil Rights Violations and Sexual Abuse of an Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. The correctional officer’s 135-month sentence.
• L.C. v. United States, No. 5:21-cv-00124, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 2022.
• Gray v. Johnston, No. 5:21-cv-00137, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 2021.
• Washington v. Adams, No. 5:19-cv-00073, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 2019. Docket, including the October 2019 decision.
• Fourth Individual Convicted in Scheme to Smuggle Contraband into Lexington Federal Prison, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2017.
• Former Counselor at Federal Prison in Kentucky Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charge, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• Former Corrections Officer at Lexington Federal Prison Pleads Guilty to Bribery, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• Former Nurse at Federal Prison in Lexington Sentenced for Bribery, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• Cuco v. Federal Medical Center, 257 F. App’x 897, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2007.
• Montez v. United States, 359 F.3d 392, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2004.
• Archer v. Reno, 877 F. Supp. 372, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, 1995.

News and other sources

• Guide to Federal Records: Records of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (Record Group 511), National Archives and Records Administration. Section 511.2.3 covers the Lexington, Kentucky, Clinical Research Center.
• Narcotic Farms Act, 45 Stat. 1085, U.S. Statutes at Large, 1929.
• U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.13, Reduction in Term of Imprisonment Under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2025.
• 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), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a), Duties of Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 4048, Fees for health care services for prisoners, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 4245, Hospitalization of an imprisoned person suffering from mental disease or defect, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 115.61, Staff and agency reporting duties, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 115.71, Criminal and administrative agency investigations, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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