FTC Oklahoma City: Transit Stays, Mail, Money and Visits

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

FTC Oklahoma City at a glance

FTC Oklahoma City, the Federal Transfer Center, is the Bureau of Prisons’ administrative-security transit hub at Will Rogers World Airport. It holds men and women between one place and the next — on the way to a federal prison, a courtroom or a parole hearing — along with a small work cadre designated here to run the building. As of September 2026 it held 1,233 people.

Official name	Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City
BOP code	OKL
Security level	Administrative; men and women
Population	1,233 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · no entry after 2:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Inmate name and register number · FTC Oklahoma City · Federal Transfer Center · P.O. Box 898801 · Oklahoma City, OK 73189
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	405-682-4075 · Fax 405-680-4043
Street address	7410 S. MacArthur Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73169 · Oklahoma County
Judicial district	Western District of Oklahoma
BOP region	South Central
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	Not offered

The center stands at 7410 S. MacArthur Boulevard in Oklahoma County, in the Western District of Oklahoma and the Bureau’s South Central Region. It is the only institution of type “FTC” on the Bureau’s roster, and a supervisor in the Marshals Service’s air operations, quoted by the Marshals in 2024, calls it a prison that “actually connects to the airfield,” so prisoners walk from the building onto the plane through a jetway.

Is FTC Oklahoma City a prison, and is it the same as FCI El Reno?

It is a federal prison, but most people in it are passing through, and it is not FCI El Reno. The Bureau’s roster lists two federal prisons in Oklahoma: this center, code OKL, and FCI El Reno, code ERE, a medium-security prison for men in Canadian County, west of the city. If a relative’s locator entry suddenly reads “Oklahoma City FTC,” you are looking at a stop on the way somewhere else, and this page’s address, visiting rules and phone number apply.

The Bureau’s roster compares the two this way, with populations as of September 2026.

	FTC Oklahoma City (this page)	FCI El Reno
Bureau code	OKL	ERE
Population (September 2026)	1,233	1,160
Security level	Administrative, any level	Medium, with a minimum-security camp
Men, women or both	Both	Men
Why people are there	Transit, writs, parole matters, work cadre	Serving sentences
Main number	405-682-4075	405-262-4875

How the airlift works

The U.S. Marshals Service runs the airlift, and its fleet operations are based in Oklahoma City. The Marshals say the Justice Prisoner Air Transportation System (JPATS), created in 1995, handles over 1,000 movement requests a day, schedules them from Kansas City, and keeps its “Air fleet operations center” in Oklahoma City. It was the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System until December 19, 2024. The Marshals’ 2025 fact sheet counts 265,969 federal prisoner movements in fiscal year 2024, 101,090 of them by air, and a Marshals feature (2024) says flights make up to three stops and rarely run past four hours.

The Bureau’s Receiving and Discharge Manual, Program Statement 5800.19 (2026), says each trip runs on a JPATS manifest listing approved holdover points, and treats movement as sensitive information staff may not discuss in front of prisoners. A 2016 Bureau feature said about 86,000 people passed through in 2015.

Holdovers and the work cadre

Two groups live here under different rules. Most people are holdovers, whom the Bureau’s rules for pretrial inmates, Program Statement 7331.05, define as prisoners “en route to a designated institution”: Marshals holdovers remain Marshals prisoners in beds allocated to the Marshals, while Bureau holdovers are moving between Bureau prisons. The holdover handbook adds people moved for immigration authorities or the Parole Commission and parole violators awaiting hearings. The second group is the cadre, whose handbook says a primary goal is “to provide a constant workforce for the institution”; in 2016 the Bureau counted 175 low-security prisoners designated here. Only the cadre gets the usual features of a sentence: classification, program reviews, regular jobs and a weekly commissary.

Both groups include women: the holdover handbook says the center “houses both male and female holdover inmates,” and the Inspector General photographed a fifth-floor cellblock that “houses female pre-trial inmates.”

What is the security level at FTC Oklahoma City?

FTC Oklahoma City is an administrative-security institution, so it can hold people of any security level. The Bureau defines administrative facilities as institutions “with special missions,” names the Federal Transfer Center among them, and says those other than ADX Florence “are capable of holding inmates in all security categories.” The March 2024 PREA audit lists custody levels “Admin, LOW/COM/IN, MAX, OUT,” and a 2018 federal prosecutor’s release said the center “houses inmates ranging from maximum security to minimum security.”

A holdover’s security level was set for the destination, not here. The Bureau’s classification manual, Program Statement 5100.08, keeps holdovers at their initial custody level until the first review at the designated prison, and the holdover handbook is blunt: “Requests for re-designation are not reviewed at this facility for holdovers.” Safety concerns about the destination must be raised “immediately upon arrival at that facility, during the intake screening process.” Our guides to security designation and custody classification and how designation works explain who decides. One national rule fits a hub like this: the Intake Screening statement, Program Statement 5295.01 (2026), says that when a prisoner is booked on the same plane, bus or van as a person they must be kept apart from, staff shall take one or more of them off that transport.

The center’s medical and mental health care levels are both Level 2 on the Bureau’s care-level charts (2024). A 2025 sheet from the D.C. Corrections Information Council lists the center as “OTF” with “NA” care levels; the Bureau’s charts control, and the code is OKL.

How long do people stay at FTC Oklahoma City?

Usually several weeks, though no Bureau document promises a length. The 2017 holdover handbook says “the average length of stay is 4 to 6 weeks,” and that “it is not uncommon for an inmate to be held for more than 60 days due to a re-designation while in-transit, WRIT, ICE releases, airplane/vehicle repairs, etc.” Staff begin tracking a holdover after 30 days “to ensure they are not unnecessarily delayed.”

Departures follow their own logic. “Movement is normally based upon when you were designated; not when you arrived at the FTC,” so someone who arrived later may leave first, and “for security reasons, staff WILL NOT tell you when you are leaving.” Other official figures range from days to months.

Source (date)	What it says about length of stay
Bureau feature (2016)	“an average stay of approximately 30 days”
Holdover handbook (2017)	Average 4 to 6 weeks; over 60 days “not uncommon”; tracking after 30 days
Center staff, quoted by the Inspector General (February 2024)	Before the pandemic, “anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks”; during COVID-19 disruptions, “up to several months”
Inspector General interview (February 2024)	One holdover had been at the center for 4 months

The Inspector General added that longer stays “were particularly challenging for holdover inmates because their access to personal property, commissary, programming, recreation, and care was much more limited” than at ordinary Bureau prisons. Two national rules also bear on long stays. People within 60 days of release are ordinarily not moved (Program Statement 5800.19). And the trust fund manual, Program Statement 4500.13 (2026), switches an account to “released” once the Bureau’s system has carried its owner as prolonged-in-transit for 120 days; a person back in Bureau custody gets the balance the next business day after the system records the change.

Who are the notable people who have passed through FTC Oklahoma City?

The notable names here are people who passed through rather than people serving sentences. The table gives each person’s status in the Bureau’s records as of September 2026.

Person (register number)	What the record shows	Bureau record (September 2026)
Joshua Duggar (42501-509)	At the transfer center by June 29, 2026, when Us Weekly reported him there (Gray News later dated the move July 1), then moved to a federal prison in Ohio (Us Weekly, June 29, 2026; KHBS, July 7, 2026; KMVT/Gray News, July 12, 2026)	FCI Elkton, Ohio; projected release February 2, 2033
James “Whitey” Bulger (02182-748)	Taken here on October 23, 2018, on the way from USP Coleman II to USP Hazelton (Inspector General, December 2022)	Died October 30, 2018, at USP Hazelton
Darius Ghahary (71156-050)	Found unresponsive in his cell and declared dead at a hospital; he had arrived October 17, 2017, bound for North Dakota (KOKH, October 22, 2017)	Death recorded at OKL, October 21, 2017
Kenneth Trentadue (51098-098)	Found hanged in a cell in August 1995 while held for a parole revocation hearing (10th Cir. 2005)	Death dated August 21, 1995, recorded under the South Central Regional Office, not OKL

Bulger’s case shows what the locator reveals during a move. The Inspector General’s review of the Bulger transfer found that on October 26, 2018, “several media outlets reported that Bulger had been moved to the Oklahoma FTC, citing the BOP website’s inmate locator portal.” Ghahary’s case shows a gap between the news and the record: KOKH reported on Sunday, October 22, 2017 that he had been found the previous Friday, October 20, while the locator dates his death October 21.

How do I find someone at FTC Oklahoma City?

Search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, ideally by register number; while someone is housed here, the location reads “Oklahoma City FTC.” The locator is “updated on this website daily” and needs an exact name, because “Searching for John Doe will not find Jon Doe.” “IN TRANSIT,” in the Bureau’s words, “means the inmate has been moved from a BOP facility, and may or may not be returned,” as when the Marshals remove a pretrial prisoner whom a court then releases. A release date of “UNKNOWN” means the term is not yet determined.

You will not be told the travel date. The Marshals Service’s 2025 fact sheet says it discloses no transportation details for a prisoner in transit beyond confirming custody and, afterward, that the move is complete. The Bureau’s classification manual bars releasing a designation to the public before arrival and says a prisoner may learn the destination “but will not be advised of the date or time of the transfer.” The sign that a move has finished is the new institution’s name on the locator; until then, assume the person may leave at any hour.

How do I write to someone at FTC Oklahoma City?

Send letters to the center’s post office box, with the committed name and register number on the first line, as the Bureau’s facility page gives it:

Inmate name and register number
FTC Oklahoma City
Federal Transfer Center
P.O. Box 898801
Oklahoma City, OK 73189

The handbooks print the ZIP code as 73189-8801. On the Bureau’s facility page the street address also serves freight and non-USPS parcels, and staff mail has its own box, 898802. The Bureau’s correspondence rules sit behind these local ones, and our guide to writing to someone in federal prison explains what gets rejected system-wide.

For holdovers, the 2017 handbook says mail is handed out on weekdays after the 4:00 p.m. count, and each holdover gets government postage for three one-ounce letters a week, with unit staff putting the stamps on the envelopes on Wednesdays; holdovers may not keep stamps. That follows the national correspondence rule, Program Statement 5265.14, which gives holdovers “a reasonable number of stamps” at government expense and suggests three letters a week. Do not mail stamps or anything else of value, because holdovers are “NOT AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE ANYTHING OF VALUE UNLESS AUTHORIZED BY A STAFF MEMBER.” Mail that arrives after a transfer is not lost: national rules forward general correspondence for 30 days and legal mail by all practicable means (28 C.F.R. § 540.25).

Attorney mail is protected only if the envelope shows the lawyer’s name and title and is marked “Special Mail – Open only in the presence of the inmate” or similar; otherwise staff may open it as ordinary mail (holdover handbook).

Almost no property travels with a holdover. The handbook says personal property “is not received at the FTC unless you are traveling on a WRIT or you are a Parole Violator (PV),” and even then only litigation material, and that stored property “is forwarded to your designated institution after you leave the FTC.” The national property statement, Program Statement 5580.10 (2026), limits a holdover to “the necessary personal items and legal materials for active court cases,” though approved daily prayer items are reissued “at all holdover points.” See our guide to inmate personal property.

How do I send money to someone at FTC Oklahoma City?

Deposits go through the Bureau’s national system, and each route on its Send Money page begins by telling senders to wait until the person “has physically arrived” at a Bureau facility. The transfer center is one, so money can be sent while someone is here.

• MoneyGram: company Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC; receive code 7932; account number is the eight-digit register number followed by the last name, with no spaces. Online transfers are capped at $300 and need a MasterCard or Visa.
• Western Union: code city FBOP, DC, with the same account format, at an agent, by phone, online or through Send2Corrections.
• Mail: a money order, U.S. government check, certified or cashier’s check or bank draft, bearing the committed name and register number, to Federal Bureau of Prisons, Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001. Non-postal money orders and non-government checks are held 15 days, foreign instruments 45; cash and personal checks are refused.

The Bureau posts an electronic transfer within two to four hours if it is sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and a later one at 7:00 a.m. the next day; questions about a deposit go to 202-307-2712, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The cadre handbook’s list of accepted instruments, which includes cash, conflicts with that page, which controls. Each route is walked through step by step in our guide to sending money to federal inmates.

Money buys little here. A holdover who is not a unit orderly can spend personal funds only on over-the-counter medicine, according to the 2022 order sheets, though the account still pays for direct-dial calls and the $2.00 co-pay on a requested sick-call visit.

What are the visiting hours at FTC Oklahoma City?

Visiting is on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, but the Bureau’s own documents disagree about the hours, and the disagreement matters most to families of holdovers.

Document (date)	Weekends	Federal holidays	When entry stops
Visiting supplement OKL 5267.09C (August 25, 2025)	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	After 2:00 p.m.; also from 9:00 a.m. (8:50 in its Attachment A) until the 10:00 a.m. count clears
Cadre handbook, English (February 17, 2026)	Designated prisoners 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; holdovers 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.	Designated prisoners 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Arrivals after 2:15 p.m.; also from 9:00 a.m. until about 10:20 a.m.
Cadre handbook, Spanish (February 17, 2026)	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Arrivals after 2:00 p.m.; also from 8:50 a.m. until about 10:20 a.m.
Holdover handbook (2017)	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Arrivals after 2:15 p.m.

The supplement is the center’s formal visiting rule and the file the Bureau’s facility page links as “Visiting Schedule & Procedures,” so it controls. The English cadre handbook is newer, and its morning-and-afternoon split may record a local change, yet the Spanish edition of the same date has no split, and the Bureau has published nothing to settle it. Call 405-682-4075 before you travel and ask about holdover hours. As of September 2026 the Bureau’s page for the center carried no visiting notice. See the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our guide to federal prison visitation.

Who can visit a holdover, and who can visit the cadre

A holdover may be visited only by immediate family (mother, father, spouse, children, brother or sister), verified from the presentence report or the Marshals transfer packet and approved by the holdover unit team. Approved forms carry an expiration date “of no more than 60 days from the date of issuance,” and people “in transfer, pre-sentence, or pre-trial status will not be allowed to add visitors to their visiting lists.” National policy permits that limit for holdovers who arrive with no visiting list or other verification (Program Statement 5267.09; 28 C.F.R. § 540.50(a)). The holdover handbook’s warning matters most: “DO NOT tell anyone to come visit you until you are certain approval has been granted by your Unit Team,” and weigh “the possibility of you being transferred prior to their arrival.”

Cadre visiting follows ordinary rules: visitors should have known the prisoner before incarceration, a list holds up to 20 names, and requests are ordinarily answered within seven working days. Anyone not on a list must write to the counselor at least three weeks ahead.

For everyone, no more than five visitors, children included, may visit at once, and a 16- or 17-year-old who comes without a parent, guardian or adult family member needs a parent’s or guardian’s written approval. When the room overcrowds, visits end first for volunteers, then for prisoners whose visitors are local, then for those whose visitors came from the tri-state area, so nearby families are sent home early on a busy day. Special Housing Unit visits run by teleconference, and there is “no outdoor visiting at this institution.” Lawyers need a state bar card, may ask for a weekday visit when an imminent court deadline is verified, and are promised scheduling “as soon as safely possible” after a disruption.

What visitors can wear and bring

No khaki, hunter green or orange, and no skinny jeans, shorts, mini-skirts, skorts, leggings or jeggings; pants narrower at the hem than at the knee are too tight, and hooded coats are refused. A visitor may carry a clear coin purse up to 6 by 10 inches and, for a baby, one small non-quilted blanket, three diapers per child, three pre-mixed bottles in clear plastic, an empty spill-proof cup, up to 20 wipes, a tube of diaper-rash ointment and a bib, all in a clear bag no larger than 12 by 12 inches. Everything else stays in the car or a front-entrance locker. Food comes from vending machines, and a visitor who leaves the visiting room cannot return that day.

Identification, screening and the count

Visitors need government photo identification, except children under 16 with a parent or guardian. Each signs a notification form, walks through a metal detector, may be checked with a hand-held detector, is subject to random drug testing with an ion detector, and gets a fluorescent hand stamp. The warden may require a search or test on reasonable suspicion; refusing means no visit, and visitors may not wait in a car. Entry stops from 9:00 a.m. (8:50 in the attachment) until the 10:00 a.m. weekend stand-up count clears, about 10:20 by the English handbook, so a 9:15 arrival means a long wait.

Getting to FTC Oklahoma City

The center is at Will Rogers World Airport, the Bureau’s 2016 feature says. From I-40, the supplement says, exit at MacArthur Boulevard and drive south about 7 miles, stay on Regina Avenue where the roads split, turn left (east) on SW 74th Street, and the institution is straight ahead at the stop sign. From I-44, take SW 104th Street west to MacArthur and turn north for about 2 miles.

How do phone calls and email work at FTC Oklahoma City?

A new arrival gets a phone access code and PIN within 24 hours, not counting weekends and federal holidays, and someone new to the federal system can call only collect, according to the 2017 holdover handbook; a person transferring from another federal prison with an established list can call direct or collect. The handbook has the phones on from 6:00 a.m. to 9:15 p.m., limits calls to 15 minutes, and sends emergency calls through the unit team or a chaplain, ordinarily only for a verified death or serious illness in the immediate family.

The handbook’s allowance of “300 minutes” per validation cycle is out of date. The Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, allow 510 minutes per calendar month: 300 are free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and anyone, eligible or not, may buy the other 210 after using up the first 300. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, and at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls. The statement lists new arrivals and “inmates in holdover status” among its examples of good cause for collect calls, and says its restrictions on telephone hours “should not be imposed in pretrial/holdover institutions or units where inmates are not required to work.” The February 2026 cadre handbook still cites the rescinded 2008 statement. See our guide to federal prison phone calls.

An unmonitored call to a lawyer needs a demonstrated reason, such as an imminent court deadline; the prisoner pays, collect is preferred, and the request goes through the unit counselor, in writing for the cadre. Such calls do not count against the 510 minutes. For email, holdovers use TRULINCS public messaging, a text-only service billed by the minute with messages capped at 13,000 characters, and TRULINCS also has a mailbox for reporting sexual abuse straight to the Inspector General. See how CorrLinks and TRULINCS work and attorney-client communications.

What legal resources are available at FTC Oklahoma City?

Every holdover and cadre housing unit has electronic law library terminals and printers, according to the “Legal Activities” file linked from the Bureau’s facility page. That file is the center’s own supplement, OKL-1315.07G (2011): genuinely local, but written to implement a national statement that has since been replaced.

The supplement describes a second-floor main law library with three electronic terminals and weekday hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., copies at 15 cents each, and typewriters in the cadre unit library for legal documents only, with ribbons signed out against a commissary card. The supplement treats a court deadline as imminent at “45 days or less.” The current national statement, the Bureau’s rules on inmate legal activities, Program Statement 1315.08 (2026), drops the requirement of a physical law library, speaks of a deadline “ordinarily within 30 days” when extra research time is sought, and requires alternative legal-access arrangements once a significant disruption passes 24 hours. The national statement controls.

Holdovers work with fewer tools. “Typewriters and ink pens are not provided to holdover inmates,” the 2017 handbook says, adding its own assurance that courts will accept handwritten papers from a prisoner who explains that he or she is in transit. It also tells holdovers that case managers are authorized to notarize documents, citing 18 U.S.C. § 4004 — a statute that names only wardens and superintendents, associate wardens and superintendents, chief clerks and record clerks. See our guide to the prison law library.

The center is in the Western District of Oklahoma, since 28 U.S.C. § 116(c) places Oklahoma County there, and Tenth Circuit law governs cases filed from it. In that circuit a federal prisoner’s request to be moved to another prison is a conditions-of-confinement claim rather than habeas: Palma-Salazar v. Davis, 677 F.3d 1031 (10th Cir. 2012), held such a claim is “properly construed as a challenge to the conditions of his confinement,” leaving § 2241 for attacks on the fact or duration of custody. An unpublished decision, Gorbey v. Warden of the Federal Transfer Center, 588 F. App’x 805 (10th Cir. 2014), applied that rule to a man who filed from here.

What can people buy at the FTC Oklahoma City commissary?

Most holdovers can buy nothing but over-the-counter medicine. The 2017 holdover handbook limits commissary to “holdover orderlies that satisfactorily perform work at this facility during their current stay” and restricts their spending “to only the funds earned at the FTC.”

The center’s 2022 order sheets show how that works. The holdover sheet offers over-the-counter medications only, a week’s dosage of each, such as ibuprofen at 18 cents and reading glasses at $5.20. The orderly sheet says “INMATES ARE PAID $0.60 PER DAY,” caps an order at seven items or $4.20, and warns, “YOU CANNOT USE FUNDS OUT OF YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT TO PURCHASE COMMISSARY, ONLY OTC MEDICATIONS.” Sixty cents is five hours at the 12-cent orderly rate the handbook sets. A prisoner without $6.00 in the account for 30 days is indigent, and Health Services then supplies up to two over-the-counter medications a week.

The cadre shops once a week. The February 2026 cadre handbook says “The spending limit is $360.00 per month,” as does its Spanish edition, but both predate the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised the national monthly ceiling from $360 to $460, add $50 during the November and December holiday period for no more than one validation period, and leave stamps, over-the-counter medicines, copy cards and a few other items outside the limit. The 2022 cadre order form printed a “$90.00 LIMIT” that renewed on the 1st and 15th and split shopping days by surname. What local limit applies in September 2026 is not on the public record; ask the unit team, and treat $460 as the national ceiling.

The national manual adds a rule aimed at places like this: no hair dye at an FDC, FTC, MCC, MDC or any all-male institution. See our guide to commissary items.

What programs are available at FTC Oklahoma City?

Very few, by design. The Bureau’s education statement exempts “detention centers (to include the federal transfer center)” from full education programs, requiring at a minimum GED, English as a second language, continuing education, library services, parenting and recreation, and its 2002 revision says it “clarifies program offering requirements for the Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City” (Program Statement 5300.21). For a holdover, programming mostly waits for the designated prison.

First Step Act time credits while in transit

The rule changes on September 30, 2026. Until then, the Bureau’s First Step Act time-credit rules, Program Statement 5410.01, carrying 28 C.F.R. § 523.42(a), start credits when “the inmate arrives or voluntarily surrenders at the designated Bureau facility where the sentence will be served” and bars earning them “when in U.S. Marshals Service custody prior to arriving at their designated facility, regardless of where they are housed.” An interim final rule published August 31, 2026 (91 Fed. Reg. 55740) deletes the arrival clause, so credits begin “after the inmate’s term of imprisonment commences,” which under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a) can be the day a sentenced person is received in custody to await transport. Not every eligible prisoner will “automatically begin earning Time Credits immediately after their sentence is imposed,” the Bureau adds, since assigned programs must still be completed. The rule does not address the statement’s list of situations that can stop credits, which includes being “in-transit or at an in-transit facility” or out on a writ.

Whether a given stretch should have counted is a fact-specific question. Keep the date of every move, ask the destination’s unit team for the calculation in writing, and see our First Step Act credit reviews, our guide to challenging a sentence computation and the Bureau’s sentence computation rules.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program does not run here. The February 2026 cadre handbook says, “Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City does not provide the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP),” and a cadre member found eligible “will be re-designated to a BOP institution, which offers RDAP.” The Bureau’s list inside the August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, updated June 4, 2026 with “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations,” does not include the transfer center either; the Bureau’s RDAP rules govern admission. Psychology Services offers the cadre a 12-week Drug Education class and a voluntary Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program. See our guide to RDAP.

Education, work and reentry for the cadre

The cadre handbook makes GED classes mandatory for many prisoners without a diploma, at least until 240 hours are completed, and lists English as a second language, adult continuing education, release preparation and hobby craft. Jobs pay 12 to 40 cents an hour, maintenance pay is $5.25 a month, and the handbook calls halfway-house placement the main community program, “based on your eligibility and is not a right.” See our guide to education in federal prison.

The August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide says less than it appears to. Its by-institution grid marks 62 programs for OKL, but for 60 of them the location cells say only that they may be offered at all Bureau institutions, which is permission, not a report that a class meets here, and a technical-certificate row has no location cell at all. One runs the other way: the grid marks OKL for Federal Prison Industries, while that program’s location cell lists 54 institutions and OKL is not among them, and neither handbook mentions prison industries. The center is also not one of the sixteen sites named for Pell-funded post-secondary education. Ask the unit team in writing what actually runs.

Faith and mental health

Weekly congregate services, under the Bureau’s religious practice rules, Program Statement 5360.10, are for everyone except people in special housing and “undesignated inmates at the Federal Transfer Center,” though chaplains visit the holdover units weekly. Psychologists answer emergencies “24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the holdover handbook says, but national policy is lighter for people passing through. Program Statement 5310.17 says that for inmates in holdover status “no further evaluation is required, unless significant mental health or PREA-related concerns are noted,” and Program Statement 5324.07 leaves the handling of prisoners with psychology alerts in transit to local procedures at institutions “such as FTC Oklahoma City.” If a relative has a history of self-harm, make sure both the sending institution and the transfer center have it in writing; the Inspector General’s findings below show why. See our guides to religious programs, psychology services and mental health care in federal prison.

What is daily life like at FTC Oklahoma City?

For a holdover, nearly everything happens inside the housing unit: meals are served there, exercise happens on a deck attached to it, and, in the holdover handbook’s words, movement outside the unit “will be under direct staff escort at all times.” The 2017 handbook lays out the day this way.

Time	What happens
6:00 a.m.	Continental breakfast from the Bureau’s National High Rise Menu; showers open until 8:00; television and the recreation deck open
6:00 to 7:00 a.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday	Sick-call sign-up; triage in the unit between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
8:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., weekdays	Census, everyone in their cells
10:00 a.m., weekends and holidays	Stand-up count
10:30 a.m.	Lunch
4:00 p.m.	Stand-up count, then dinner; weekday mail call follows the count
5:00 to 9:00 p.m.	Showers
9:15 p.m.	Phones, television and recreation end; quiet hours until 6:00 a.m.
10:00 p.m., 1:00, 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.	Counts, with everyone locked in

Cells are double-bunked, with a toilet and sink, and showers are shared; the 2024 PREA audit counted 14 housing units. A holdover may ask the captain for a haircut only after more than 30 consecutive days, and razors in the men’s units are handed out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and collected about half an hour later. All exercise happens on “the unit’s adjacent outside recreation deck,” and board games, paperbacks and television fill the rest. The cadre handbook describes a smoke- and tobacco-free institution in which cadre movement is escorted too.

Medical care for holdovers is basic. A $2.00 co-pay applies to requested sick-call visits other than chronic care, people who need more are escorted to “the institution hospital,” and “dental care for holdovers is generally limited to emergency treatment.” A pill bottle that still holds medication but has lost its label is treated as contraband. For the national rules on sick call and co-pays, see the Bureau’s patient-care rules and our guide to medical care for federal prisoners.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FTC Oklahoma City?

Outside reviewers have recorded a good deal about this building, though none of it comes from an inspection of the center itself. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its staff have nonetheless been inside for two Bureau-wide projects, and a PREA auditor spent three days here in 2024.

The Inspector General’s review of deaths in custody

The fullest independent account is the Inspector General’s February 2024 Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institutions (Report 24-041), which reviewed deaths from fiscal years 2014 through 2021 and chose the center as one of three institutions to visit, all places where deaths had occurred during the review period. Its staff toured the building, interviewed staff and prisoners and reviewed camera footage; the report does not date the visit. Its findings here include these.

• Rounds. On one overnight shift, one of three units reviewed had no assigned officer, and the officers covering them missed 65 percent (31 of 48) of required rounds, 69 percent (11 of 16) in the medical unit. An associate warden said units were left unassigned rather than ordering overtime.
• Staffing. Only 129 of 147 authorized correctional officer positions were filled at the time of the visit, the warden said 15 to 20 more were unavailable on any given day, and a health services employee said newer hires were “dropping like flies.”
• Health care. A shortage of pill-line technicians left nurses carrying medication to cells twice a day, “resulting in missed flu shots and insulin rounds.”
• Suicide. Five of the seven people who died by suicide here in the period reviewed were in single cells, and the center had no specific single-cell procedures because heavy transit made single-celling unavoidable. In one case the sending institution’s psychologist noted suicide concerns but made no formal assessment or alert, and the person “was housed in a single cell and died by suicide 1 day after arriving at the transfer center.”
• Other findings. All staff here carried a cut-down tool on the duty belt, unlike some staff at the other two institutions, and the report pictured a plastic knife and a garrote confiscated here.

The Inspector General’s 2022 look at the building

For its May 2023 audit of how the Bureau maintains its institutions (Report 23-064), which records a rated capacity of 1,065 for the center, the Inspector General visited on April 28, 2022, because “BOP officials identified it as an example of a facility in good condition.” The auditors wrote that the facilities “appeared generally in good working order” and “We did not identify any significant issues,” but they recorded an estimated $12.4 million in unfunded repair needs as of May 2022, among them a roof at the end of its useful life (about $2.5 million), control-center and bathroom upgrades, automated heating and cooling controls, and a new jet bridge. In November 2023 the Inspector General’s report on the Justice Department’s top management challenges ran a photograph captioned “Mold below pipes at Federal Transfer Center Oklahoma City.”

The 2024 PREA audit

Lynni O’Haver, working through PREA Auditors of America, LLC, was on site on March 5–7, 2024 and found the center met all 41 facility-level standards she audited in her facility audit report, exceeding none and failing none, with four more left to the agency-level audit; her final report is dated April 22, 2024. The audit form gives a designed capacity of 1,072 and a current population of 1,271 in 2024, answers “Yes” to having been over capacity in the previous 12 months, and counts 1,387 people on March 5, 2024, the first day on site.

In the 12 months before the audit, the center reported 11 allegations of sexual abuse, all naming other prisoners as the abusers; administrative investigations found 7 substantiated, 3 unsubstantiated and 1 unfounded; two were also investigated criminally, and none was referred for prosecution. Two allegations of sexual harassment between prisoners were unsubstantiated, and there were no allegations against staff. Staff told the auditor that every arrival is screened for victimization risk the same day. The audit names a service agreement with the “YMCA Oklahoma City,” while both handbooks name the YWCA Oklahoma City Rape Crisis Center, 405-943-7273, a number the holdover handbook says must be added to a prisoner’s phone list before calling. See our guide to the Prison Rape Elimination Act in the Bureau.

Sexual-abuse allegations in the GAO data

The Government Accountability Office’s 2026 report on sexual abuse in federal prisons (GAO-26-107343) lists 41 allegations at this institution of sexual abuse by another incarcerated person, for incidents in 2020 through 2024 (2, 2, 6, 12 and 19 by year), and, in a separate table, 34 allegations against Bureau employees reported in those years (2, 1, 5, 12 and 14). The tables count differently, one by year of incident and the other by year of report, so they cannot be added together. GAO’s term includes sexual harassment, and these are allegations, not findings: Bureau-wide from 2014 through 2022, 9 percent of staff allegations were substantiated and 77 percent unsubstantiated, meaning the evidence could not show whether the conduct occurred, not that the report was false.

The staff counts sit uneasily beside the PREA audit, which recorded no allegation against staff in the 12 months before March 2024. The two rest on different records and periods. GAO does not adjust for population, so its counts should not be used to rank this institution.

Deaths, and the Trentadue case

Bureau releases record the deaths in 2020 of two men who had tested positive for COVID-19 while held here. Douglas Allen Reid, 56, arrived on March 26, 2020 “as a holdover inmate in-transit to FCI Beaumont-Low” and was “pronounced dead by hospital staff” on May 2, when the release said the center housed 1,423 men and women. Armando Velasquez, 70, at the center since September 11, 2020, was “pronounced deceased by hospital staff” on December 13, 2020; that release said the center then housed 993 men and women. The locator records both deaths at OKL.

The oldest death in the court record is Kenneth Trentadue’s. Held here for a parole revocation hearing, he asked to be placed in the Special Housing Unit for his protection and was found hanged in a cell there in August 1995. The Tenth Circuit upheld findings that he died by suicide and that officials did not intentionally destroy evidence, but recorded the Inspector General’s conclusion that “FTC’s investigation of the incident was inadequate and that FTC personnel had misplaced or altered crucial evidence.” His family learned of the autopsy and his injuries only on opening the casket; the district court held the government liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the appeals court vacated that judgment for findings on each relative’s distress, Trentadue v. United States, 397 F.3d 840 (10th Cir. 2005), and the district court made individual awards on remand, Estate of Trentadue v. United States, 560 F. Supp. 2d 1124 (W.D. Okla. 2008). See the Bureau’s Federal Tort Claims Act procedures and our guide to tort claims.

FTC Oklahoma City in the news

Recent news about FTC Oklahoma City centers on a high-profile transfer through the center in 2026; older items concern two deaths in custody during the 2020 pandemic, a staff bribery conviction and a death in 2017. Items are newest first.

• June–July 2026: Joshua Duggar passed through the center on his way from a Texas medical center to a federal prison in Ohio; Us Weekly reported him here on June 29, while Gray News dated his arrival July 1. As of September 2026 the locator showed him at FCI Elkton.
• December 15, 2020: the Bureau announced the death of Armando Velasquez, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on December 2.
• May 2020: the Bureau announced the death of Douglas Allen Reid, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in April, and on May 7 named the center one of three quarantine sites that already had a rapid-testing machine, with Bureau-wide internal movement down 90 percent from a year earlier.
• October 2018: correctional officer Gabriel Ortiz pleaded guilty to taking bribes to smuggle contraband into the center, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma announced; the charge listed marijuana, synthetic marijuana, Suboxone and tobacco from June to September 3, 2018, and the complaint said he delivered 20 strips that tested positive for amphetamines to a prisoner for $1,000.
• October 2017: Darius Ghahary died after being found unresponsive in his cell, KOKH reported.

Frequently asked questions about FTC Oklahoma City

Problems at FTC Oklahoma City: where we can help

Trouble here comes from being between places: the designation was made elsewhere, papers travel separately, and the clock on a sentence or a court deadline keeps running while the person waits for a plane.

• A designation that looks wrong. The center does not review holdovers’ requests for re-designation, so the objection belongs with the Bureau’s designation staff or intake at the destination, and in the Tenth Circuit a request to be moved is not a habeas claim. See the Bureau’s designation rules and our guide to federal prison transfers.
• A stay that will not end. Tracking starts at 30 days and stays past 60 are not uncommon. A written request to the unit team comes first, then the administrative remedy program, which begins with a BP-9.
• Credit for the time. The rule on when First Step Act credits start for people in transit changes on September 30, 2026, and every day in transit still has to be counted correctly toward the sentence. See prior custody credit, § 2241 petitions and our First Step Act credit reviews.
• Suicide risk in transit. The Inspector General found five of seven suicides here were in single cells, and one person died a day after arriving. Put a relative’s history in writing to both the sending institution and the center, and read our guide to the suicide prevention program.
• Legal papers and deadlines, and time in the Special Housing Unit that cuts a person off from them. Only active-litigation papers travel, holdovers get no typewriters or pens, and local and national rules define an imminent deadline differently (45 days against 30). Tell the court and the unit team in writing, early.
• Sexual abuse. Reports can go to staff or to the Inspector General’s TRULINCS mailbox, and the crisis center named in the handbooks offers outside support. GAO recorded 34 allegations against staff here from 2020 to 2024, which are allegations rather than findings.
• Everything else keeps running. Direct appeals, § 2255 motions, compassionate release and early-release deadlines do not pause for a transfer, and the Bureau’s compassionate release procedures run on their own timetable.

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, including people passing through the Oklahoma City transfer center. Calls are answered 24 hours a day. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about 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

• FTC Oklahoma City, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Address, contact details, mailing addresses and posted documents.
• Federal Transfer Center Cadre Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2026. Cadre visiting, commissary, education, work and release preparation.
• Federal Transfer Center Cadre Admission and Orientation Handbook, Spanish edition, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2026.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement OKL 5267.09C, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2025. Visiting days and hours, dress, identification, screening and directions.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement OKL 5267.09C, Spanish edition, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2025.
• FTC Oklahoma City Commissary Lists, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2022. Holdover and cadre order sheets, prices and spending limits.
• Federal Transfer Center Holdover Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2017. Daily schedule, length of stay, mail, telephone, commissary and health services for holdovers.
• Legal Activities, Inmate, Institution Supplement OKL-1315.07G, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FTC Oklahoma City, 2011. Law library hours, terminals, copies and typewriters.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Monthly spending limit, holiday increase, exclusions and prolonged-in-transit accounts.
• 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.
• Correspondence, Program Statement 5265.14, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011.
• Visiting Regulations, Program Statement 5267.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• Intake Screening, Program Statement 5295.01, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Education, Training, and Leisure Time Program Standards, Program Statement 5300.21, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2002.
• Psychology Services Manual, Program Statement 5310.17, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016.
• SENTRY Psychology Alert Function, Program Statement 5324.07, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2007.
• Religious Beliefs and Practices, Program Statement 5360.10, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022.
• First Step Act of 2018 – Time Credits, Program Statement 5410.01, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• Inmate Personal Property, Program Statement 5580.10, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Receiving and Discharge Manual, Program Statement 5800.19, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Pretrial Inmates, Program Statement 7331.05, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. August 2026 edition; the by-institution grid and the RDAP locations list.
• Send Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Lockbox, Western Union and MoneyGram routes, holds and timings.
• About Our Facilities: Federal Prisons, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Defines administrative facilities and names the Federal Transfer Center.
• 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.
• FTC Oklahoma City has One-of-a-Kind Mission, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016.
• Inmate Death at FTC Oklahoma City, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Douglas Allen Reid’s death.
• Bureau of Prisons To Expand Rapid Testing Capabilities, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020.
• Inmate Death at FTC Oklahoma City, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Armando Velasquez’s death.

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Institutions, Facility Type, Distance, and Security, Medical Care, and Mental Healthcare Levels, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2025.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: Final, FTC Oklahoma City, Lynni O’Haver, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. Final report of April 22, 2024.
• Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institutions (Report 24-041), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Justice (2023), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Efforts to Maintain and Construct Institutions (Report 23-064), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Handling of the Transfer of Inmate James “Whitey” Bulger (Report 23-007), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.

Court records

• Correctional Officer at Federal Transfer Center Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes in Exchange for Smuggling Contraband, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Oklahoma, 2018. Gabriel Ortiz’s guilty plea.
• Guard at Federal Transfer Center Charged with Taking Bribes to Smuggle Drugs, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Oklahoma, 2018. The charge against Gabriel Ortiz.
• Gorbey v. Warden of the Federal Transfer Center, 588 F. App’x 805, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2014. Unpublished.
• Palma-Salazar v. Davis, 677 F.3d 1031, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2012.
• Estate of Trentadue v. United States, 560 F. Supp. 2d 1124, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, 2008.
• Trentadue v. United States, 397 F.3d 840, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2005.

News and other sources

• Josh Duggar Transferred to 4th Prison for Child Pornography, Us Weekly, 2026.
• Josh Duggar Transferred to Another Federal Prison After Moves Through Texas and Oklahoma City, KMVT (Gray News), 2026.
• Former Reality TV Star Josh Duggar Moved to Federal Transfer Facility in Oklahoma City, KHBS, 2026.
• Prisoner Transportation, U.S. Marshals Service, 2026. The Justice Prisoner Air Transportation System.
• Fact Sheet: Prisoner Transportation, U.S. Marshals Service, 2025.
• Fact Sheet: Prisoner Operations, U.S. Marshals Service, 2025.
• JPATS: A Day in the Life of Prisoner Transports, Emily Neece, U.S. Marshals Service, 2024.
• DOJ: Inmate Dies at Oklahoma Federal Transfer Center, Jonathan Miller, KOKH, 2017. Darius Ghahary’s death.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a), Calculation of a term of imprisonment, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 4004, Oaths and acknowledgments, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 116(c), Oklahoma, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 523.42, Earning First Step Act Time Credits, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.25, Change of address and forwarding of mail for inmates, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.50(a), Visits to inmates not in regular population status, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• First Step Act Time Credits–Revisions, 91 Fed. Reg. 55740, Federal Register, 2026. Interim final rule, effective September 30, 2026.

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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