If someone you love has just gone into federal custody, there are four things to do first: find out where they are, write to them today, get money into their account, and get yourself onto their approved lists. Everything else — visits, phone calls, video, programs, release planning — depends on those four, and nobody at the Bureau of Prisons is going to call and walk you through them.
This page is the sequence, in order, with the rule behind each step and a link to the primary source. It is written for the person reading it at 2am, three days in, who has been told five different things by five different people. Where the honest answer is it depends on the institution, we say so and tell you which document decides.
The first week, in order
| When | What to do | Why it comes first |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Find the facility and write down the eight-digit register number | Nothing — mail, money, lists — works without it |
| Day 1 | Write a letter. Mail is the only channel that works immediately | Phone, email and visits all require an approval that has not happened yet |
| Days 1–3 | Send money to the Bureau’s centralized lockbox, not the prison | Money in an envelope is rejected; money mailed to the institution is returned |
| Days 1–7 | Wait for the first call, then give your full legal name, address, phone and email | The incarcerated person builds every list; you cannot add yourself |
| Week 1–2 | Complete and return the BP-A0629 Visitor Information form when it arrives | Background checks take time; this is the long pole |
| Ongoing | Find out where they will be designated, and whether a facility change is coming | A person at a detention center is usually not where they will serve the sentence |
A word on sources before you start. Most of what follows is anchored either in a federal regulation — the rules in 28 C.F.R., which bind the Bureau — or in a Bureau Program Statement. A Program Statement is the Bureau’s own written instruction to its staff: it is agency policy, not law, and where a program statement and a regulation differ, the regulation controls. Below that sits the institution supplement, which is one prison’s local instruction and is where most of the answers you will be given by phone actually come from. Knowing which of the three you are being quoted is the difference between a rule you can hold someone to and a local practice you can ask to see in writing.
On this page
Step 1: Find them
Start with the Bureau’s public inmate locator. It returns a name, an eight-digit register number, an age, a race, a sex, a release date, and the facility where the person is held. Write the register number down and keep it somewhere you will not lose it, because every later step requires it. Our federal inmate locator page walks the search, and how the DOC inmate number search works explains what the number is and why it never changes.
Two traps at this stage. First, the register number matters more than the name. The Bureau uses the “committed name” — the name on the judgment of conviction, not a nickname or a married name — and money instruments and envelopes must carry that name plus the eight-digit register number, or they are returned to the sender; if there is no return address, the funds go into a Treasury account (PS 4500.13 at p. 76).
Second, where they are now is often not where they will be. People awaiting designation are frequently held at a detention center, a jail under contract, or a holdover facility while the Bureau decides. Someone in holdover status keeps correspondence privileges “similar to those of other inmates insofar as practical” (28 C.F.R. § 540.16), but general mail is only forwarded for 30 days after they move; special mail is forwarded regardless of that window (PS 5800.16 at p. 22). Check the locator again every week or two until things settle.
If you cannot find the person at all, they may not yet be in Bureau custody — someone in pretrial detention through the U.S. Marshals Service may not appear where you expect. Ask defense counsel; counsel has access to the docket and can tell you what custody status the person is actually in.
Step 2: What “designation” means, and why it decides everything
Designation is the Bureau’s decision about which prison someone serves their sentence in. It is not made by the judge and it is not made by the prison — it is made centrally, at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The statute tells the Bureau what to weigh. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), the Bureau “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment, and shall, subject to bed availability, the prisoner’s security designation, the prisoner’s programmatic needs, the prisoner’s mental and medical health needs, any request made by the prisoner related to faith-based needs, recommendations of the sentencing court, and other security concerns of the Bureau of Prisons, place the prisoner in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence, and to the extent practicable, in a facility within 500 driving miles of that residence.” In choosing among facilities the Bureau considers the resources of the facility, the nature and circumstances of the offense, the person’s history and characteristics, any statement by the sentencing court, and pertinent Sentencing Commission policy statements. The statute also says, in terms, that in designating a place of imprisonment “there shall be no favoritism given to prisoners of high social or economic status.”
Two hard limits families should know before they spend money chasing a transfer. A sentencing court’s order or recommendation that someone serve time in a community corrections facility “shall have no binding effect” on the Bureau. And “notwithstanding any other provision of law, a designation of a place of imprisonment under this subsection is not reviewable by any court” (18 U.S.C. § 3621(b)).
That does not mean nothing can be done — it means the work is administrative rather than judicial, and it happens through the unit team, the designation center, and the administrative remedy process rather than through a motion. Our designation page covers how a designation is scored and what a redesignation request involves, security levels explains what minimum, low, medium and high actually mean day to day, and transfers covers moving between institutions.
If sentencing has not happened yet, this is the window where preparation matters most — what goes in front of the court, what the person does before reporting, and whether they self-surrender. See how to prepare for prison, before you report, and self-surrender.
Step 3: Write today — mail is the only channel that works immediately
Phone requires a list. Email requires a list and an accepted invitation. Visiting requires a form, a background check and an approval. Mail requires nothing but the address and the register number. Send a letter the day you find the facility.
What to expect. Staff open and inspect all incoming general correspondence — that is mandatory, not discretionary — and may read it “as frequently as deemed necessary to maintain security or monitor a particular problem confronting an inmate” (28 C.F.R. § 540.14(a)). Write accordingly: warm, ordinary, and on the assumption a stranger will read it. Letters are delivered daily Monday through Friday and “ordinarily will be made within 24 hours of receipt, excluding weekends and holidays” (PS 5800.16 at p. 20).
What not to do:
- Do not enclose money. Funds in a letter “are to be rejected” (28 C.F.R. § 540.23).
- Do not send stamps or stamped envelopes. They are returned to the sender; stamps may only be issued by the institution or bought at commissary (28 C.F.R. § 540.21(j)).
- Do not send anything that cannot be searched without being destroyed — electronic greeting cards, padded cards, double-faced photographs are all returned to sender (PS 5800.16 at p. 20).
- Do not send a package without prior approval. Anything 16 ounces or more that is not paper, or is excessive paper, counts as a package (PS 5800.16 at p. 7).
- Do not write “legal mail” on a family letter. Special mail is a defined list — courts, attorneys, Congress, the President and Vice President, the Justice Department (other than the Bureau of Prisons), embassies, governors, state attorneys general, prosecutors and federal law enforcement — and the marking only works when the sender genuinely is one of those and the envelope is properly identified (28 C.F.R. § 540.18).
If a letter is rejected, you are entitled to know. The Warden “shall notify the sender in writing of the rejection and the reasons for the rejection,” must give notice of the right to appeal, must notify the incarcerated person too, and must refer the appeal to someone other than the official who disapproved it (28 C.F.R. § 540.13). Our page on writing to someone in federal prison covers addressing and content, and photobooks and photos covers pictures.
Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: In the first two weeks, families almost always overestimate what a phone call can do and underestimate what a letter can do. A call is fifteen minutes, monitored, on a schedule the institution controls, and it comes when the phone is free rather than when someone can talk. A letter arrives in a housing unit and can be read ten times. The families who do best in the first month write short letters often, keep a copy of what they sent, and treat the phone as a supplement rather than the main channel.
Step 4: Money — where it goes and how fast it lands
Money is not optional. Phone minutes, email time, printing, shoes, hygiene items and most food beyond the tray all come out of a trust fund account. There are three routes in, and only one of them is the mail.
The lockbox. The Bureau runs a centralized lockbox under an agreement with the U.S. Treasury, and that is where checks and money orders go — never to the prison. The lockbox receives mail seven days a week excluding federal holidays and processes instruments the same day they are received; funds are distributed by the overnight process and are available to the person the following day (PS 4500.13 at p. 76). If you send funds to the institution by mistake, they are returned to you with a letter containing the lockbox address (PS 4500.13 at p. 77). If money seems to have vanished, the Bureau’s published instruction is that family and friends with lockbox inquiries call 202-307-2712 once enough time has passed for the mail to arrive, and may need to place a tracer with whoever issued the instrument.
Electronic transfer. Funds sent through the Bureau’s electronic transfer programs “are posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST”; transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST post by 7:00 a.m. the next day (PS 4500.13 at p. 77). Those services are run by private companies and charge their own fees — fees that are set by that company, not by the Bureau, and that change without notice. Compare the cost before you send, and do not rely on a number you read on any website, including this one. Our how to send money to a federal inmate page covers the mechanics and MoneyGram deposits covers one of them specifically.
What the money buys, and the ceiling. Commissary carries a spending limitation of $460 per month, which rises by $50 during the November/December holiday period (PS 4500.13 at p. 28). A short list of items sits outside that limit — postage stamps, over-the-counter medications and vitamins, copy cards and paper, footwear, mattresses, and the secured media device. Prices are cost plus a 30 percent base mark-up adjusted annually by the national Consumer Price Index, set nationally rather than by the local warden (PS 4500.13 at p. 38). See commissary and canteen items.
Two things worth knowing before you decide how much to send. Money in the account may be encumbered toward court-ordered financial obligations through the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program — see restitution and the IFRP. And a person with genuinely no money is not cut off entirely: someone “without funds,” defined as having had no trust fund balance of $6.00 for the past 30 days, must be given at least one collect call each month (PS 5264.09 at p. 10), and someone with neither funds nor postage must be given stamps for legal mail and administrative remedy filings — the Bureau suggests up to five a week — plus a reasonable number of letters to maintain community ties, with five a month suggested as reasonable (28 C.F.R. § 540.21(d)–(e)).
Step 5: Get on the lists — you cannot add yourself
This is the single most misunderstood part of the process. Every list starts inside. Staff will not call you, and there is no family portal where you sign yourself up. The incarcerated person enters you on their contact list at a TRULINCS workstation, or submits a paper form to unit staff.
Telephone. During admission and orientation, a person who wants phone privileges prepares a proposed telephone list and acknowledges that the people on it are willing to receive calls (28 C.F.R. § 540.101(a)(1)). The list “ordinarily may contain up to 30 numbers,” and the Associate Warden may authorize more for a large family. Where TRULINCS is available, people maintain the list themselves and a number reaches the phone system in about 15 minutes; on paper, a submitted list is ordinarily processed within seven calendar days (PS 4500.13 at p. 126; PS 5264.09 at p. 4). Then the arithmetic: up to 510 minutes per calendar month — 300 of them at no charge for people eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone may buy after using 300 — with calls generally no longer than 15 minutes each (PS 5264.09 at pp. 6–7). At 15 minutes a call, 300 minutes is twenty full-length calls a month — about five a week — and the full 510 is thirty-four. Do not forward your landline to a mobile, do not attempt three-way calls, and know that calls to toll-free numbers do not work. See inmate phone calls.
Email. The person adds your email address as a contact; you get an automated message telling you a federal inmate wants to add you and offering four choices — approve, refuse, ignore, or refuse all future requests from any federal inmate. Approving is consent to have staff monitor every message (PS 4500.13 at p. 127). Ordinarily 30 active messaging contacts; 13,000 characters per message; no attachments, so no photographs and no documents; every message held a minimum of one hour; everything purged after 180 days (PS 4500.13 at pp. 126, 129–130). Save anything you want to keep. See CorrLinks and TRULINCS inmate email.
Visiting. The sequence is fixed and it is slower than families expect:
- The person submits a proposed visitor list during admission and orientation. Immediate family — mother, father, step-parents, foster parents, brothers and sisters, spouse, children — are placed on the list “absent strong circumstances that preclude visiting” (PS 5267.09 at p. 8).
- They mail you the form. You complete BP-A0629, Visitor Information and mail it directly back to the named unit staff member — not to your person (PS 5267.09 at p. 17).
- Staff run a background check. Checks are regenerated every two years.
- Staff tell your person. Your person tells you. Nobody from the Bureau will call (PS 5267.09 at p. 18).
Friends and associates ordinarily must have known the person before incarceration, and the list should ordinarily hold no more than 10 of them, though the Warden may make exceptions. A prior conviction is not automatically disqualifying — staff weigh “the nature, extent, and recentness of convictions” — but someone on probation, parole or supervised release ordinarily needs written authorization from their supervising officer first (PS 5267.09 at pp. 8–9). Do not book travel until your person confirms you are approved.
Step 6: The first visit
What the rules guarantee is modest: each Warden must allow a minimum of four hours visiting time per month, and must establish visiting hours “at a minimum … on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.” Evening hours are permitted where staffing allows, and the regulation states plainly that there is “no requirement that every visitor has the opportunity to visit on both days of the weekend” (28 C.F.R. §§ 540.42, 540.43).
Everything else is local. The institution supplement sets the schedule, dress code, identification requirements, what may be carried in, rules for children, whether there is a children’s area, the size of the clear container you may use, and procedures for non-contact visiting (PS 5267.09 at pp. 4–5). Ask for it, in writing, before you drive.
At the door you will sign BP-A0224, Notification to Visitor. Read it before you sign it: entering Bureau grounds is implied consent to a search of you and your belongings, including your vehicle, under 28 C.F.R. part 511; it lists prohibited objects — weapons, drugs, currency, cameras, recording equipment, telephones of any type, electronic devices — and requires you to declare and leave any medication at the entry area. It also warns that a false statement is punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 1001.
Practical points that come straight from policy: bring valid state or government-issued photo identification; children under 16 accompanied by a parent or guardian are exempt from that requirement, and children under 16 may not visit unaccompanied (PS 5267.09 at pp. 10, 18). Physical contact is limited to “handshaking, embracing, and kissing … ordinarily permitted within the bounds of good taste and only at the beginning and at the end of the visit.” The visiting room officer may not accept gifts or articles. And you may not leave money with a staff member for the account (PS 5267.09 at p. 20). Nursing infants are permitted in the visiting room, and since the August 2023 change notice each institution supplement must give “guidance on providing a private area for nursing” and must provide that no visitor is prohibited from visiting because of their use of sanitary products (PS 5267.09 CN-1 at p. 1).
Take the visiting rules seriously. Bringing anything in without the Warden’s knowledge and consent is a federal offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1791 — the visiting guidelines are required to cite it — and the Bureau states that it “will seek criminal prosecution against visitors who participate in contraband violations,” with the incarcerated person facing loss of visiting privileges as well (PS 5267.09 at pp. 18, 20–21). A full walkthrough of a first visit is on our inmate visitation page; whether the facility offers a remote option at all is covered at video visiting.
What the first 30 days look like from the inside
Understanding the sequence inside helps you interpret what you are being told on the phone.
Intake screening happens first — the Bureau treats it as “the first step in orienting an inmate to the institution.” Then two separate orientation components run. On the day the person arrives in a housing unit, and “no later than by the end of the day (lights out),” the unit officer gives a safety orientation and unit security overview covering fire escape procedures, sanitation, counts, accountability, searches, passes, and wake-up and lights-out. The institution admission and orientation program — rights and responsibilities, program opportunities, and the disciplinary system — is broader, and “ordinarily, this segment will be completed within four weeks of an inmate’s arrival at the institution.” Someone initially housed in a special housing unit completes it within four weeks of release to general population (PS 5290.14 at pp. 1, 8–9).
In that same window the person is submitting a telephone list, submitting a visitor list, being assigned a bed and a job, meeting a unit team, and being classified. Expect the first two weeks to be chaotic and the information you get to be inconsistent. See the first day in prison and the intake process, and for what a housing unit is actually like, inmate housing and daily life.
What you will and will not be told
This is the hardest adjustment for families, and being clear about it early prevents a lot of pain.
You are not the client of the institution. The Bureau’s communication runs to the incarcerated person, not to the family. Staff notify the person of a visiting approval; the person notifies you. Staff will not routinely tell you about a job change, a disciplinary charge, a bed move, or a program placement.
Medical information belongs to the patient. Bureau policy is that people “have the right to decide with whom (e.g., friends, family, next of kin) they would like to share their relevant medical information,” and that they may notify those people of changes in their condition through “visitation, phone calls, video visits, email, and mail.” For records to be released to a family member there must be “a signed release of medical information completed on BP-A0621, Authorization for Release of Medical Records” (PS 6031.06). Get that form signed before there is a crisis, not during one. When someone becomes incapacitated or hospitalized, the Health Services Administrator notifies the Warden or designee and the Chaplain within 24 hours, with a written notification to follow. Our page on medical care in federal prison and the form page for BP-A0621, Authorization for Release of Medical Information cover this.
You will be told about visiting disruptions. This is one place policy is on your side. When there is “a significant or disruptive event affecting the conditions of confinement” and management decides to restrict legal or social visiting, employees “must make all reasonable efforts to notify all known parties affected by the disruption,” expressly including inmate families, defense counsel, local courts and the public, and that information may be sent “via telephone, email, or listed on the Institution’s webpage” (PS 5267.09 CN-1 at p. 2). If nobody told you, that requirement is the thing to point at. See lockdowns and modified operations.
Do not expect a release date to be firm early. Sentence computation is done centrally, and good conduct time and First Step Act credits change projections. We will not predict a date for anyone, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does. See First Step Act time credits and release preparation.
When something goes wrong
There is a route for each of these, and the deadlines are short.
A disciplinary charge. An incident report starts a process with defined steps and defined rights. Read incident reports and inmate discipline proceedings before anyone signs anything. Sanctions can include loss of visiting, telephone and messaging privileges.
A medical problem that is not being treated. Start with a written request to health services and keep copies. Then the administrative remedy process. See medical care and care levels.
A safety problem. Threats, assault, and sexual abuse have their own reporting routes — including, notably, that Bureau policy requires the Request to Staff service to be available even on workstations in secure units “for reporting of allegations of sexual abuse and harassment directly to the Office of Inspector General” (PS 4500.13 at p. 123). See violence and sexual assault in prison and protective custody.
Anything else. The general route is an informal request to staff, and then the formal administrative remedy. Since PS 5511.08 took effect on 19 March 2026, that request is submitted through the electronic Request to Staff Service in TRULINCS, one per department per day, with a response ordinarily completed within 30 calendar days if warranted. The paper BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff — the “cop-out” — is now the exception, used by people the Warden exempts for physical or mental incapacity, other extraordinary circumstances, or security concerns such as segregation, and by anyone housed in a Protective Custody Unit, for whom the electronic service is not available (PS 5511.08 at p. 2). The deadline is tight: a BP-9 is due 20 calendar days after the event, an appeal to the Regional Director within 20 days of the Warden’s signed response, and an appeal to General Counsel within 30 days (28 C.F.R. § 542.14; PS 1330.18 at pp. 4, 8). Response times are 20 days at the institution, 30 at the region, 40 at the Central Office. See prison grievances, how to file a BP-9, and — if the problem is lost or damaged property or an injury — tort claims.
Exhausting these steps is not paperwork for its own sake. It is what preserves the ability to raise the issue anywhere else later, and the calendar is unforgiving. A family member’s most useful job in the first month is often simply keeping the dates.
What actually helps
Six things, in rough order of return on effort.
- Keep a file. Every letter you send and receive, every rejection notice, every form, every date, every staff name. When something has to be challenged, the difference between winning and losing is usually whether somebody wrote down when it happened.
- Get the institution supplements. Visiting, correspondence, and TRULINCS. Most of what varies — visiting days, dress code, mail handling, whether there is video, TRULINCS hours — is set in those documents, which the Bureau requires each institution to write and make available. Have your person request them through a request to staff.
- Write more than you call. It is cheaper, it is not rationed by a monthly minute limit, and it does not depend on the phone being free.
- Do the visiting paperwork immediately. It is the slowest step and the one families start last.
- Fund the account early and modestly, on a schedule. A predictable monthly deposit beats an occasional large one, given the $460 monthly ceiling and the fact that phone, email and printing all draw on the same balance.
- Learn the vocabulary. Unit team. Case manager. Counselor. Cop-out. BP-9. Designation. Program review. When you can name what you are asking for, you get further with staff, and our prison life section is organized around exactly those terms.
Two things that do not help, and one warning. Paying anyone who promises a transfer, a release date, or a particular facility does not help — a designation “is not reviewable by any court,” and the statute directs that “there shall be no favoritism given to prisoners of high social or economic status” in designation and transfer decisions (18 U.S.C. § 3621(b)), so nobody can guarantee an outcome. Nor does chasing rumors from other families about what a facility “always” does; the institution supplement is the document, and it is obtainable. The warning: the Bureau does not telephone families to collect money. Deposits go only to the centralized lockbox or through the published transfer services. Treat any call demanding payment for an incarcerated relative as a fraud until you have verified it with the institution’s published main number, and when you engage anyone for help with a genuine administrative issue, ask what specific document will be filed, with whom, and by when.
What it all costs, roughly
| Item | Figure | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| Commissary spending limit | $460 per month, +$50 in the November/December holiday period | The Bureau, nationally (PS 4500.13 at p. 28) |
| Commissary pricing | Cost plus a 30% base mark-up, adjusted annually by the national CPI | The Bureau, nationally (PS 4500.13 at p. 38) |
| Telephone, direct dial | A flat per-minute rate, “standard throughout the Bureau regardless of location” — no figure published in policy | The Chief, Trust Fund Branch (PS 4500.13 at p. 55) |
| Telephone, collect and prepaid collect | Charged under the telephone contract; the billed party gets rates from the service provider | A private contractor |
| Electronic messaging | A per-minute fee while in the service, plus a printing fee — no figure published in policy | The Chief, Trust Fund Branch (PS 4500.13 at pp. 119, 130) |
| Photographs at a visit | Photo vouchers sell for one dollar each, one photo per voucher, standard 3×5 or 4×6, no reprints | The Bureau (PS 4500.13 at p. 52) |
| Electronic money transfer | Sender’s fee | A private contractor |
| Your travel | Whatever it costs to reach the facility | You |
We deliberately do not publish contractor prices. Where a fee is charged by a private company rather than set by the Bureau, that company changes it without notice, and a stale figure on a law firm’s page is worse than none. Ask the institution for the current telephone rate sheet, which policy requires to be kept on file there, and check the transfer service’s own disclosure before you send.
Frequently Asked Questions for Families
How do I find out which federal prison someone is in?
Use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, which searches by name or by register number and returns the facility, the register number and a projected release date. Write down the eight-digit register number; every later step — mail, deposits, phone list, visiting list — depends on it. Be aware that someone recently sentenced may still be at a detention center or a contract facility awaiting designation, so check again periodically. Our federal inmate locator page walks the search step by step.
Can I call a federal prison and speak to my family member?
No. Federal prison telephone calls go outward only, placed by the incarcerated person to a number already on their approved list. There is no inbound line to a housing unit and no voicemail. If there is an emergency — a death, a serious illness, a birth — call the institution’s main number and ask for the chaplain or the person’s unit team, who can deliver a message. In compelling circumstances such as a family emergency, the Warden may direct the government to bear the expense of a call or allow a collect call (28 C.F.R. § 540.105(c)).
How long does it take to get approved to visit?
There is no national deadline, and any site that gives you one is guessing. What is fixed is the sequence: your person mails you the BP-A0629 Visitor Information form, you complete it and mail it directly back to the named unit staff member, staff run a background check, staff notify your person, and your person notifies you. Immediate family members are added “absent strong circumstances that preclude visiting,” and background checks are regenerated every two years (PS 5267.09 at pp. 8, 17–18). Start it the week you find the facility, and do not book travel before approval is confirmed.
Can I visit if I have a criminal record?
Possibly. The regulation says the existence of a conviction alone does not preclude visits: “Staff shall give consideration to the nature, extent, and recentness of convictions, as weighed against the security considerations of the institution,” and the Warden’s specific approval may be required. If you are currently on probation, parole or supervised release, staff should ordinarily obtain written authorization from your supervising officer before approving you (PS 5267.09 at p. 9). Answer question 11 and question 12 on the BP-A0629 truthfully; the form carries an 18 U.S.C. § 1001 false-statement warning.
Can I choose which prison my loved one goes to, or get them moved closer to home?
You cannot choose it, and neither can the judge. The Bureau designates the place of imprisonment, and while the statute directs it to place someone “as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence, and to the extent practicable, in a facility within 500 driving miles,” that is subject to bed availability, security designation, programmatic needs, medical and mental health needs, faith-based requests, and the Bureau’s security concerns. A court’s recommendation for a community corrections facility “shall have no binding effect,” and a designation “is not reviewable by any court” (18 U.S.C. § 3621(b)). What can be done is administrative — through the unit team, the designation center, and where appropriate the administrative remedy process. See designation and transfers.
What can I actually send in — books, photos, clothes, food?
Very little, and almost nothing without prior approval. A package requires the Warden’s or designee’s prior approval, and anything 16 ounces or more that is not paper counts as a package (PS 5800.16 at p. 7). Books and magazines run on a separate policy — see incoming publications. Photographs are generally fine but nude or sexually suggestive images are not (28 C.F.R. § 540.14(d)(7)); see photobooks and photos. Clothing, food, stamps and money all go through the institution or commissary rather than the mail; see prison clothes and bedding.
Will the prison tell me if my family member is sick or hurt?
Not automatically, and not in detail. Bureau policy treats medical information as the patient’s to share: the person has “the right to decide with whom … they would like to share their relevant medical information,” and records go to a family member only with a signed release on form BP-A0621 (PS 6031.06). Get that release signed early. When someone is incapacitated or hospitalized, the Health Services Administrator notifies the Warden and the Chaplain within 24 hours, with written notification to follow — which is why the chaplain’s office is often the right number to call. See medical care in federal prison.
The prison is on lockdown and nobody will tell us anything. What are our rights?
Policy requires notification. Where a significant or disruptive event affects conditions of confinement and management restricts legal or social visiting, employees “must make all reasonable efforts to notify all known parties affected by the disruption,” expressly including inmate families and defense counsel, by telephone, email, or a posting on the institution’s webpage. The same 2023 change notice requires each facility to develop alternative legal access arrangements when a disruption exceeds 24 hours (PS 5267.09 CN-1 at pp. 1–2). Start with the institution’s own webpage and the unit team. See lockdowns and modified operations.
Is email to my family member private? Is email to their lawyer privileged?
No to both. Everything on the Bureau’s messaging system is monitored and retained, and using it is consent — for the incarcerated person and for you. Bureau policy states that people “have no expectation of privacy as to any communication on or information stored within the system,” and that attorneys placed on a public email contact list are there “with the acknowledgment that public emails exchanged with such individuals will not be treated as privileged communications and will be subject to monitoring” (PS 4500.13 at pp. 118, 126–127). Privileged legal contact runs through properly marked special mail, arranged unmonitored legal calls, and attorney visits. See attorney-client communications in the federal Bureau of Prisons.
When should we involve a lawyer?
Whenever a deadline is running or a right is at stake — a disciplinary hearing that could cost good conduct time, a sentence computation that looks wrong, a medical issue that is not being addressed, an administrative remedy that has to be exhausted properly, or any post-conviction question. The 20-day administrative remedy clock is the most commonly missed deadline in federal prison, and missing it can foreclose later options. The firm’s federal prison work is described at federal prison consulting services, and legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best and the firm’s attorneys.
Next steps, depending on where you are: to work through all the contact channels in one place, read staying in contact with someone in federal prison. If sentencing has not happened yet, read how to prepare for prison. For a broader orientation to what daily life is actually like, start at prison life or read what families should know about federal prison. You can reach us through the contact page.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026