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Federal Prisons in Virginia

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

Federal prisons in Virginia at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs three institutions in Virginia, two of them with a satellite camp, holding 3,191 people as of September 2026. All three sit in the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region, which is run from Annapolis Junction, Maryland.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
USP LeeU.S. Penitentiary · HighMen1,272Camp: 107Pennington GapWestern District of Virginia
FCI Petersburg MediumFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,596—HopewellEastern District of Virginia
FCI Petersburg LowFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen—Camp: 216HopewellEastern District of Virginia
Total3 institutions2,868323
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

One of the three is on an announced closure list: the Bureau named “Petersburg FCI Low” in its press release of July 1, 2026, and has published no completion date.

How many federal prisons are in Virginia?

Three institutions appear on the Bureau of Prisons roster, and that roster is what this page counts. One is high security: USP Lee, a penitentiary in the far southwest corner of the state, with a minimum-security camp. The other two share one campus outside Petersburg, FCI Petersburg Medium and FCI Petersburg Low, listed together as FCC Petersburg, the state’s only federal correctional complex, whose camp reports under the Low. The roster records all three as holding men, so no institution here holds women, and there is neither a detention center nor a medical center. Our guide to security levels explains the ratings, and the Bureau of Prisons directory holds the national list.

What is each federal prison in Virginia like?

The three, in the table’s order.

USP Lee

High security for men in the Lee County Industrial Park at Pennington Gap, closer to Kentucky and Tennessee than to Richmond, with a minimum-security camp at the same address. Mail for both goes to post office boxes in Jonesville, nine miles west, so a letter sent to the industrial park arrives late rather than not at all. It runs no Residential Drug Abuse Program; its own handbook says the program “is not available at USP/SCP Lee.” See USP Lee.

FCI Petersburg Medium

Medium security for men on the Petersburg complex, 25 miles south of Richmond, and the one Virginia institution without a camp of its own. It is a Sex Offender Management Program institution, and the management half is not optional: the Bureau assesses recidivism risk before release for anyone with a sexual-offending history, whatever he decides about treatment. Since the summer of 2026 it has held the campus’s only large population. See FCI Petersburg Medium.

FCI Petersburg Low

Low security for men on the same campus, named for closure on July 1, 2026, with the complex’s camp reporting under its code. The Bureau has set no closing date and no document says it has shut. In the September 10, 2026 population report this address carries one line only, the camp row of 216 people. See FCI Petersburg Low.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Virginia?

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, at Annapolis Junction in Maryland. All three institutions answer to the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region, where a warden’s response is appealed: under Program Statement 1330.18 at pp. 6–7, an inmate not satisfied with it “may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-10) to the appropriate Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response.” The first step is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Virginia?

Two offices, and one district both of them print. Virginia has two federal judicial districts, the Eastern and the Western, under 28 U.S.C. § 127. The Bureau’s page for RRM Raleigh prints Western Virginia and Eastern Virginia; its page for RRM Baltimore also prints Eastern Virginia. For the Eastern District bop.gov lists both, and neither list says which takes a given referral.

Placement follows the release district rather than the prison’s. Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden, where significant doubt exists about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” Someone at USP Lee going home to Norfolk is an Eastern Virginia matter although the prison is in the Western District. The timing of a placement is explained on our page about federal halfway houses.

How do I find, write to, visit or send money to someone in a Virginia federal prison?

Finding someone is a Bureau-wide search, not a Virginia one. The inmate locator works from a register number, or a first and a last name together, and reports which institution holds a person. Once a release date is recorded, it shows that instead.

Addresses are institution-specific and easy to get wrong here: USP Lee and its camp take mail in another town, and the two Petersburg institutions share a campus but not an address. Each facility page prints the block. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on the institution’s own supplement. At Petersburg it is complex-wide and covers both institutions, while USP Lee publishes its own, so read the facility page before booking. See visitation.

Money moves on national channels, not local ones: the mail lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that funds sent that way 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.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in Virginia are closing or have closed?

One is named for closure and none has closed. The July 1, 2026 release says the Bureau “will close the following institutions” and lists six, one of them “Petersburg FCI Low.” It gives the reasons as “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges,” and says staff there “will be transferred to other units onsite or nearby for continued employment with the BOP.”

No completion date has been published, the institution is still on the September 18, 2026 roster snapshot, and the only line at this address in the population report is the camp row. The camp is not named in the announcement, which names satellite camps expressly where it means them, as in the Big Spring and La Tuna entries, but for Petersburg names the institution alone. That reads the release; it is not a Bureau statement about the camp.

No former Virginia facility keeps a page on this site. The shape of the Bureau’s recent closures is in our explainer on major federal prison closures.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau of Prisons run in Virginia?

Three, on the roster snapshot behind this page: USP Lee, a high-security penitentiary with a satellite camp at Pennington Gap, and FCI Petersburg Medium and FCI Petersburg Low, which share one campus as FCC Petersburg. The camp reports under the low-security institution.

What is the largest federal prison in Virginia by population?

FCI Petersburg Medium, at 1,596 people as of September 2026. It has no camp of its own, so that figure is the whole institution. USP Lee is next at 1,272, with another 107 in its camp, which the population report prints separately.

Is there a high-security federal penitentiary in Virginia?

One. USP Lee, at Pennington Gap in the far southwest corner of the state, is the only United States Penitentiary in Virginia and the only institution here that the Bureau rates high security. It holds men, and a minimum-security camp shares the address.

Is any federal prison in Virginia closing?

One is announced. The press release of July 1, 2026 named FCI Petersburg Low among six institutions the Bureau said it will close. No completion date has been published, it is still on the roster snapshot behind this page, and no Bureau document says it has shut.

Does Virginia have a federal prison for women?

No. The Bureau’s roster records all three Virginia institutions, and both satellite camps, as holding men. A woman sentenced in a Virginia federal court is therefore designated outside the state, to an institution chosen on her security designation and medical needs.

Which reentry office handles halfway-house placement for someone releasing to Virginia?

It depends on the district, and for one of them the Bureau lists two offices. RRM Raleigh prints Western Virginia and Eastern Virginia, and RRM Baltimore also prints Eastern Virginia. Placement turns on the district a person releases to, not where the sentence was served.

Can someone ask to be designated to a federal prison in Virginia?

The Bureau decides, although a request can be made and the sentencing court can recommend a place. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it must place a prisoner, subject to bed availability and the statute’s other factors, “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence.”

How can a federal defense firm help a family with someone in a Virginia federal prison?

Three problems recur at Virginia’s institutions, each on the facility pages’ own record. Movement: FCI Petersburg Low is named for closure with no date attached, and a closure without a date is a transfer question for everyone still inside. Medical: the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council inspected USP Lee on February 11 and 12, 2026 and published its findings that August; of the forty D.C. Code residents who answered on medical care, twenty-five were unsatisfied, citing waiting times and staff availability — the sort of dated record a medical grievance is built on, and among the problems we work on inside. Programs: USP Lee runs no Residential Drug Abuse Program and FCI Petersburg Medium is a Sex Offender Management Program institution, so program access and First Step Act time credit disputes here are early release work.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Virginia places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.

Call 843-620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Audits and inspections

Court records and statutes

  • 28 U.S.C. § 127, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. The two Virginia districts.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 3621, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Designation at § 3621(b).

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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

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