Representing Clients NationwideCall Us Today(843) 620-1100

Federal Prisons in West Virginia

Get a Consultation

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

Federal prisons in West Virginia at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates 7 institutions in West Virginia, four of them with a satellite camp, holding 8,299 people as of September 2026. All seven are in the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region, run from Annapolis Junction, Maryland.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
USP HazeltonU.S. Penitentiary · HighMen1,100Camp: 153Bruceton MillsNorthern District of West Virginia
FCI BeckleyFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,567Camp: 291BeaverSouthern District of West Virginia
FCI GilmerFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,181Camp: 77GlenvilleNorthern District of West Virginia
FCI HazeltonFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen and women1,187Secure female facility: 514Bruceton MillsNorthern District of West Virginia
FCI McDowellFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,563Camp: 69WelchSouthern District of West Virginia
FPC AldersonFederal Prison Camp · MinimumWomen438—AldersonSouthern District of West Virginia
FPC MorgantownFederal Prison Camp · MinimumMen159—MorgantownNorthern District of West Virginia
Total7 institutions7,1951,104
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

Two rows need explanation. The population report of September 10, 2026 carries a second Hazelton row, HAZELTON FCI-FEMALE, for the secure female facility sharing FCI Hazelton’s code; no camp is flagged there, so the table prints it in the camp column. FPC Morgantown keeps an older address here: the Bureau renamed it from FCI Morgantown in April 2024.

How many federal prisons are in West Virginia?

Seven, counting institutions on the Bureau of Prisons roster. One is high security, USP Hazelton; four are medium, FCI Beckley, FCI Gilmer, FCI Hazelton and FCI McDowell; two are minimum-security camps with rows of their own, FPC Alderson and FPC Morgantown. Four carry a satellite camp, counted inside that institution’s row rather than as a separate prison, and the two Hazelton institutions share one address in the complex the Bureau runs as FCC Hazelton. Our guide to security levels explains the ratings, and the Bureau of Prisons directory the national picture.

What is each federal prison in West Virginia like?

The seven, in the order the table lists them.

USP Hazelton

The state’s only high-security penitentiary, for men, with the complex’s satellite camp below it on the same hill. The Justice Department’s Inspector General counted 14 deaths here between fiscal years 2014 and 2021, by suicide, homicide, accident or unknown cause. Its Special Housing Unit has been full enough to lock whole units down: staff told the District of Columbia’s inspectors in September 2025 that every segregation cell was double-bunked and that general-population units were held on “pending SHU” status while men waited for a bed. See USP Hazelton.

FCI Beckley

Medium security for men in Raleigh County, with a satellite camp beside it. The name misleads: the institution’s street and mailing addresses are in Beaver, not Beckley, and two state facilities in the same county — the Southern Regional Jail at Beaver and the Beckley Correctional Center in the city itself — are routinely mistaken for it. It was activated in 1995, and it is where BRAVE, the Bureau’s program for young men early in a first federal sentence, began. See FCI Beckley.

FCI Gilmer

Medium security for men at Glenville, with a satellite camp. The prison stands at the end of a road that exists only to reach it, 79 miles by interstate from Charleston, and no public transport runs to the gate. Its own paperwork disagrees about visiting: the admission and orientation handbook the Bureau still publishes prints a Friday session that the 2026 institution supplement has removed, so a family working from the handbook can drive a long way to a closed visiting room. See FCI Gilmer.

FCI Hazelton

Medium security for men, and the Bureau record that also carries the secure female facility beside it, which has no code of its own and is the only one of its kind in the system. They are separate buildings with separate addresses and different visiting days. The Bureau prints the women’s mailing address on its own site under a heading reading “For inmates at the Camp”, although this institution has no camp: the camp on the hill belongs to the penitentiary. See FCI Hazelton.

FCI McDowell

Medium security for men at Welch, with a satellite camp that shares its post office box. It opened in 2010, and by the coordinates on the roster it lies farther south than any other federal institution in the state. Stevens Correctional Center, a West Virginia state prison in the same town, is regularly mistaken for it. Contraband arrives from beyond the fence repeatedly, by drone in 2024 and again in 2026. See FCI McDowell.

FPC Alderson

A minimum-security camp for women in Greenbrier County, stand-alone rather than a satellite outside a larger prison’s fence. It opened in 1927 as the first federal prison built for women and is one of only two federal prison camps holding women. It has no Special Housing Unit: its own March 2026 handbook says the camp has no disciplinary segregation unit and that a woman who becomes a management problem is transferred to an approved local jail, where she is held under that jail’s rules while the federal disciplinary process runs on. See FPC Alderson.

FPC Morgantown

A minimum-security camp for men in Monongalia County, with no parent prison above it and no camp of its own. It is the smallest institution in the state and the one whose designation has moved most: renamed from FCI to FPC in April 2024, announced for deactivation that December, reprieved in 2025 when the Director reversed that order, and named on July 1, 2026 for conversion to a Federal Satellite Low. See FPC Morgantown.

Which federal prisons in West Virginia hold women?

Two of the seven. FPC Alderson is a camp for women and holds nobody else. Women are also held at Hazelton: the population report of September 10, 2026 lists HAZELTON FCI-FEMALE as its own row of 514, a secure female facility reporting under FCI Hazelton’s record while the institution beside it holds men. The two are separate buildings with separate post office boxes and different visiting days, and because the facility has no code of its own the inmate locator files those women under FCI Hazelton. Between them, Alderson and the Hazelton facility are the only places in the state where a woman serves a federal sentence. See our guide to women’s federal prisons.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees West Virginia?

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, at Annapolis Junction, Maryland. Every West Virginia institution sits in that region, and for a family the region is the second step of the administrative remedy process: an appeal from the warden’s answer goes to the Regional Director on form BP-10 within 20 calendar days, under Program Statement 1330.18 at pp. 6–7. The same statement provides at p. 7 that “An inmate who is not satisfied with the Regional Director’s response may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-11) to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the response,” and that “Appeal to the General Counsel is the final administrative appeal.” Our guide to filing a BP-9 covers the first step.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from West Virginia?

One office, and it sits outside both the state and the region that runs its prisons. West Virginia is divided into two federal judicial districts, the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, under 28 U.S.C. § 129. The Bureau’s page for RRM Pittsburgh prints both, and no other reentry office prints a West Virginia district. RRM Pittsburgh is a Northeast Region office, so reentry for people leaving these prisons is administered outside the Mid-Atlantic Region that runs them. That is how the Bureau prints it, and this page assigns no Mid-Atlantic office.

Which office handles a case turns on the release district, not on where the prison stands, and Program Statement 7310.04 puts the referral decision with the unit team 11 to 13 months before the probable release date, at p. 13. See federal halfway houses.

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

The inmate locator searches the whole system rather than one state, by register number or by first and last name together; a last-name-only query fails outright. Read a West Virginia result closely: “Hazelton USP” is the penitentiary or its camp and “Hazelton FCI” the medium-security institution or the secure female facility, while “Gilmer FCI”, “Beckley FCI”, “McDowell FCI”, “Morgantown FPC” and “Alderson FPC” are five different prisons.

Mail takes the exact address block the institution publishes, and at Hazelton the boxes are not interchangeable: the penitentiary and its camp share one, the medium-security institution has another and the secure female facility a third, and a letter to the wrong one is not carried across the complex. FCI Gilmer runs a separate box for its camp. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on each institution’s own supplement. FPC Alderson visits on Mondays as well as weekends, Hazelton’s secure female facility on Fridays, and FCI Gilmer has dropped its Friday session. See visitation.

Money moves by lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect or MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Fund transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST are posted by 7:00 a.m. the following day.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in West Virginia are closing or changing?

None is closing, and one is changing. On July 1, 2026 the Bureau published a list of institutions it “will close”; none is in West Virginia. The same announcement added that “Morgantown FPC and Duluth FPC will transition from minimum-security camps to FSL facilities” — a Federal Satellite Low is a low-security institution, not a camp. No completion date has been published, and the Bureau has issued no timetable since. The roster snapshot behind this page, taken September 18, 2026, still records FPC Morgantown as a Federal Prison Camp at minimum security, and the camp’s own Bureau page still opens by calling it a minimum security federal prison camp. It is the third change of direction in two years: deactivation was announced in December 2024 and reversed in 2025. No closed institution in the state keeps a page here. See major federal prison closures.

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

Seven institutions on the Bureau’s roster: one high-security penitentiary, four medium-security institutions and two minimum-security camps. Four of them carry a satellite camp, which the Bureau counts inside the parent institution rather than as a prison in its own right.

What is the largest federal prison in West Virginia by population?

FCI Beckley, at 1,567 people as of September 2026. That is the institution by itself; the Bureau prints its satellite camp as a separate row of 291, and Beckley is still the largest site in the state with the camp counted in.

Does West Virginia have a high-security federal penitentiary?

One. USP Hazelton, at Bruceton Mills, is the only United States Penitentiary in the state and the only West Virginia institution the Bureau rates high security. It holds men, and its minimum-security satellite camp sits just below it on the same hill.

Where are women held in federal custody in West Virginia?

In two places. FPC Alderson is a stand-alone minimum-security camp for women, one of only two federal prison camps in the system holding women. The other is at Hazelton, where a secure female facility reports under FCI Hazelton’s record as a row of 514.

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

RRM Pittsburgh. The Bureau’s page for that office prints Northern West Virginia and Southern West Virginia among the districts it covers, and no other reentry office prints a West Virginia district. Placement follows the district a person goes home to.

How do I look up someone held in a West Virginia federal prison?

The Bureau’s inmate locator covers the whole system rather than one state; search by register number where you have one. Then read the institution it names. Hazelton USP and Hazelton FCI are two prisons at one address, and a woman returned as Hazelton FCI is in the secure female facility rather than with the men.

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

The Bureau decides, although a request can be made and the sentencing court can recommend a facility. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau “shall designate” the place of imprisonment and, subject to bed availability, security designation and the other factors the statute lists, place a person “as close as practicable” to the primary residence. A designation is “not reviewable by any court.”

Is any federal prison in West Virginia closing?

None is on the Bureau’s closure list. FPC Morgantown is on a different one: the July 1, 2026 announcement said it will transition from a minimum-security camp to an FSL facility. No timetable has been published, and the roster still records a camp.

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

Three problems recur here, each evidenced on the facility pages. Conditions: the Hazelton complex has the state’s heaviest record of deaths and inspections, so discipline and medical care there are problems we work on inside. Movement: a camp told it will become a low-security institution, with no date attached, raises a transfer question. Programs: drug treatment runs at some of these institutions and not others, so program access and First Step Act time credit disputes 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 West 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

Court records and statutes

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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

Contact Our Experienced Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer for Legal Help

Choosing the right federal defense team can make a difficult situation feel more manageable. At Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C., we take the time to listen, answer questions, and provide the clarity people need to make informed choices about their future.

Schedule an Initial Consultation

This field is required.
This field is required.
This field is required.
This field is required.
This field is required.
The 8-digit BOP register number, if you have it.
This field is required.
Please include the full name of the person involved, the state and federal court (if known), the charge or stage of the case, and a brief description of the situation. If you are contacting us about a family member, tell us their name and where their case is located.
This field is required.
Scroll to Top