FCI Forrest City Medium: Visiting, Mail, Commissary

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

FCI Forrest City Medium at a glance

FCI Forrest City Medium is a medium-security federal prison for men in Forrest City, Arkansas, holding 1,638 people as of September 2026. It has no camp of its own. It is the higher-security half of the Federal Correctional Complex at Forrest City, sharing a campus in St. Francis County with FCI Forrest City Low and the Low’s satellite camp.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Forrest City Medium
BOP code	FOM · complex FOX
Security level	Medium; men
Population	1,638 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 or 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Forrest City Medium · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 3000 · Forrest City, AR 72336
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	870-494-4200 · Fax 870-494-4496
Street address	1400 Dale Bumpers Road, Forrest City, AR 72335 · St. Francis County · see getting there
Judicial district	Eastern District of Arkansas
BOP region	South Central
RDAP	Yes
UNICOR	Yes
Camp	None · the campus camp belongs to FCI Forrest City Low

The complex sits about 45 miles west of Memphis and 90 miles east of Little Rock, in the Bureau’s South Central Region, and holds the only federal prisons in Arkansas. The visiting rules linked from this institution’s own page on bop.gov are the 2017 edition, superseded twice; the edition in force, Institution Supplement FOX 5267.09B, is published only under the Low’s file name.

Which prison in Forrest City is this?

FCI Forrest City Medium is one of two federal prisons that share a campus with a camp off Dale Bumpers Road, and the three are not interchangeable. A letter or a money order sent to the wrong one is returned rather than forwarded, so settle which one holds the person before you go further.

Place	What it is	Inmate mail goes to	Its own phone
FCI Forrest City Medium (this page)	Medium security, 1,638 men, BOP code FOM	P.O. Box 3000, Forrest City, AR 72336	870-494-4200
FCI Forrest City Low	Low security, 1,615 men, BOP code FOR	P.O. Box 9000, Forrest City, AR 72336	870-630-6000
The satellite camp	Minimum security, 267 men, administered by the Low	P.O. Box 8000, Forrest City, AR 72336	870-630-6000
Division of Community Correction, Forrest City	An Arkansas state parole and probation office at 409 N. Rosser Street, in town — nothing to do with the federal prisons	Not a prison	—

Populations are as of September 2026. Use the Inmate Locator to find out which of the three a person is in before you address anything. Its result names the institution — “Located at: Forrest City Medium FCI” for this one — while the Bureau’s records and rosters use codes, and FOM and FOR are one letter apart.

The institutions have separate switchboards, so the number on a directory page for “Forrest City prison” may reach the wrong building, and they share one executive-assistant email address that begins FOR rather than FOM. Every published document except the visiting supplement — the handbook, the commissary list, the PREA audit — is written for the complex as a whole, so much of what is true here is also true 400 yards away at the Low; where the components differ, the sections below say so.

Arkansas has no other federal prison. The Bureau’s roster for the state lists exactly these entries — FOM, FOR and the complex code FOX — so if someone is in federal custody in Arkansas, they are on this campus, in transit, or in a county jail holding people for the U.S. Marshals Service. Our guide to federal prisons in Arkansas covers the state’s full picture.

What is the security level at FCI Forrest City Medium?

FCI Forrest City Medium is a medium-security prison, and the Bureau’s roster records it without qualification. There is no camp attached to this institution; the camp on the campus belongs to the Low. For designation, that means a man who scores low enough for a camp will not be sent here, and a man sent here has either the points or a Public Safety Factor that keeps him out of one.

The complex’s Admission and Orientation Handbook (2026) writes some rules differently for each component, and they show what medium security means day to day. Controlled movement at the Medium runs as five-minute one-way moves announced building by building, with no entering another building without staff approval; at the Low the moves last ten minutes and start on the half hour. Television goes off at 10:00 p.m. here and 11:00 p.m. at the Low, and on weekends the Low and the camp run to midnight while this institution does not. Nothing may sit on the desktop or on top of the lockers in a cell here; at the Low one picture and one religious book are allowed on the lockers.

Whether a person lands at this institution, at the Low or at the camp turns on the security point score and on whether any Public Safety Factor applies under the Bureau’s security designation rules. A Public Safety Factor overrides the point total outright, keeping someone out of a lower-security institution however well they score, and it is arguable. Our guides to federal prison designation, the intake process and preparing for prison cover the scoring and the first weeks, and the guide to medium-security institutions explains what the classification carries with it.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Forrest City Medium?

One person named on published lists of notable Forrest City prisoners is held here: Michael Blaine Faulkner. Those lists name eight people, and the Bureau’s Inmate Locator shows that the other seven left years ago; listings that place them here are out of date.

Name and register number	Bureau record	Case
Michael Blaine Faulkner, 03829-078	Held here. Projected release November 7, 2034	Of Southlake, Texas. Pleaded guilty in October 2011 in the Northern District of Texas to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to obstruction by hiding assets, in a scheme that billed telecommunications carriers through shell companies and false identities; sentenced to 30 years and ordered to pay about $18.2 million in restitution with a forfeiture money judgment of the same amount
Ronald Sandlin, 27879-509	Released December 3, 2024	January 6 Capitol prosecution
Clifford J. Harris (T.I.), 59458-019	Released September 29, 2011	Federal firearms case; last recorded at the Atlanta reentry office, not a prison
Lawrence R. Lawton, 52224-004	Released August 24, 2007	Jewel robbery; last recorded at FCI Coleman Medium, Florida
Arthur J. Williams Jr., 20308-424	Released January 14, 2014	Counterfeiting
Beaudouin Ketant, 63255-004	Released April 24, 2015	Drug trafficking; last recorded at FCI Oakdale II, Louisiana
Armando Villalobos, 12877-379	Released June 18, 2024	Former Texas district attorney; racketeering and extortion
Samuel Lightsey, 96285-020	Released September 29, 2017	Peanut Corporation of America salmonella case

The two institutions carry codes a single letter apart in the locator’s records, so a list that says only “Forrest City” does not say which one. For someone already released, the screen shows no facility, only “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, while the record behind it keeps a last facility that is often a residential reentry office rather than a prison — CAT is Atlanta, CNV is Nashville — which is how released people come to be reported as held somewhere they never served a day.

How do I find someone at FCI Forrest City Medium?

To find someone at FCI Forrest City Medium, use the Bureau’s free public Inmate Locator on bop.gov. Search by the eight-digit register number if you have it; if you do not, search by committed name, which is the name on the judgment rather than the name the family uses. The locator covers everyone in federal custody since 1982: for someone still held it gives the facility and a projected release date, and for someone released it shows “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, with no facility.

Read the result carefully. “Forrest City Medium” is this institution; “Forrest City Low” is the other one, and the camp appears under the Low. No result at all usually means the person is in state custody, is still in pretrial detention under the U.S. Marshals Service and not yet in a Bureau institution, or was committed under a different spelling. Our guide to how federal register numbers work shows how the eight digits are put together.

How do I write to someone at FCI Forrest City Medium?

Letters to someone at FCI Forrest City Medium go to P.O. Box 3000 — not to Dale Bumpers Road, and not to the boxes used by the Low or the camp. The Bureau’s published block for this institution is:

Inmate mail, FCI Forrest City Medium	Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Forrest City Medium Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 3000 Forrest City, AR 72336

Mail without a register number is not rejected; it is returned to the sender as undeliverable, and the person inside is never told it came. A rejection generates a notice; a return does not.

The complex’s Admission and Orientation Handbook (2026) sets incoming-mail rules that are stricter than at most institutions, and stricter here than at the Low. Each of these gets a letter sent back, and the Bureau makes the incarcerated person responsible for warning the family:

• General correspondence at the Medium and the Low is photocopied, and the person receives the photocopy rather than the letter you sent.
• Envelopes and paper must be white. Anything on colored paper or in a colored envelope goes back to the sender.
• No glitter, stickers, oily substances, lipstick, crayon or marker. No perfume or cologne on the paper.
• No printed address labels on either the recipient or the sender side. The address must be written in ink or applied with an ink address stamp.
• Greeting cards are no longer accepted at all, homemade or bought. Families are told to photocopy the card onto white paper and send the copy.
• Anything over 16 ounces counts as a package and needs an approved BP-331 authorization on file, and the outside must be marked “AUTHORIZED BY BUREAU POLICY” or the post office returns it unopened.
• Books and magazines sent to someone at this institution must come from a publisher, a bookstore or a book club. At the Low and the camp they may come from any source. Newspapers must come from a publisher or bookstore everywhere on the complex.
• There is no mail service on weekends or federal holidays.

Legal mail is different, and only if it is marked. The envelope must carry the attorney’s name, an indication that the sender is an attorney, and the words “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate” on the front; unmarked attorney mail is opened and handled as ordinary correspondence. One local practice affects deadlines: the handbook records that all incoming and outgoing special and legal mail at this complex is vetted by the Special Investigative Services office for accurate sender and delivery locations, ordinarily within 24 hours, and notes that no regulation caps how long that vetting may take. Build that delay into a filing date. Our guides to writing to someone in federal prison and to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons cover the national rules, and the Bureau’s correspondence regulations set them.

Outgoing mail from this institution goes into the box unsealed, for inspection; at the Low and the camp it may be sealed. Every outgoing envelope also needs a TRULINCS-printed mailing label, so a letter written by hand and stamped without one does not move.

Never put money in an envelope. Funds enclosed with correspondence are returned, and the routes that do work are below.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Forrest City Medium?

Money for someone at FCI Forrest City Medium goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Des Moines or through one of two wire services, never to the prison, and all three routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number on the instrument itself.

Route	Where it goes	Notes
Postal money order, cashier’s check, government or business check	Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Name Inmate Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	The address the complex’s own handbook prints. U.S. postal money orders clear fastest; other instruments carry a hold
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	Within 2–4 hours when sent from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and at 7:00 a.m. the next morning when sent later, according to the Bureau’s money page; Program Statement 4500.13 says “ordinarily” two hours
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC	The same posting times as Western Union, seven days a week including holidays, according to the same page

Before you send a large sum, understand what it can buy. Spending here is capped at $230 in each two-week cycle, so money sitting in the account above that ceiling does nothing until the next revalidation date. Sending $600 in September does not buy $600 of anything in September. Our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner sets out what each route costs the sender.

Withdrawals run the other way through the Unit Manager, who can approve money sent out to dependents, postage, release clothing, legitimate debts, attorney fees, birth certificates, bedside visits, funeral trips and the purchase of legal books. Anything over $500 needs the Associate Warden.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Forrest City Medium?

Visiting at FCI Forrest City Medium is on Saturdays, Sundays and all federal holidays, from 8:00 or 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The two Bureau documents in force give different start times and neither says which the front lobby follows, so the table sets them side by side.

	Institution supplement FOX 5267.09B, August 19, 2025	A&O handbook, July 2026
Visiting hours	8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Earliest you may be on institution property	7:45 a.m.	8:00 a.m.
How many may visit at once	Four adults and five children	Three adults, and no more than five people including children
Last processing	One hour before the count and one hour before visiting closes	No processing after 9:30 a.m. before the 10:00 a.m. count, and none after 2:00 p.m. before the 4:00 p.m. count
Visiting points	Five a month, one charged per visit	Not stated

The visiting supplement is the local directive that governs visiting, issued under the national visiting program statement and signed for the complex; the handbook is a general orientation guide, and it is eleven months newer. Plan for the earlier arrival and the smaller party — be on the property at 7:45 a.m. with three adults — and call 870-494-4200 the week you travel; a wasted trip means a 90-mile round trip from Memphis or 180 miles from Little Rock. Both documents agree on two things that trip people up: processing stops well before the room closes, so a late arrival is no visit rather than a short one, and a visitor who leaves the visiting room for any reason, including a walk back to the car, has ended the visit for the day. The Bureau’s visiting regulations set the national framework.

Who can visit, and how many

• Visitors must already be on the approved list. Someone who turns up without approval is refused at the lobby, and staff do not telephone ahead to warn them — telling the visitor that approval came through is the incarcerated person’s job.
• Immediate family means mother, father, step-parents, foster parents, brothers, sisters, wife and children; a common-law wife needs the relationship verified. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins are ordinarily approved, and friends where the relationship predates the sentence. A criminal record is not an automatic bar; former federal prisoners are rarely approved and need the Associate Warden.
• New arrivals without an approved list may visit immediate family only, ordinarily approved within two weeks.
• Children of 16 and under must be with a parent, legal guardian or an immediate family member of at least 18. A 16-year-old coming alone needs written permission from a parent or guardian, processed through the Unit Team in advance.
• Where more visitors arrive than are allowed, the Operations Lieutenant may permit a split visit — one exchange only, and those leaving must leave the grounds rather than wait in the lobby or the parking lot.
• If the room is overcrowded, visits are ended in order of arrival, with an exception for visitors who traveled more than 100 miles. Say so at the desk if you did.

What visitors can wear and bring

The supplement’s dress code is long, and the lobby officer applies it. Barred: see-through fabric, lace or holes; sleeveless, tank, halter and crop tops and anything revealing the stomach, back, underarms or thigh; form-fitting shirts, dresses or skirts; skirts or splits above the knee, seated or standing; stretch pants, spandex and form-fitting shorts; swimsuits; hats other than religious headwear; camouflage; sweat suits, hooded sweatshirts and athletic jerseys; sunglasses; backless outfits; open-toed shoes, sandals and flip-flops; purses and men’s wallets; jackets, coats, gloves and scarves, though a light sweater with no hood and no pockets is allowed; and wristwatches. At the Medium and the Low there is one extra rule that trips people up: no khaki, and no shirt-and-pants combination that could read as an inmate uniform.

You may carry in a small clear plastic purse no larger than eight inches square holding up to $20 in fives, ones and change for the vending machines; one car key; life-sustaining medication such as nitroglycerin or an inhaler, which is held at the officer’s station during the visit; and, for an infant, diapers, commercially sealed formula and baby food and one blanket, in the amount the visit needs. Formula is mixed in front of the lobby officer. Strollers and baby carriers are not allowed, nor are food, drink, candy, gum, tobacco, lighters, toys, photographs, personal or business papers, writing implements, cosmetics, electronic devices of any kind including car fobs, or animals other than a service dog. Lobby lockers exist, but the supplement limits them to visitors who came by taxi or were dropped off; if your car is in the lot, everything else goes back to it, and returning to the car after filling in the visitor form ends the visit.

Identification and screening

Every visitor completes a Notification to Visitor form, BP-A0224, at the front lobby and shows a state or government-issued photo identification. No photo identification, no entry — the supplement states it flatly. Visitors pass a metal detector, have their belongings searched, sign the visitor log, and have a hand stamped with ultraviolet ink that is checked by the control center and the visiting room officer on the way in and again on the way out. Visitors are also subject to random Ion Spectrometry testing, the swab-and-analyzer check for drug traces, and to random pat searches and vehicle searches.

Bring documentation for surgical implants. A visitor with plates, pins or a pacemaker needs medical paperwork before entering; with it, the Operations Lieutenant is notified and the visitor is screened with a hand-held detector instead. Tell the lobby officer about any communicable illness in your party, because failing to do so can end the visit. Inside, the visit is supervised visually: a kiss and an embrace are allowed at the start and the end and no other contact, hands stay in view, and vending is for visitors to buy and hand over unopened. Men at this institution are changed out of their khakis into a jumpsuit and issued shoes before entering the visiting room, and searched again on the way out. Our guide to searches, shakedowns and contraband explains how these powers are exercised, and the guide to federal prison visitation covers the national rules.

Visiting someone in the Special Housing Unit

The two current documents disagree most sharply on visits to the Special Housing Unit. The supplement says people in the Special Housing Unit visit by telephone and video link from within the unit, on Mondays only, for one hour, arranged in advance by a written request to the SHU Lieutenant. The handbook says visits for men in administrative detention or disciplinary segregation at the Medium and the Low are non-contact visits in the visiting room, ordinarily two hours, on Fridays, with the person escorted from the unit and required to wear an orange jumpsuit.

Confirm the day and the format with the unit before traveling, and ask in writing so the answer is on the record. Both documents agree that an attorney-client room has to be requested before the visit rather than on the day, and that a loss of visiting privileges may only follow a hearing before the Discipline Hearing Officer, not a Unit Discipline Committee sanction. Our guide to special housing units explains the two statuses and how reviews work, and the Bureau’s special housing unit rules govern them.

Getting there

The complex sits about three miles outside the town of Forrest City. From Interstate 40, leave at Exit 239, head south and turn left onto Dale Bumpers Road. The Low is the first parking lot on the left and the camp is straight ahead past it; this institution is at the far right of the grounds, and its visitor parking is the right-hand portion of that lot. The Bureau’s roster gives this institution’s street address as 1400 Dale Bumpers Road; the 2025 supplement gives the street number as 1301. The supplement names the highway between the exit and Dale Bumpers Road as Highway 1B; the 2017 edition prints a different number for the same turn, so follow the road signs for the correctional complex rather than the highway number.

Memphis International Airport is about 45 miles east and Little Rock about 90 miles west, according to the supplement. Vehicles stay locked, non-visitors may not wait in a car on the grounds, and walking about the grounds is prohibited.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Forrest City Medium?

Phone calls at FCI Forrest City Medium go out only, from housing-unit telephones available from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, within a monthly allowance of 510 minutes for debit and collect calls combined. The complex’s handbook (2026) sets that figure, and the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, set the same 510 minutes per calendar month: 300 free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone can buy 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 2008 edition that Program Statement 5264.09 replaced added 100 minutes in November and December; the 2026 edition has no such supplement. Properly arranged unmonitored legal calls do not count against the 510.

Before anyone can call at all, their voice has to be registered. That is done at Inmate Services, which is located in the Laundry Department and holds open house Monday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. If a newly arrived person has not called home yet, an unregistered voice print is the most likely reason.

Contact-list changes go through the Unit Team and are ordinarily processed within five working days, and numbers for local motels are not approved. The national rules on the TRULINCS contact list, call recording and three-way calls are in our guide to federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs on TRULINCS and reaches families through CorrLinks; it is text only and charged by the minute, and the person inside must add your address before you can accept the invitation. Messages with a lawyer are monitored like any other, so privileged writing has to travel as marked special mail. Our guide to CorrLinks and TRULINCS covers the system and its costs. An unmonitored attorney call is arranged through the Case Manager or Correctional Counselor and is not something the person can set up themselves.

In the Special Housing Unit the allowance drops to one telephone call every 30 days, with legal calls arranged separately by the Unit Team.

What can people buy at the FCI Forrest City Medium commissary?

People at FCI Forrest City Medium can spend up to $230 at the commissary in each two-week cycle, which is $460 a month. This complex revalidates on the 1st and the 15th of each month, so the ceiling is not a monthly pot that can be spent in one go. The handbook leaves out “postage stamps, over-the-counter medications or ITS,” the inmate telephone system, but Program Statement 4500.13 names the only exclusions and telephone credit is not one of them: phone money comes out of the same $460. Someone on a spending restriction revalidates on a date worked out from the fifth digit of their register number, multiplied by three and increased by one.

The $460 monthly ceiling matches the national limit in the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360. An older commissary list for the complex (2018), still reachable in this institution’s directory on bop.gov although the facility page no longer links to it, is headed “MAXIMUM SPENDING LIMIT $360.00”. That figure is obsolete, and listings that give $360 are out of date. The current list (2026), the one the facility page links, is headed $460.00.

Shopping day is set by the fourth and fifth digits of the register number, the same system at all three components of the complex, and a person may shop in the morning or at the noon sale on their day. Purchases are made by fingerprint at the window; someone whose print will not register has to present their identification card instead. Not showing up when your name is called forfeits the shopping privilege until the next shopping day, there are no substitutions or add-ons at the window, and all sales are final. The commissary closes for a week in March and again in September for inventory.

What the money buys, from the 2026 list: a book of twenty forever stamps at $15.60, limit one; copier cards at $6.50; watches from $22.10 to $93.60; a wind-up radio at $79.95; and the tablet, a Score 7T, at $141.70 — roughly a third of a month’s entire ceiling for one device, which is why tablets are bought across two cycles. Food runs to soups, rice, tuna and mackerel pouches, chili, pepperoni, cheese, coffee and soda by the case, with kosher items marked. Shoes are limited to one pair of any type in nine months. Our guide to the federal prison commissary explains the national rules and what the money actually reaches.

What programs are available at FCI Forrest City Medium?

FCI Forrest City Medium offers the Residential Drug Abuse Program, vocational training in eight trades, apprenticeships in five, UNICOR factory work and a set of First Step Act programs.

RDAP and drug treatment

This institution runs the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The Bureau’s RDAP locations list (2026), printed inside the First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, names both FCI Forrest City – M and FCI Forrest City – L among the 57 programs at 50 locations, neither carrying a suspension marker. The guide’s programs-by-institution table also marks residential drug treatment for this institution.

RDAP is a minimum nine-month modified therapeutic community, run as a half-day program in a unit apart from general population. For a person convicted of a non-violent offense, completing every component can take up to a year off the sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e); the Bureau’s psychology treatment program rules govern admission. Two timing points from the complex’s handbook decide whether that happens: people are ordinarily interviewed 42 to 24 months before release, depending on security level and the waiting list, and the community transition component has to be finished at a halfway house before the reduction is earned. Drug Abuse Education and the non-residential program are also offered; the education course is compulsory where the presentence report documents drug history, and refusing it costs performance pay above maintenance level, bonus and vacation pay, and any UNICOR job.

Education, vocational training and UNICOR

The complex’s handbook (2026) lists vocational training in major appliance repair, basic diesel engine repair, building trades, commercial driver’s license, culinary arts, heating and air conditioning, business education and welding, and apprenticeships in carpentry, electrical, painting, plumbing and HVAC. A high school diploma or GED is required to enroll in a vocational program, which is a reason to finish the GED first rather than wait.

Literacy is compulsory for anyone without a diploma or GED, and promotion beyond entry grade in any institution job or in UNICOR depends on completing it; for people sentenced under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act or the Prison Litigation Reform Act, satisfactory progress in literacy is a condition of earning good conduct time. The law library is in the Education Department, with a copy machine run on debit cards bought at the commissary and a route for people with no funds to request free copies in writing. Our guides to prison education and vocational training set out what each track is worth on a release plan.

UNICOR operates here; the First Step Act guide (2026) names this institution by code in the Federal Prison Industries entry, credited at 500 hours of earned-time programming. Pay runs from $0.23 to $1.15 an hour across five grades with a $0.30 longevity premium, and hiring is from one waiting list in three tiers — previous UNICOR employees, then people with court-imposed fines over $1,000 in the Financial Responsibility Program, then everyone else. Staff take waiting-list questions at the dining hall at lunch. No Bureau document states what this factory makes.

Faith-based, reentry and First Step Act programming

The guide’s programs-by-institution table marks this institution for earned-time programs including Anger Management, Basic Cognitive Skills, Criminal Thinking, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Emotional Self-Regulation, Faith-Based Conflict Management, Family Programming for men, the national parenting program, Seeking Safety, Threshold and the four occupational education tracks; and for productive activities including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Drug Education, Victim Impact, the Financial Responsibility Program, the 7 Habits course, House of Healing, Trauma Education and Veteran Resilience Support.

The list has two limits. It comes from the guide’s grid rather than from a named program description, so it records what is approved to be offered here, not what is running this month or how long the waiting list is. And English as a Second Language is not marked for this institution in that grid, although the same complex’s handbook tells people who do not speak English that they must participate in an ESL program. If that applies in your family, ask the Unit Team in writing whether an ESL class is actually being delivered here, and keep the reply. Religious Services runs the chapel, which is also where the institutional Admission and Orientation session is held within four weeks of arrival.

What is daily life like at FCI Forrest City Medium?

Daily life at FCI Forrest City Medium runs on five official counts, weekday breakfast at 6:45 a.m. and lunch at 10:45 a.m., and telephones and television from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., as the complex’s handbook (2026) sets out below. Times for the Low and the camp differ, so a complex schedule that does not name its component can mislead.

	At this institution
Official counts	12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. standing, 9:00 p.m. standing; plus a 10:00 a.m. standing count on weekends and federal holidays
Breakfast, Monday to Friday	6:45 a.m.
Lunch, Monday to Friday	10:45 a.m.
Dinner	After the count clears and moves are called
Sick call	Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 6:15 to 7:15 a.m., at the Medium Health Services Unit
Controlled movement	Five-minute one-way moves, announced building by building
Telephones	6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily
Television	6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily
Unit Team availability	7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., weekdays and weekends
Next day’s appointments	Call-out sheet posted in the unit after 4:00 p.m. the day before

Missing a call-out is a disciplinary matter, and so is being outside your assigned area during a count; the handbook requires each person to display flesh for every count, waking if necessary. Unit Teams — a Unit Manager, Case Manager, Correctional Counselor and secretary — keep offices inside the housing units and post their open-house hours on the unit board. Institution orientation happens in the chapel within four weeks of arrival, unit orientation within seven days of any move.

Recreation covers intramural softball, basketball and volleyball, fitness and weight-reduction programming, arts and crafts and hobby craft, with the schedule posted in Recreation and in the units. The sanctions ladder is explicit: a first rule violation costs 30 days out of the recreation program, a second costs 90 days, and a third means mandatory removal.

Medical care here is contracted out. The handbook states that medical services at FCC Forrest City are provided by Wellpath, describes the arrangement as “most like a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in the community,” and says only medically necessary, immediate, urgent or emergency care is offered, with care that is “medically acceptable, but not medically necessary” excluded. Sick call is by triage slip, filled in on the unit and carried to the morning window; there is none on weekends or holidays, when only emergencies, insulin clinics and pill line run. People in the Special Housing Unit are seen once a day. Our guide to medical care in federal prison explains the request and appeal route — and knowing that the provider is a contractor rather than Bureau staff changes how a complaint is framed and to whom.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Forrest City Medium?

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. For its Bureau-wide review of the aging prison population (2015), its team held a video teleconference with the complex, one of five institutions chosen because they had “a combination of a high number and a high percentage of aging inmates” in fiscal year 2013. The District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council, which inspects institutions holding DC residents, has never inspected Forrest City either.

The public record instead consists of federal prosecutions, a staff survey and an audit.

The staff corruption record

Since 2020 the Inspector General’s public case notices record a steady run of federal prosecutions at this complex for bribery and contraband: officers indicted in December 2023, June 2024 and November 2024; guilty pleas in February 2023 and twice in March 2026; sentences in July 2020, November 2023, November 2025 and August 2026; and prosecutions of prisoners for paying the bribes in October 2022, January 2023 and February 2023. The record is a pattern spanning three presidential administrations, not one bad year, and it is the most documented fact about this complex.

The most recent case puts figures to it. On August 19, 2026, Judge Brian S. Miller of the Eastern District of Arkansas sentenced two former officers to 30 months each. Robert Cochran, 37, took about $58,775 from the friends and families of prisoners to bring in rolling papers, tobacco, sunglasses and over-the-counter drugs, and was recorded on video in February 2023 leaving bags of contraband in an office for a prisoner to collect. Tejuana Dillard, 42, an officer for 13 years, took $91,788 to supply contraband cigarettes to two prisoners who resold them inside, and then told federal agents she had done it only “a couple of times.” Between them the two officers were paid just over $150,000 by families of the men they were guarding.

A relative who pays a staff member for anything is committing the federal offense of bribery of a public official: the prisoners in these cases were prosecuted alongside the officers and received 14, 24 and 37 months.

What the staff themselves reported

The Inspector General’s survey of Bureau staff, published September 28, 2021, as Report 21-126, is the only oversight product that publishes results for this institution by name rather than for the complex. It publishes proportions only and never says how many people answered; every Forrest City Medium figure is an exact multiple of one forty-seventh.

Staff at this institution who reported	Share of those answering
Required to perform tasks that were not part of their normal duties	72%
Asked to work overtime	53%
Required to work overtime	49%
Required to work longer shifts	32%
Denied leave	15%
Experienced increased stress or anxiety at work	85%
Had considered leaving the Bureau of Prisons	36%

The survey was fielded during the pandemic, so read the stress and leave figures as of 2021 rather than today. Being required to work outside normal duties is augmentation — teachers, counselors, case managers and cooks posted to officer positions — and it is why a callout gets canceled, a class does not run, and a case manager is unreachable for a week.

The overtime behind that is measurable. The Inspector General’s management advisory on the Bureau’s fiscal 2019 overtime of December 9, 2020, found that FCC Forrest City ranked eleventh of the Bureau’s nineteen highest-overtime locations, with 149,660 overtime hours costing $6,581,674, while employing 1.5 percent of the Bureau’s workforce. Of the 26 employees Bureau-wide who each worked more than 2,160 overtime hours that year — more than a whole extra full-time position each — five were at this complex, the second-largest concentration in the federal prison system, at a complex of only two institutions. The advisory notes that the Bureau’s finance system does not separate overtime by institution within a complex, so the figures cover the Medium, the Low and the camp together.

The 2023 PREA audit

FCC Forrest City was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on July 11–13, 2023, by an independent auditor, Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America; the final report is dated August 26, 2023, and covers the whole complex rather than this institution alone.

The complex passed: 6 standards exceeded, 39 met, none unmet. The standards exceeded were zero tolerance and the PREA coordinator role, supervision and monitoring, inmate education, third-party reporting, ongoing medical and mental health care for victims and abusers, and the frequency and scope of audits.

The report also describes the complex’s physical plant, including how far the population ran above design capacity.

Designed capacity of the complex	2,944
Population on day one of the audit	3,411 — 116% of design
Average daily population, preceding 12 months	3,344
Over capacity at some point in the preceding 12 months	Yes
Housing units	28
Age range	19 to 80
Staff who may have contact with prisoners	505
Contractors / volunteers cleared to enter	33 / 13
Disclosed prior sexual victimization at screening	185
Limited English proficient	16
Identifying as transgender or intersex	6

The complex was at 116 percent of its designed capacity when the auditor walked it in July 2023. As of September 2026 it holds 3,520 people against the same 2,944 design figure, about 120 percent. In a medium-security institution, crowding shows up as the waiting list for a class, the length of the pill line and visits ended early.

On sexual safety itself, in the twelve months before the audit the complex recorded 19 allegations of sexual abuse — 9 between prisoners and 10 staff-on-prisoner — and 11 allegations of sexual harassment. None were substantiated; 7 abuse allegations were found unfounded, 12 unsubstantiated, and one staff-on-prisoner criminal investigation was still open when the report was written. The auditor reviewed ten of the abuse investigation files. The form also records that, asked how many people identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, the complex answered that it does not keep a running count.

FCI Forrest City Medium in the news

Recent news about FCI Forrest City Medium centers on contraband and bribery prosecutions of complex staff, a July 2026 death and a prisoner’s sentence for threatening a federal judge; older items concern officer sentences in 2023 and 2025 and two deaths reported in 2021.

• August 2026 — two officers sentenced. Robert Cochran and Tejuana Dillard were each sentenced to 30 months on August 19, 2026, for smuggling contraband into the complex, announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The investigation was run by the Inspector General and the Bureau of Prisons.
• July 2026 — Death at FCI Forrest City Medium. In the Bureau’s words, on July 23, 2026, at approximately 10:45 p.m., Sean L. Spurlock “was found unresponsive”; “responding employees initiated life-saving measures,” he was taken to a local hospital, and on July 27, 2026, he “was pronounced deceased by hospital personnel.” He was 34 and had been in custody at FCI Forrest City Medium since August 2023, serving 84 months from an Eastern District of Kentucky methamphetamine case, with a projected release in December 2028.
• April 2026 — a prisoner sentenced for threatening a federal judge. Michael Buck, 53, received 300 months for threatening a federal judge and a federal law enforcement officer and their families. The Justice Department’s account records that an FBI agent investigated him in March 2025 while he was a prisoner at “the Federal Correctional Institution in Forrest City,” and that he was recorded admitting he had used a contraband prison telephone to locate his intended victims. The release does not say which of the complex’s two institutions held him.
• November 2025 — a former officer, Sierra Long, sentenced in the Eastern District of Arkansas for receiving a bribe as a public official.
• November 2023 — a former officer sentenced to 33 months and a year of supervised release for bribery at this complex.
• January–February 2021 — the Bureau posted two news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FCI Forrest City (Medium); the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Forrest City Medium

Problems at FCI Forrest City Medium: where we can help

The problems that recur at FCI Forrest City Medium show in its own records: a contracted medical provider under an arrangement the institution itself compares to an HMO; a complex at about 120 percent of designed capacity with a documented history of augmentation and extreme overtime; a staff-corruption record that has produced federal prosecutions in six of the last seven years; and two current Bureau documents that contradict each other about visiting.

• Medical care that is not happening, or that is refused as not medically necessary. Because care here is delivered under a contract rather than by Bureau health services staff, the paper trail matters more than usual: a written request, then the administrative remedy process, which has a deadline at every rung; see our guide to filing a BP-9. Where negligence has caused injury, see Federal Tort Claims Act claims; the complex’s own handbook explains that route to the people it houses.
• Programs that are approved but not delivered. The First Step Act guide (2026) records what this institution may offer; whether the class is running, and how long the list is, is a question for the Unit Team — and the answer should be obtained in writing, because First Step Act time credits turn on participation.
• RDAP timing and the section 3621(e) year, where interviews ordinarily fall 42 to 24 months out under the complex’s handbook and the reduction is only earned after the community transition component.
• First Step Act time credits and sentence computation — whether they are being earned, calculated and applied, and what a PATTERN risk level of medium or high does to their application.
• Disciplinary proceedings that threaten good conduct time, and placements in the Special Housing Unit that outlast their justification. In a complex with this contraband-prosecution history, incident reports arising from a staff investigation need looking at closely.
• Designation and transfer. Whether a man is at the Medium, the Low or the camp turns on security points, Public Safety Factors and a Management Variable, all of which can be argued. Our guide to federal prison transfers sets out how a redesignation is actually requested, and our federal prison consulting services cover the rest.
• Halfway house and home confinement placement under the Bureau’s placement procedures. The referral goes to the Residential Reentry Management office for the district a man will be released to, wherever that is — for either Arkansas district it is RRM Dallas, whose office is in Grand Prairie, Texas — and the Unit Team prepares it.
• Compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules, and errors in how a sentence has been computed, measured against the Bureau’s sentence computation manual. See our federal prison early release practice.
• Challenges to the conviction or sentence itself, through a direct appeal or a § 2255 motion.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal criminal defense, appeals and post-conviction matters nationwide, and advises families on Bureau of Prisons issues at institutions across the system. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to talk through a specific situation.

Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, the firm’s Managing Director, writes 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

• FCI Forrest City Medium, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with address, telephone, fax, email, region, judicial district and mailing address.
• FCC Forrest City Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Daily schedule, counts, movement, meals, mail, telephone and TRULINCS, commissary, visiting, medical provider, education, UNICOR, recreation and special housing.
• Institution Supplement FOX 5267.09B, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Forrest City, 2025. Hours, points, visitor numbers, dress code, permitted items, screening, special housing visits and directions; replaced FOX 5267.09-02 (2023). Published under FCI Forrest City Low’s page.
• Institution Supplement FOX 5267.09, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Forrest City, 2017. Superseded; the edition linked from this institution’s own page on bop.gov.
• FCC Forrest City Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Spending limit, prices, shopping rules and inventory closures.
• FCC Forrest City Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2018. Superseded list headed with a $360.00 limit, still reachable in this institution’s directory on bop.gov.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes and wire posting times.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the national commissary spending limit of $460, raised from $360.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Psychology Treatment Programs, Program Statement 5330.11, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2009. As amended in 2016. RDAP admission and interview timing.
• Community Corrections Center (CCC) Utilization and Transfer Procedure, Program Statement 7310.04, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1998. The Warden may consult the Chief U.S. Probation Officer “in the release district”; the unit team forwards the referral.
• RRM Dallas, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Lists the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas among the districts served.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. RDAP locations list, Federal Prison Industries entry and programs-by-institution table.
• Death at FCI Forrest City Medium, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Press release on the death of Sean L. Spurlock.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2021. Includes the January and February 2021 releases reporting deaths at FCI Forrest City (Medium).

Audits and inspections

• PREA Facility Audit Report: FCC Forrest City, PREA Auditors of America, 2023. On-site audit of July 11–13, 2023, by Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America; final report August 26, 2023. Standards, capacity, population, staffing and allegation data.
• Staff Perceptions of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Survey of BOP Staff, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Report 21-126, with per-institution results for “Forrest City FCI Medium.”
• Management Advisory: Analysis of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Fiscal Year 2019 Overtime Hours and Costs, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020. Report 21-011.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation and Inspections Division, 2015. Report 15-05, revised in 2016; its methodology names FCC Forrest City among five institutions reached by video teleconference.

Court records

• Two Former Bureau of Prisons Correctional Officers Accused of Smuggling Contraband Each Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Federal Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas, 2026. Robert Cochran’s and Tejuana Dillard’s 30-month sentences.
• Missouri Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Federal Prison for Threatening a Federal Judge and a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas, 2026. Michael Buck’s 300-month sentence.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to Bribery, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Providing False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Receiving a Bribe by a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2025. Sierra Long’s sentence.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Indicted for Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Indicted for Bribery of a Public Official and False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Indicted for Bribery, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Bribery, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. The 33-month sentence.
• Non-DOJ Individual Sentenced for Conspiring with a BOP Inmate and a Then BOP Correctional Officer to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• Non-DOJ Individual Pleaded Guilty to Conspiring with a BOP Inmate and a Then BOP Correctional Officer to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• BOP Inmate Pleaded Guilty and Sentenced for Possession of Controlled Substance with Intent to Distribute, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• BOP Inmate Pleaded Guilty and Sentenced for Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• BOP Inmate Sentenced for Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• BOP Inmate Indicted and Arrested for Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance and Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Former Prison Guard Sentenced to Prison For Smuggling Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Bribery of a Public Official, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• Defendant Sentenced to Serve 48 Months in Federal Prison and Pay Millions in Restitution for Violating the CAN-SPAM Act, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas, 2015. Restates Michael Blaine Faulkner’s sentence, counts and restitution.

News and other sources

• Forrest City Office, Arkansas Department of Corrections, Division of Community Correction, 2026. A state parole and probation office, not a federal prison.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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