USP Atwater: Federal Penitentiary in Atwater, CA

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

USP Atwater at a glance

USP Atwater is a high-security United States Penitentiary for men in Atwater, California, with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. It stands in Merced County on ground that was once Castle Air Force Base, about 130 miles south of San Francisco and 60 miles north of Fresno, and people sentenced anywhere in the country are designated here.

Official name	United States Penitentiary, Atwater
BOP code	ATW
Security level	High; men
Population	1,287 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Penitentiary and camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · USP Atwater · U.S. Penitentiary · P.O. Box 019001 · Atwater, CA 95301
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	209-386-0257 · Fax 209-386-4635
Street address	1 Federal Way, Atwater, CA 95301 · Merced County
Judicial district	Eastern District of California
BOP region	Western
Designated capacity	880 at the penitentiary, 205 at the camp
Housing	14 units: 13 multiple-occupancy units and the camp’s open dormitory; no single-cell units
Special Housing Unit	Yes, 129 cells
Medical care level	Level 1
RDAP	No
Sex offender treatment	No
UNICOR	Yes, a recycling factory
Camp	Minimum-security satellite camp

The population was 1,287 as of September 2026: 1,143 in the penitentiary and 144 at the camp. Atwater is one of ten federal prisons in California and sits in the Bureau’s Western Region. The District of Columbia Corrections Information Council’s 2019 report gives 2002 as the year the penitentiary was activated; the Bureau publishes no opening date.

One thing separates it from almost every other federal prison: Atwater runs a Reintegration Housing Unit, a residential alternative to segregation for men who cannot safely live in an open prison, and the Bureau activated one at three institutions only. The other two are FCC Oakdale in Louisiana, whose two institutions, FCI Oakdale I and FCI Oakdale II, are both low-security FCIs, and USP Coleman II in Florida, so just two of the Bureau’s sixteen penitentiaries run one.

USP Atwater is still a penitentiary. Six other USPs are not.

USP Atwater is still a United States Penitentiary: the Bureau’s roster lists ATW as a penitentiary at High security. On April 4, 2024, the Bureau of Prisons renamed seven facilities, and six of them were penitentiaries that became Federal Correctional Institutions: Atlanta, Leavenworth, Lewisburg, Lompoc, Marion, and Yazoo City. Atwater was not on that list. A directory site, court filing, or older guide that says Atwater has been downgraded is confusing it with one of those six.

Atwater is not part of a complex, and it is not a maximum-security prison. The District of Columbia Corrections Information Council’s 2024 report describes it as part of “Federal Correctional Complex Atwater,” but the Bureau’s roster carries no complex code for ATW, and California’s only two federal correctional complexes are at Lompoc and Victorville. The same report’s profile box gives the security level as “Maximum.” The Bureau has five institution security levels (minimum, low, medium, high, and administrative); “maximum” is a custody classification applied to a person, not to a prison.

Every federal prison in California, and which is which

California has ten federal institutions, and the names collide. Two are penitentiaries; three carry the word Victorville; two carry the word Lompoc, and one of those used to be a penitentiary. The table follows the Bureau’s roster.

Institution	Code	Security	Camp	Note
USP Atwater (this page)	ATW	High	Yes	Standalone; not part of a complex
USP Victorville	VIP	High	No	The other California penitentiary; inside FCC Victorville
FCI Victorville Medium I	VIM	Medium	Yes	The Victorville camp belongs to this institution
FCI Victorville Medium II	VVM	Medium	No	Same address as VIM and VIP; a different prison
FCI Lompoc I	LOF	Low	No	Formerly FCI Lompoc; renumbered in 2024
FCI Lompoc II	LOM	Low	Yes	Formerly USP Lompoc; renamed April 4, 2024
FCI Herlong	HER	Medium	Yes	Lassen County, near the Nevada line
FCI Mendota	MEN	Medium	Yes	Fresno County, about 90 miles from Atwater
MDC Los Angeles	LOS	Administrative	No	Mostly pretrial
MCC San Diego	SDC	Administrative	No	Mostly pretrial

The prison that used to be USP Lompoc is now FCI Lompoc II, and it is the one with the camp; FCI Lompoc I is the older low-security institution, renumbered. FCI Dublin and FCI Terminal Island are off the Bureau’s roster.

What is the security level at USP Atwater?

USP Atwater is a high-security penitentiary, and its satellite camp is minimum security. Those are two different sentences to serve at one address, and which one a man gets is decided in Grand Prairie, Texas, before he ever sees California.

What a penitentiary is, and how it differs from an FCI

A United States Penitentiary is the top of the Bureau’s ordinary custody ladder, above medium security and well above a low. In practice that means a reinforced perimeter carrying a lethal electric fence, cell housing rather than dormitories, controlled movement in ten-minute windows, and a painted line down the walkway that men must stay to the right of. The 2026 PREA audit counted 29 buildings, 14 housing units, and 129 segregation cells, and recorded that not one housing unit here is single-cell. The rule differences follow from the level rather than from anything the institution decides: at a low-security prison a man seals his own outgoing letters, and here he may not.

How a man is scored into a penitentiary

By arithmetic, at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, under the Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08. Every newly sentenced man gets a security point total built from offense severity, criminal history, any history of violence or escape, detainers, voluntary surrender, education, and drug history. The bands for men are short:

Security level	Points	Custody levels it holds
Minimum (camp)	0–11	Community and Out
Low	12–15	Out and In
Medium	16–23	Out and In
High (penitentiary)	24 and above	In and Maximum
Administrative	Any total	All custody levels

The three Public Safety Factors that set a floor of high security

The points are half of it. The other half is where a lawyer’s work lands. A Public Safety Factor is a fact about a case that overrides the score; there are nine, no more than three may be applied at once, and three set a floor at high security — a penitentiary, no matter how low the arithmetic comes out:

• Disruptive Group (PSF B). A man “who is a validated member of a Disruptive Group identified in the Central Inmate Monitoring System will be housed in a High security level institution, unless the PSF has been waived.” Validation is an intelligence judgment made at the institution after arrival, and it can be contested.
• Sentence Length (PSF I). More than 30 years left to serve, “including non-parolable LIFE sentences,” means a High security institution; more than 20 means at least medium. A sentence reduction that crosses one of those thresholds can change the security level, which is one of the quieter consequences of post-conviction relief.
• Prison Disturbance (PSF M). A guilty finding on a serious institutional violence code — the program statement names 103, 105, 106, 107, 212, 213, and 218 — during a period of simultaneous institution disruptions puts a man in “at least a HIGH security level institution.” This is the factor that turns one bad day in a medium into years in a penitentiary.

Factors are entered on form BP-337 at initial designation and added or removed afterward on the BP-338, reviewed at every program review. Both are in the central file; read them before assuming a designation is fixed.

How someone gets moved to a lower security prison

Through the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, on a form, with the Warden’s signature in front of it. A Management Variable is the Bureau’s written override of its own score — “required when placement has been made and/or maintained at an institution level inconsistent with the inmate’s scored security level,” and applying one “requires review and approval by the DSCC Administrator.” No more than three may be in force at once.

The timing is tight. A request to apply a variable or update its expiration date goes to the DSCC on form 409 and “should normally be made to the DSCC within 21 calendar days following the inmate’s scheduled custody review.” Only the DSCC or Central Office may enter one. Miss the window and the request waits for the next review.

The variable families use most is Release Residence, rewritten in September 2019 to carry the First Step Act’s distance rule: “to the extent practicable, placement to the closest facility within 500 driving miles of the release area will be considered reasonable,” subject to bed space, security designation, program need, medical and mental health need, faith-based requests, the sentencing court’s recommendation, and the Bureau’s security concerns. It “may also apply to inmates who are within 36 months of release.” For a family in Baltimore or Boston with a man at Atwater, that sentence is the whole argument, and it has to be made in writing to the unit team at a program review. Our guides to designation and federal prison transfers set out the routes.

Which specialized units does USP Atwater run?

USP Atwater runs three specialized units outside general population: a protective-custody alternative found at only three federal prisons, a residential psychology program found at eleven, and a step-down unit between segregation and the compound. None appears on the Bureau’s page for this facility.

The Reintegration Housing Unit

The RHU is the most consequential thing about this prison for anyone whose relative has been told he cannot go back to the yard. In the Bureau’s own words it is an alternative to segregated housing for “male inmates identified as verified or unverified protective custody cases” — a unit with programming rather than a cell in the Special Housing Unit with the door shut. Operations Memorandum 003-2016, dated May 9, 2016, activated it at three institutions and only three: FCC Oakdale in Louisiana, USP Coleman II in Florida, and here. The Bureau no longer publishes that memorandum, or any operations memoranda, on bop.gov. Its text survives in the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council’s 2019 inspection report of this prison, which quotes it and names the same three institutions; that report is the place to read the rule itself.

Getting in is a referral, not a request. A candidate must either have refused to enter general population at multiple locations or be a verified protective custody case, ordinarily at more than one institution. Active gang members are not suitable, and men serving disciplinary segregation are ordinarily excluded. Oakdale and Coleman II accept men at mental health care level 1 or 2; Atwater takes care level 1 only. The referral is made on form BP-A1089 by Unit Management with Psychology Services and travels with a transfer request to the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, which decides. The screening file includes the protective-custody classification, the record of SHU placements elsewhere, and a psychological evaluation on whether the man “is likely to persist in his belief that he cannot safely return to general population at any facility.”

The only independent visit on the public record came in April 2018, when the DC Corrections Information Council found the Atwater RHU two years old, with a capacity of 80 and 72 men in it. Staff said 200 men had cycled through in those two years and close to 50 had gone on to lower-security prisons; there is no time limit, but staff said it can typically be finished in a year. The population then included men in voluntary protective custody, men with sex offenses, men trying to leave a gang, and government witnesses. Every man placed in Atwater’s SHU is screened for eligibility. A full-time psychologist works only in this unit. Men in the RHU wear brown uniforms so that staff can tell them apart from everyone else, who wear gray.

The unit is still running: the 2023 handbook lists a Reintegration Unit Psychologist and two Reintegration Unit Treatment Specialists on the psychology staff, the 2024 inspection recorded two psychologists assigned to it, and the institution’s visiting schedule gives it a day of its own. What no public document gives is a current headcount, a waiting time, or the number of referrals refused.

The Challenge Program

Atwater is one of eleven high-security institutions running the Challenge Program, the Bureau’s residential psychology treatment program for men in penitentiaries with substance use problems, serious mental illness, or both. The Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026) describes it as cognitive behavioral treatment in a modified therapeutic community, in a housing unit separate from general population, and lists the eleven sites by code with ATW first. It is an evidence-based recidivism reduction program worth 500 earned-time hours, and a man needs at least 18 months left to serve to enter.

Admission turns on one of two things: a documented history of drug use, shown by self-report, the presentence report, or incident reports; or a serious mental illness evidenced by a current diagnosis of a psychotic disorder, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, or severe personality disorder. Applications go by written request to the Challenge Program Coordinator or the treatment specialists.

At the April 2024 inspection, the unit had a capacity of 128 and 85 men in it, twelve of them DC Code offenders. Programming runs five days a week with a group every morning; three activity rooms double as GED classrooms; three treatment specialists carry both the treatment and the case management. Graduates can come back as mentors. There is no law library on the unit. Six years earlier staff told inspectors that although the unit held 128, “the capacity of the Challenge program itself is only 60” — roughly half the beds on a treatment unit were not treatment beds.

How long it takes is unsettled. The facility’s own handbook repeats the national description — “typically a 9-month program” — while the inspectors who walked the unit in 2024 recorded that it “typically takes two years to complete.” Ask the Challenge Program Coordinator in writing and keep the answer.

The Special Housing Unit and the 1A step-down

Atwater’s Special Housing Unit occupies 129 cells, and the institution’s visiting supplement treats the SHU and Unit 1B as the same thing. Next to them, Unit 1A was converted from general population into a step-down between segregation and the compound; unlike the open general-population units, 1A has floor-to-ceiling bars in front of each range of cells. A man described by staff as “in 1A” is neither in the SHU nor back on the yard, and the visiting rules for each are different.

The Bureau’s Special Housing Unit rules set the national requirements for detention orders, daily health visits, mental health reviews, and recreation. Our page on solitary confinement and Special Housing Units explains how those requirements are enforced, and protective custody covers the path that, at this prison, can lead to the RHU instead.

Who are the notable inmates at USP Atwater?

The best-known men held at USP Atwater include Demario James Atwater, Cristobal Veliz, Solomon Pena, and Robert Alvin Justus, Jr. Each register number is given so you can look the person up in the Bureau’s Inmate Locator.

Name	Register number and status	Case
Demario James Atwater	24520-057 — held here; release date LIFE	Pleaded guilty in the Middle District of North Carolina to carjacking resulting in death and related counts in the March 5, 2008 killing of University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson; sentenced September 23, 2010. No relation to the town.
Cristobal Veliz	88389-054 — held here; release date LIFE	Convicted in the Southern District of New York of racketeering, violent crime in aid of racketeering, stalking, and witness tampering, for arranging with his sister the beating deaths of Bernice Novack and her son Ben Novack Jr. in 2009; sentenced December 17, 2012.
Solomon Pena	62635-510 — held here; projected release April 29, 2091	Former New Mexico legislative candidate, sentenced on August 13, 2025 to 960 months — 80 years — on conspiracy, felon in possession, four counts of interference with federally protected activities, four firearm counts, and three of solicitation, for recruiting others to shoot at the homes of four elected officials after he lost his election.
Robert Alvin Justus, Jr.	26299-111 — held here; release date LIFE	Sentenced on March 18, 2024 to life for aiding and abetting the murder of Protective Services Officer Dave Patrick Underwood and the attempted murder of a second officer in the May 29, 2020 drive-by shooting at the federal building in Oakland.
Agustin Huneeus	25453-111 — former; released March 17, 2020	Napa Valley vintner, one of the parents prosecuted in the college admissions case. He served his sentence at the camp here.
Frederick Darren Berg	17950-086 — former; Bureau records carry release code E, escape, dated December 6, 2017	Serving 18 years for a Ponzi scheme when he walked away from the camp. Bureau records still show the escape as his last recorded status.

Six men sometimes listed at Atwater are held elsewhere or have been released. Jerry Alfred Whitworth, the Navy spy ring member, register 78095-011, is at FCI Victorville Medium I. Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 42771-177, is at USP Pollock. Mohamud Salad Ali, 77992-083, is at USP Florence – High. Dritan Duka, 61285-066, is at USP Canaan. Bobby Glenn Banks, 20110-009, was released from FCI Ray Brook on July 16, 2025, and Timothy Cornell Patterson, 68566-509, from RRM Long Beach on May 4, 2023.

How do I find someone at USP Atwater?

Use the Bureau’s free Inmate Locator and search by the eight-digit register number if you have it. Names repeat; the number does not. It 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.

The locator gives the prison’s short name, and California’s are close enough to mislead: “Atwater USP” is this prison, but “Victorville USP,” “Victorville Medium I FCI” and “Victorville Medium II FCI” are three separate prisons at one address, and “Lompoc I FCI” and “Lompoc II FCI” are two at Lompoc. Check the name against the table above before you address an envelope or book a flight.

How do I write to someone at USP Atwater?

Mail for anyone at USP Atwater, in the penitentiary or the camp, goes to one post office box: P.O. Box 019001, Atwater, CA 95301. The Bureau publishes a single inmate mailing address for this facility and gives no separate address for the camp; listings that give a camp-specific address for Atwater do not match the Bureau’s.

Inmate mail, USP and camp	Inmate Name & Register Number USP Atwater U.S. Penitentiary P.O. Box 019001 Atwater, CA 95301

Atwater photocopies the mail. Its handbook states that “all incoming general correspondence, to include cards, envelopes, and presorted standard mail, will be photocopied prior to delivery,” and that the institution “will discard the original correspondence after 30 days.” The man receives the copy, not the letter. Originals are held those 30 days only so the administrative remedy process has time to consider a complaint about a rejection, and “incoming correspondence will not be available to mail home.” A birthday card, a child’s drawing, or a photograph of a grandchild reaches him as a photocopy, and the original is destroyed a month later.

Books, magazines, and photographs are drug-tested before delivery, which adds an unpredictable delay. Hardcover books are not permitted at all; if a title exists only in hardcover, the man must obtain a BP-331 package authorization through his unit team and a copy must be on file in the mailroom before the book is ordered. At the penitentiary, softcover books may come only from a publisher, a book club, or a bookstore, five at most in a mailing and five kept; 28 C.F.R. § 540.71 allows any source, newspapers aside, at minimum-security institutions, so ask about the camp.

Legal mail is treated differently, but not entirely. Under the Bureau’s correspondence rules, incoming special and legal mail is opened only in the man’s presence and is not read. At Atwater, though, the envelope itself is photocopied and the original destroyed after 30 days, and the handbook states: “You will not get to keep the original envelopes.” For an attorney that matters, because the postmark on an original envelope is sometimes the only proof of when a deadline was met. The protection attaches only if the sender is clearly identified and the front is marked Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate; without that marking, staff may treat it as general correspondence, open it, read it, and copy it. Our guide to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons covers the privilege, and writing to someone in federal prison covers what gets rejected.

There is a reason the mailroom here is run this way. On August 9, 2024, a Supervisory Correctional Systems Specialist, Marc A. Fischer, opened a letter mailed to the institution, became ill on duty, and died at a local hospital. A second staff member who handled the same letter recovered. The letter was fraudulently labeled as legal mail.

How do I send money to someone at USP Atwater?

Money for someone at USP Atwater goes through the Bureau’s national system, never to the prison: money sent to the prison’s own address comes back. All three deposit routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number. Never enclose funds in a letter.

Route	Where it goes	Posting
U.S. postal money order, or a federal, state, county, or municipal government check	Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Register Number Inmate Name Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	Ordinarily posts without a hold. Other money orders and non-government checks carry a 15-day hold, foreign instruments payable in U.S. dollars 45 days, and personal checks are refused (PS 4500.13 § 9.3; bop.gov). The April 2023 handbook’s hold-free Western Union money orders and 30-day foreign hold are out of date
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	2 to 4 hours if sent 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern, per bop.gov (PS 4500.13 § 9.7 says two); later, 7:00 a.m. next day
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC	Same

Two things cap what money is good for here. The first is the commissary spending limit, described below. The second is the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program, which Atwater enforces strictly: its handbook states that a man in refuse status “has a spending limit of only $25.00 monthly, can be placed in less desirable housing, will not be considered for any favorable requests” and scores zero for responsibility on his progress report. In April 2018, the DC inspectors found accounts frozen for non-payment, payments set above the roughly $25 common elsewhere, and at least four men whose judgments direct that payment begin only after release. If a judgment says that, a copy belongs in front of the unit team before a schedule is set. Our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner compares every route.

What are the visiting hours at USP Atwater?

Social visiting at USP Atwater runs 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays, and visitors are processed only between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Arrive at 2:01 p.m. and you will not be let in. On September 17, 2026, the Bureau’s facility page read: “Visiting at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) has been suspended until further notice.” Call before you travel.

Two Bureau documents set the schedule, and they differ on the Special Housing Unit, the Reintegration Housing Unit, and the processing window. Institution Supplement ATW 5267.08E (2017), the local supplement to the Bureau’s visiting regulations, is the visiting policy the Bureau still links from this facility’s page; the Admission & Orientation handbook updated April 14, 2023, is six years newer and carries a different table.

Who	2023 handbook	2017 supplement
General population	Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.	Same
Special Housing Unit	Monday, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m., non-contact only	Sundays and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; Unit 1B Saturdays and federal holidays, same hours
Reintegration Housing Unit	Friday, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.	Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday non-contact, Monday contact
Processing window	No visitor processed before 8:00 a.m. or after 2:00 p.m.	8:15 a.m.–2:00 p.m.; arrival in the parking lot before 8:15 a.m. prohibited

The 2023 handbook controls because it is the newer document. Before booking anything, call 209-386-0257 and ask which schedule applies to the unit he is in. Our guide to visiting a federal prison covers the national rules.

Who can visit, and how many

• The approved list holds a maximum of fifteen people, inclusive of immediate family, friends, and associates. Changes may be requested once a quarter, though a Unit Manager may approve more case by case.
• Three approved adults and three children under sixteen at any one time. Not three adults plus three teenagers: at sixteen a young person counts as an adult and needs photo identification.
• Every proposed visitor completes an information sheet and a signed release and returns it with a copy of a government photo ID. The counselor runs a criminal-history inquiry, which can result in denial. A visitor with a prior conviction goes through the Captain to the Warden, and a visitor is denied if staff determine the man did not know him or her before he was incarcerated.

Attorneys not on the visiting list have their own route and it is slower than most. The unit team must be contacted three working days ahead; the first request has to be in writing bearing an original signature, and the supplement states that “telefax requests will not be accepted.” It must carry the attorney’s bar number, state of licensing, date of birth, and social security number. The Warden approves, and it is one client per visit unless the approval memorandum says otherwise.

What visitors can wear and bring

Nothing that resembles what staff or prisoners wear. Khaki, green, orange, gray, and camouflage clothing are all barred, along with low-cut or see-through clothing, tube tops, tank tops, backless clothing, hems above the bend of the knee, skin-tight or form-fitting clothing, sleeveless clothing, open-toed shoes, hats, and any sports or athletic attire. If the Front Lobby Officer is unsure, the Institution Duty Officer decides.

What you may carry in is short, and the two documents disagree on the money. The 2017 supplement allows one clear plastic change purse no larger than eight inches and “no more than $30.00 per adult” for the vending machines; the 2023 handbook says “no more than $25.00.” Take the smaller figure and you cannot be turned away over it. Also permitted: government photo identification, essential medication limited to the amount needed during the visit and surrendered to the Visiting Room Officer, and religious headgear after it has been searched. Everything must be carried in a clear plastic container.

For an infant, the 2023 handbook allows four diapers, an unopened package of wipes, one change of clothing, two bottles with contents, two small jars of baby food, a receiving blanket, a see-through cup, and one infant carrier. The 2017 supplement allowed two diapers and barred “strollers and similar devices.” If you are traveling with a baby, call ahead about the carrier.

The men are searched too. A man from the penitentiary is visually searched before and after every visit, changes into an institution-issued jumpsuit, and has his shoes secured with a colored zip tie; he may carry only his commissary card, a plain wedding band, one approved religious medallion and chain, religious headgear, and prescription glasses. Camp residents are pat searched and wear their issued clothing. Contact is limited to a handshake, an embrace, and a brief kiss at the start and the end, and the vending area is out of bounds to him. At the camp, and only at the camp, a man may sit beside his visitors with an arm around a shoulder.

Identification and screening

Government photo identification is required for everyone sixteen and over. Visitors and their belongings, vehicles included, are subject to search and video monitoring; refusing a search means being refused entry, and you must pass through a metal detector without setting it off.

Getting there

The prison sits at 1 Federal Way, off Santa Fe Drive, on the former Castle Air Force Base. The nearest airport, Fresno Yosemite, is 56 miles away. From the north on Route 99 southbound, take exit 193 onto the Atwater-Merced Expressway, right on Green Sands Avenue, left on North Gurr Road, which becomes West Avenue 2, then right onto Santa Fe Drive. From the south on Route 99 northbound, take the Franklin Road exit between Merced and Atwater and continue straight through the intersection at Fox Road. Without a car it is hard: Merced County Transit does not run on Sundays.

How do phone calls and email work at USP Atwater?

Calls from USP Atwater go one way: he calls you, and you cannot call him. The number has to be on his approved list, and every call except a properly arranged legal call is recorded. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, a man gets 510 minutes a calendar month: 300 free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone, eligible or not, may buy once the first 300 are used up. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls, and the monthly limit does not apply to unmonitored legal calls.

Atwater adds two local constraints that trip families up. The phones run Sunday through Saturday in three blocks only: 6:00 to 7:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 4:00 to 9:00 p.m., Pacific time. And its gap between calls is longer: “telephone calls can be placed in 60 minute intervals,” the handbook says, so that other men get a turn. A dropped call is not redialed; it is an hour’s wait. On the East Coast the whole evening window falls between 7 p.m. and midnight and the morning window is before dawn. When inspectors visited in April 2018, a fifteen-minute call from Atwater to Washington cost $3.15.

Email runs on TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks: text only, with a per-minute charge, and messages to an attorney are not privileged. The system also carries a Justice Department sexual abuse reporting mailbox that goes directly to the Office of the Inspector General. Our page on CorrLinks and TRULINCS explains how it works.

What can people buy at the USP Atwater commissary?

People held at USP Atwater can spend up to $460 a month at the commissary. That is the national ceiling in the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which records in its own change list that it “increases spending limit from $360 to $460 per month.” The limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period.

The Bureau’s 2023 handbook for this prison still prints “your monthly spending limit for regular sale items is $300.00,” and $360 is the limit PS 4500.13 replaced; both figures are out of date. Atwater’s own commissary order form (2023), signed by the warden, prints no monthly limit at all. Items excluded from the limit include postage stamps, copy cards and paper, over-the-counter medications, medical products, vitamins, and nicotine replacement products.

The shopping rules are printed at the top of the form in capitals: all sales are final, no add-ons, prices and availability change without notice, and “inmates must shop on their units scheduled date & time.” The monthly rotation goes on the unit bulletin board rather than into any published document, so a family cannot work out which day is his. Most items are limited to one each; sodas and ice cream are capped at two in any combination, soups at fourteen, chips at four. Stamps, photo tickets, and copy cards share a separate ceiling of $25.20.

Sunscreen at SPF 50 sits in the hygiene column, a concession to Central Valley summers. Religious items are sold, pre-approved by the chaplains: a kufi at $6.00, an Islamic prayer rug at $11.42, prayer oil at $3.50. And there are no typewriter supplies — legal work here happens on the law library computers, and how many of those work is a live dispute, set out below.

What programs are available at USP Atwater?

USP Atwater offers a residential psychology program, an education department with community-college degree courses, a recycling factory, faith-based reentry, and a release-planning program the Bureau piloted here. It has no Residential Drug Abuse Program, the program most families ask about first.

Drug treatment, and why there is no RDAP here

There is no Residential Drug Abuse Program at USP Atwater or at its camp. The facility’s own handbook says so twice on one page: “Although USP Atwater does not have the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), interviews for the program are offered,” and “USP Atwater is not an RDAP location.” The Bureau’s RDAP locations list (2026), printed inside the August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, confirms it: of 57 programs at 50 locations nationally, the five in the Western Region are at FCI Herlong, FCI Lompoc, FCI Phoenix, FCI Safford, and FCI Sheridan. Atwater is on neither list.

Completing RDAP can mean up to a year off a sentence for a man convicted of a non-violent offense under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), and the year is only available if he is transferred to an RDAP institution with enough time left to finish the unit-based component and the community transition. Interviews happen here, so the diagnostic step can be done at Atwater — but the transfer request has to follow, and the handbook says men are ordinarily interviewed 24 to 48 months from release. A man with a high security score also has to clear the security question before the program question, because RDAP runs at only a few high-security penitentiaries, among them USP Big Sandy, USP Canaan, USP Coleman II and USP Florence. Both problems are worked at once or neither is solved.

What runs here instead is the Challenge Program described above, the Drug Abuse Education course, and non-residential drug treatment, which the Bureau makes available at every institution. There is no sex offender treatment program at Atwater either; men assessed as needing it are transferred to a designated institution.

Education and vocational training

Atwater’s education department offers vocational certifications, GED testing, and a college program. When the DC inspectors visited in April 2024, they found vocational certifications in carpentry, drywall, and commercial and residential painting, along with ServSafe, National Federation of Professional Trainers, and National Center for Construction Education and Research credentials, and ACT training. Waiting lists ran 30 days to three months, and up to six months for painting. GED testing is once a week, and men tutor other men.

The most valuable thing in the education department is the college program. Merced Community College sends professors into the prison through its Rising Scholars program, funded by the California Promise Grant, and an associate degree in business is attainable. The catch is residency: at the 2024 inspection the Pell Grant route was “still being negotiated so that non-California residents can participate,” and men from other states had to fund their own study. Anyone weighing a transfer request against a degree in progress should ask the Supervisor of Education, in writing, where that now stands.

UNICOR at Atwater is a recycling factory — one of the largest electronic-waste operations Federal Prison Industries ever ran. Men get four hours of vacation a month, rising to eight after a year, the wait to start is about a month, and men within 36 months of release get preference. The factory has a history, set out in the oversight section below.

Religious services, reentry, and release planning

Three chaplains serve a religiously varied population. At the April 2024 inspection the largest groups were Muslims, Protestants, and Pagans, and the department reported that 178 of the 234 men who identify as Muslim or a faction of Islam participated in Ramadan that year — a participation figure no other federal prison publishes. The chaplains run Threshold, a non-residential faith-based reentry course open to men with less than 24 months to release and written to work for those who want it from a non-religious perspective, alongside four other faith-based groups. The limits of religious accommodation show here: fourteen of the 28 men who had been in the SHU said they could not get religious texts, and the Bureau’s answer was that government funds cannot buy personal religious items and that anything beyond the chapel’s group-worship copies is donated or purchased.

Release planning runs on a program that started here. The Release Orientation Program was launched as a pilot at USP Atwater in 2020 and has replaced the Bureau’s older Release Preparation Program at this institution — the Bureau confirmed as much in its response to the 2024 inspection, noting that some institutions still use the older model. It runs three days a week on a national curriculum with a capacity of sixteen, and within 60 days of release a man works directly with the Reentry Affairs Coordinator.

Halfway house placement is arranged through the Residential Reentry Manager covering the release address, not the one nearest the prison; California has two, at Sacramento and Long Beach. The 2024 inspection found that of eight men within two years of release, none had yet obtained a birth certificate or a social security card — the two documents that decide whether a job application is possible in the first week out. That is the practical measure of release preparation, and the question to put to the unit team eighteen months ahead rather than sixty days. Our page on halfway houses explains the timing.

What is daily life like at USP Atwater?

Daily life at USP Atwater is counted, timed, and narrow: at least five counts a day, movement in ten-minute windows, and double cells. The schedule below is from the facility’s 2023 Admission & Orientation handbook; treat it as a frame rather than a timetable.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Wake-up	5:45 a.m.; beds made by 7:00 a.m.
Uniform required	6:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.	—
Cells ready for inspection	7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.	—
Standing counts	3:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.	10:00 a.m., 3:30 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.
Controlled movement	Ten minutes before the hour to the hour, one direction at a time
Telephones	6:00–7:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 4:00–9:00 p.m.
Laundry drop-off	6:15 – 7:30 a.m. on the assigned day	—
Lights out and quiet hours	10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

The institution runs a minimum of five official counts every 24 hours and adds a sixth at 10:00 a.m. on weekends and holidays. At the standing counts a man must be on his feet at his bedside, and the handbook is explicit that he must actually be seen “even if the inmate must be awakened.” Nothing moves while a count is open, which is why a visit or a medical appointment can vanish without explanation. Callouts for the next day go up on the unit board after 4:00 p.m.

Movement is what most distinguishes a penitentiary from an FCI. Outside working hours men move only in announced ten-minute windows, usually one direction at a time, and a red line painted down the walkways divides the compound: men walk on the right of it and are not permitted on the left or near the fence.

Housing is cells in pairs: the 2026 PREA audit recorded thirteen multiple-occupancy units, one dormitory at the camp, and no single-cell units anywhere, and the unit toured by inspectors in April 2024 was rated for 128 men double-celled and held 61 that day. Recreation covers intramural sport, physical fitness, table games, music, movies, art, and hobbycraft from ceramics to lapidary, within the Zimmer Amendment limits: no R, X, or NC-17 films, no martial arts instruction, no weightlifting equipment, and no electric instruments.

Lockdowns are the variable families feel most and can plan for least. Bureau documentation given to inspectors recorded nine facility lockdowns at Atwater during 2017, and staff attributed the recent ones to an escape, two attacks on staff with weapons, and a fight between rival groups. By April 2024 the picture had improved: men told inspectors the prison “does not go on lockdown often,” that lockdowns usually last under two weeks, and that they are not told the cause. A lockdown suspends work, school, programming, and visits, and men in the Challenge Program told the 2018 inspectors it also freezes their progress through the program’s levels.

What do inspectors say about conditions at USP Atwater?

Independent inspectors have examined USP Atwater three times: the District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council in 2018 and 2024, when medical care was the dominant complaint both times, and a Prison Rape Elimination Act auditor in March 2026, who found no standard unmet. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility — but three of its products turn on events that happened here.

The 2026 PREA audit

USP Atwater was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on March 17–19, 2026, by Valerie Wolfe Mahfood of Corrections Consulting Services, an independent auditor. The final report is dated April 21, 2026.

The facility passed, and passed well: seven standards exceeded, 38 met, none unmet, no corrective action required. Among the seven exceeded were the zero-tolerance policy, supervision and monitoring, employee training, and inmate education.

Designated capacity	880 at the penitentiary, 205 at the camp
Population reported on the audit form	1,096 at the penitentiary, 126 at the camp — about 125 percent of the penitentiary’s designated capacity
Buildings	29
Housing units	14 — 13 multiple-occupancy, one open dormitory, no single-cell units
Average length of stay	574.4 days at the penitentiary; 364.8 days at the camp
Staff on day one	399, plus 33 contractors and 48 volunteers with inmate contact
Accreditation	American Correctional Association only — the NCCHC and CALEA boxes are unticked

The audit form asks the head count twice and gets two answers: 1,222 across the penitentiary and camp under facility characteristics, and 1,278 housed on the first day of the on-site visit. Of those 1,278, 219 disclosed prior sexual victimization during risk screening, 69 were limited English proficient, 17 identified as transgender or intersex, and 60 had a cognitive or functional disability. Not one was in segregated housing because of a risk of sexual victimization or because he had reported abuse. Segregating the person who reports is the failure the standards exist to prevent.

Across the twelve months of allegations the auditor reviewed, the facility received 23 of sexual abuse or sexual harassment — fourteen of abuse, six of those against staff. The auditor reviewed every investigation file. None was substantiated. And the number of criminal investigations was zero, because the institution employs no criminal investigators and refers criminal allegations outward: “Per the USP Atwater Warden, the USP Atwater refers allegations of criminal sexual abuse and sexual harassment to the FBI and OIG.” That is the correct procedure. It also means that whether an allegation against staff here is ever criminally investigated is decided outside the prison, and the prison’s own records will show only the referral.

The 2024 inspection

The Council inspected USP Atwater on April 10 and 11, 2024, and published its report on September 12, 2024, with the Bureau’s comments inserted throughout. It can only survey the men it exists to oversee: 51 DC Code offenders were held here and 40 returned a survey. Every figure below is out of those 40 volunteers, not a sample of the 1,028 men then in the prison. The inspectors toured every area the men can access except the Special Housing Unit, so everything the report says about the SHU comes from surveys rather than observation.

• Medicine was the dominant complaint, as it was in 2018. At the visit the department had a vacant clinical director post, two vacant nurse practitioner posts, and no medical doctor; men were being seen by two nurse practitioners until a doctor could be hired, and the department had gone months with no health services director before the new one arrived three weeks earlier.
• Atwater is a care level 1 facility — for men who are generally healthy — but it “sometimes houses care level 2 and 3 residents,” who are then put in for transfer. There is no pharmacy on site: prescriptions are filled at FCC Pollock in Louisiana and shipped in. Sick call runs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Wednesday reserved for the SHU.
• Nine respondents were on the chronic care list and reported not receiving the annual appointment the Bureau’s own protocol requires. Eight said they had been prescribed mental health medication, and all eight said they had not received it; the Bureau’s answer was that men must collect prescriptions from Health Services and may refuse them.
• Sixteen of the 40 said officers made racist remarks to them and twenty-nine described a lack of communication about conditions and facility-wide changes. Twenty-four had used the administrative remedy process, and fourteen of those said they never received a response.
• Twenty-eight had been in the SHU at Atwater and eleven were in it at the time; most had been there under three months. Sixteen of the 28 said they had no access to the law library and sixteen said they could not get medical care there, though staff said medical visits the unit on Wednesdays.
• Law library computers are disputed within the report. The inspectors recorded nine computers in the law library of which five worked, and one shared computer per housing unit. The Bureau replied that five are designated for law library use and all five work, that the other four were TRULINCS email machines moved out to the units, and that every housing unit and the SHU has a law library computer available daily.
• PREA signage in the unit toured was posted in English and Spanish but carried no telephone number, and surveys showed many men did not know how to report sexual abuse. The Challenge unit had no PREA signage at all.

The 2018 inspection

The earlier inspection took place on April 11 and 12, 2018, and its report was published on February 19, 2019. Thirty DC Code offenders were held here then — two percent of a population of about 1,280 — and thirteen were surveyed, so it rests on a much smaller base than the 2024 report and describes conditions eight years old.

Three findings have carried forward. The first is distance used as punishment: “many DC inmates reported being transferred to USP Atwater as a disciplinary measure,” to a prison 2,828 miles from where they were sentenced. The second is money: men who did not make financial responsibility payments had their accounts frozen, and payments were set above the roughly $25 common elsewhere. The third is mail, and it is the one that changed: books then had to be ordered through the prison and letters from home could not be on colored paper or carry marker, crayon, stickers, or lipstick. The report records that after the inspection the Bureau rescinded that local policy.

What the Inspector General has and has not done here

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility, and none is under way. What it has done is audit the Bureau twice over things that went wrong at this prison.

On May 12, 2017, a man escaped from USP Atwater by defeating every perimeter fence, including a lethal electric fence designed to give a warning shock on first contact and a lethal charge on the second. The Inspector General’s audit of that episode, published on September 30, 2020, found something worse than a single failure. Three years earlier, two men had attempted the same thing at USP Lee and the Bureau had paid to fix the fence there, but made no equivalent change at the other eight penitentiaries running it; only after the Atwater escape did it modify all nine. Afterward, the audit found, Bureau officials “did not adequately communicate to other USPs the DeTekion lethal/non-lethal fence-related vulnerabilities that contributed to the escape.” The Bureau accepted all 20 recommendations.

The second is older. The Inspector General’s 2010 review of Federal Prison Industries’ electronic-waste recycling began at this prison, with a disclosure by Leroy A. Smith Jr., a former safety manager here, to the Office of Special Counsel in November 2004. The Bureau’s own report on his allegations, delivered in June 2005, “noted that workers at USP Atwater were exposed to cadmium and lead at levels above OSHA regulatory standards, were not properly informed of testing results, and that medical surveillance and biological monitoring were not instituted as required.” The exposures described are from before 2003; the recycling factory is still Atwater’s UNICOR operation.

Its investigators have also made cases against staff here. On November 13, 2024, Sandra Munagay, a senior correctional officer at USP Atwater, was charged in the Eastern District of California with assaulting a prisoner and obstructing an investigation; she pleaded guilty on February 10, 2026, to one count of falsification of records and was sentenced on June 15, 2026, to four months in prison and twelve months of supervised release. The Inspector General’s account is that “on November 2, 2023, Munagay physically assaulted an inmate and subsequently falsified BOP records to conceal her actions.” An earlier case ended in the February 2019 conviction at trial of a cook foreman here for conspiracy, attempted drug distribution, and accepting a bribe.

USP Atwater in the news

Recent news about USP Atwater centers on a September 2026 death in custody and the prosecutions that followed the 2024 death of a staff member who opened a letter; older items concern the 2008 murder of an officer and the former air base the prison stands on.

• September 2026 — a death in custody. Augustine Gallegos, 40, was found unresponsive at about 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Staff attempted life-saving measures and he was pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel. He had been at Atwater since June 2025, sentenced in the District of Colorado for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The FBI was notified, as it is in every federal prison death.
• April 2026 — a sentence in the mailroom death. Jermen Rudd III, 39, was sentenced to six years and three months by U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff after pleading guilty on January 12, 2026. Prosecutors identified the narcotics in the letter as “two varieties of synthetic cannabinoids sold under the street name ‘Spice’” — not the fentanyl widely reported in 2024. His two co-defendants were then awaiting trial set for September 15, 2026, on charges that were allegations only. The court’s case index lists Ferreira’s case as closed on September 8, 2026, and shows no closing date for Jones’s case as of September 17, 2026; neither entry states an outcome.
• August 2024 — a staff death. Marc A. Fischer, a Supervisory Correctional Systems Specialist, opened a letter mailed to the institution on August 9, 2024, became ill on duty, and died at a local hospital. A second officer who handled it recovered. Three people were charged on August 20, 2024: Jamar Jones, then a prisoner here; Stephanie Ferreira of Evansville, Indiana; and Rudd. The letter had been “fraudulently labeled as legal mail.”
• 2008 — the murder of an officer. Correctional Officer Jose V. Rivera, 22, was killed on June 20, 2008, while returning two men to their cell on the second tier of a housing unit. He had served four years in the Navy, including two tours in Iraq, and had been with the Bureau ten months. Joseph Cabrera Sablan and James Ninete Leon Guerrero were indicted on August 14, 2008. Leon Guerrero, who held the officer down, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on May 30, 2014, to life without release; Sablan, who used an eight-inch homemade knife, received the same sentence on September 29, 2015, and died in custody on November 14, 2018.
• 1995 — the ground the prison stands on. Castle Air Force Base, once home to B-52 bombers, closed in September 1995; the Air Force records that the former base is now “home to a variety of businesses, plus a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, a University of California campus and an air museum.” It is an EPA Superfund site whose long-term remedy was built in 2006 and which the EPA records as “protective of human health and the environment,” with deeper groundwater and PFAS still under investigation. No published source says nuclear waste remains at the site.

Frequently asked questions about USP Atwater

Problems at USP Atwater: where we can help

Atwater’s own inspections, audits, and prosecutions point at the same handful of things year after year. If someone you care about is held here, these are the issues that come to us most often:

• Getting closer to home. Atwater is 2,828 miles from Washington and a long way from almost everywhere; men told inspectors in 2018 they had been sent here as a disciplinary measure. A redesignation argument runs on the Release Residence management variable and the First Step Act’s 500-driving-mile rule, made in writing at a program review. See federal prison transfers.
• Security points and Public Safety Factors. Three factors hold a man at a penitentiary regardless of his score. Each appears on the BP-337 and BP-338, each has stated criteria, and each can be challenged on the record.
• Medical care that is not happening. It was the leading complaint in both inspections here, and in April 2024 the department was short a clinical director, two nurse practitioners, and a medical doctor, with no on-site pharmacy. The route is a written request to staff and then the administrative remedy process — where fourteen of the twenty-four men who used it told inspectors they never got a response. See medical care in federal prison and Federal Tort Claims Act claims.
• Protective custody and the Reintegration Housing Unit. A man who cannot safely return to general population has an alternative to indefinite segregation here, but only by referral through Unit Management and Psychology Services to the DSCC.
• Drug treatment and the § 3621(e) year. Because Atwater runs no RDAP, the diagnostic interview and the transfer request are two separate pieces of work with two separate clocks. See RDAP and early release.
• Disciplinary proceedings that threaten good conduct time and First Step Act credits, and SHU placements that outlast their justification. A prison-disturbance finding is also a Public Safety Factor, so one hearing decides both the sanction and the security level.
• Financial responsibility payments set above what the judgment requires, and the $25 monthly cap and account freeze that follow a refuse designation.
• Staff misconduct. An officer here was sentenced in June 2026 for falsifying records to conceal an assault on a prisoner, and six of the fourteen sexual abuse allegations in the year to March 2026 were against staff.
• Compassionate release, sentence computation errors, and First Step Act time credits that are earned but not applied. See our compassionate release, FSA credit, and early release services.
• 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

• USP Atwater, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s page for the institution.
• USP Atwater Commissary Shopping List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• USP Atwater Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement ATW 5267.08E, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2017.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the commissary spending limit and the rules for deposits.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Reintegration Housing Unit (RHU) Activation Procedures, Operations Memorandum 003-2016, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016. RHU locations, eligibility, and referral on form BP-A1089. No longer published by the Bureau; quoted in the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council’s 2019 report on USP Atwater.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Challenge Program sites and criteria, and the RDAP locations list.
• Send Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Lockbox, Western Union, and MoneyGram instructions.
• Jose V. Rivera, Fallen Hero, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Marc A. Fischer, Fallen Hero, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: USP Atwater, Corrections Consulting Services, 2026. Auditor Valerie Wolfe Mahfood.
• USP Atwater: Report on Findings and Recommendations, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2024. Includes the Bureau’s responses.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Perimeter Security Strategy and Efforts Related to the Contract Awarded to DeTekion Security Systems (Report 20-115), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020. Covers the Atwater escape and the $3.2 million fence contract.
• USP Atwater Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2019.
• A Review of Federal Prison Industries’ Electronic-Waste Recycling Program (Report E2006005), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2010.

Court records

• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Falsification of Records, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Sandra Munagay’s sentence.
• BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to Falsification of Records, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Sandra Munagay’s guilty plea.
• Federal Correctional Officer Charged with Assault and Falsifying Report to Obstruct an Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024. The charges against Sandra Munagay.
• United States v. Jones, No. 1:24-cr-00209 (E.D. Cal.), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, 2024. Docket for the prosecution of Jamar Jones, Stephanie Ferreira, and Jermen Rudd III.
• Missouri Man Sentenced to 6 Years and 3 Months in Prison for Narcotics Conspiracy in Prison Discovered Following the Death of USP Atwater Staff, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, 2026. Jermen Rudd III’s sentence and the substance identified.
• Three Charged with Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics in Prison Following the Death of USP Atwater Staff, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, 2024. The charges against Jamar Jones, Stephanie Ferreira, and Jermen Rudd III.
• Eighty Year Sentence for Former Candidate Who Orchestrated Shootings and Murder-for-Hire, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Mexico, 2025. Solomon Pena’s sentence.
• Final Defendant in 2020 Drive-by-Shooting of Court Security Officers Sentenced to Life in Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California, 2024. Robert Alvin Justus, Jr.’s sentence.
• Narcisa Veliz Novack and Cristobal Veliz Sentenced in White Plains Federal Court to Life in Prison for the Beating Deaths of Ben and Bernice Novack, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, 2012.
• Atwater Sentenced, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of North Carolina, 2010. Demario James Atwater’s sentence.

News and other sources

• Inmate at Atwater’s Federal Prison Dead, FBI Notified, KSEE/KGPE (YourCentralValley.com), 2026. The death of Augustine Gallegos.
• Castle Air Force Base (6 Areas) Superfund Site Profile: Cleanup Activities, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2026.
• Air Force Completes Public Transfer of Former Castle AFB, U.S. Air Force, 2007.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.71, Procedures, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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