FCI Beaumont Low: Closure, Visiting, Mail and Programs

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

FCI Beaumont Low at a glance

FCI Beaumont Low is a low-security federal prison for men on Knauth Road in Jefferson County, Texas, with a minimum-security satellite camp attached, and one of the federal prisons in Texas. On July 1, 2026, the Bureau of Prisons announced that it will close the institution. It held 1,834 people as of September 2026: 1,317 in the institution and 517 at the camp.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Beaumont Low
BOP code	BML · complex BMX
Security level	Low; men
Status	Closing (announced July 1, 2026)
Population	1,834 — 1,317 at the institution and 517 at the camp (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Friday 5:00–8:00 p.m.; weekends and federal holidays 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m., on odd or even dates by register number · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Beaumont Low · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 26020 · Beaumont, TX 77720 Camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · USP Beaumont · U.S. Penitentiary · Satellite Camp · P.O. Box 26010 · Beaumont, TX · see which ZIP code to use
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	409-727-8172 · Fax 409-626-3500
Street address	5560 Knauth Road, Beaumont, TX 77705 · Jefferson County
Judicial district	Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division
BOP region	South Central
Medical care level	Level 2 (FCC Beaumont)
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	No
UNICOR	Yes
Camp	Yes · minimum security, reported under BML

It is one of three institutions on the Federal Correctional Complex at Beaumont, in the Bureau’s South Central Region and the Eastern District of Texas; the other two are FCI Beaumont Medium and USP Beaumont. The complex’s camp belongs to the Low on paper, although the Bureau publishes the camp’s mailing address under the penitentiary next door, with a ZIP code the Postal Service’s own lookup replaces.

Is FCI Beaumont Low closing?

Yes: the Bureau of Prisons has said in writing that it will close FCI Beaumont Low, but it has not said when, and as of September 2026 the institution was still holding people, still on the Bureau’s roster and still carried on bop.gov with no notice of the decision.

The announcement is a press release dated July 1, 2026. It says that “the BOP will close the following institutions” and lists six, the first of them “Beaumont FCI Low,” citing “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges” and a maintenance backlog “exceeding $4 billion” that new funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would not fully cover.

The release is specific about employees and silent about everyone else. Staff “currently assigned to Beaumont FCI Low” are to be “transferred to other units onsite or nearby for continued employment with the BOP,” whereas Big Spring and La Tuna face a reduction in force. There is no closing date, no timetable and no destination for anyone held at the Low, and 12News reported at the time that the Bureau gave no timeline.

One omission stands out. For FCI Big Spring and FCI La Tuna the release names the satellite camps expressly, and at Lexington it closes a camp and nothing else. For Beaumont it names the low-security institution and stops. The Bureau’s roster attaches the complex’s camp to BML, and its population report counted 517 men there under the Low’s code as of September 2026, but the announcement does not say whether the camp closes with the institution it is filed under, and no Bureau statement says so.

The Bureau’s own counts are the only public sign of movement.

Reading	Institution	Camp	Total
Bureau facility page, August 13, 2026	1,444	520	1,964
Bureau population report, September 10, 2026	1,317	517	1,834
Change	−127	−3	−130

In those four weeks the low-security institution lost 127 people while the camp barely moved, and FCI Beaumont Medium next door rose from 1,056 on August 13 to 1,111 on September 10. The Bureau has explained neither change. As of September 2026, Taft was the only one of the six institutions on the July list to have left the Bureau’s roster, and the population report counted only the camp at FCI Petersburg Low; Beaumont Low had reached neither stage.

For families, three things follow. Run the Inmate Locator by register number before every letter, deposit and trip. Gather program certificates, work evaluations and medical records now, while they are easy to get. And put any argument about the destination in writing early: under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau places people “as close as practicable” to their primary residence and, where practicable, within 500 driving miles of it, and no court may review the choice. Our guide to federal prison transfers explains how that request is built.

Which Beaumont prison is FCI Beaumont Low, and where is the camp?

FCI Beaumont Low is the low-security member of a three-institution federal complex off West Port Arthur Road, and the Bureau’s records treat the satellite camp on the same property as part of it.

Institution	Code	Street	Telephone	Inmate mail	People held
FCI Beaumont Low (this page)	BML	5560 Knauth Road	409-727-8172	P.O. Box 26020	1,317
Satellite camp	Reported under BML	—	—	P.O. Box 26010	517
FCI Beaumont Medium	BMM	5830 Knauth Road	409-727-0101	P.O. Box 26040	1,111
USP Beaumont	BMP	6200 Knauth Road	409-727-8188	P.O. Box 26030	1,227

The Bureau’s population report put 4,172 people on the campus as of September 2026.

The Bureau’s records disagree about whose camp it is. The roster marks the Low as the institution with a camp and the population report lists “BEAUMONT LOW FCI-CAMP,” yet the camp’s mailing block sits in the penitentiary’s location record, addressed care of “USP Beaumont, U.S. Penitentiary, Satellite Camp,” and the Low’s own page gives no camp address at all. Older records tie the camp to the penitentiary: the Inspector General’s February 2008 health-care audit lists the camp, as of November 29, 2007, as “BEAUMONT USP-CAMP” with 538 people, and the 2008 visiting supplement gives the camp the penitentiary’s telephone number.

On the ground the order is fixed: at the flagpole inside the complex gate, the Low is the first drive on the right, the Medium the second and the camp the third. Street numbers vary: the Bureau’s location records give the Low 5560 Knauth Road, the complex 5830 and shipping 5980, and the 2008 supplement gives the complex as 5430. For a map or GPS, use 5560.

Names cause trouble too: the Bureau writes “Beaumont Low FCI,” “Beaumont FCI Low” and, in press-release titles as recent as December 2025, “FCI Beaumont (Low).” The code is BML; the Bureau’s roster has no “BMF” record, so listings that give that code are out of date. The Inspector General’s audit of the Bureau’s fiscal year 1996 financial statements lists “FCI Beaumont (Low)” among the institutions activated that year.

The same roster lists 13 federal institutions in Texas, eight of them with a satellite camp; three of the 13 stand on this campus, and Big Spring and La Tuna share the July closure list. Our guide to federal prisons in Texas covers them all.

What is the security level at FCI Beaumont Low?

FCI Beaumont Low is a low-security institution and its camp is minimum security; the Bureau’s page describes “a low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.” The fence between them is decided by a score.

Under the Bureau’s security designation manual, Program Statement 5100.08, a man with 0 to 11 security points is ordinarily a minimum-security case and one with 12 to 15 a low-security case. A Public Safety Factor overrides the score: the manual’s designation table sends a man with 0 to 11 points to a low rather than a camp if he carries a factor such as Deportable Alien, Sex Offender, Greatest Severity Offense or more than ten years left to serve. That is how a man whose score alone would put him at the camp ends up inside the Low’s fence, and why a factor that no longer fits is worth challenging in writing. See our pages on low-security and minimum-security prisons and on how the Bureau designates prisoners.

The closure changes where a security level is served, not the level itself: if the Low closes, the score and any Public Safety Factor or Management Variable decide where each man can go. On medical classification, the Bureau’s 2024 care-level charts put the complex at medical care level 2 in a chart dated February 13, 2024, and the Low at mental-health care level 2, consistent with the Inspector General’s care level 2 for the Low as of November 29, 2007.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Beaumont Low?

Aurelio Cano-Flores, register number 99506-555, was held at FCI Beaumont Low as of September 2026, with a projected release date of June 28, 2038, according to the Bureau’s Inmate Locator. The Justice Department announced on May 13, 2013, that he had been sentenced in Washington, D.C., to 35 years for conspiring to import multi-ton quantities of cocaine and marijuana, describing a former Mexican police officer who became the Gulf Cartel’s “plaza boss” for Los Guerra, Tamaulipas. In 2015 the D.C. Circuit rejected his other challenges but held that the $15 billion forfeiture “must be recalculated” under 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)(1).

Stephen E. Stockman, the former Texas congressman, served part of a 120-month sentence here. His executive grant of clemency, signed on December 22, 2020, recites that he “is presently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution—Beaumont Low in Beaumont, Texas,” and commutes the prison term to time served while leaving supervised release and restitution in place. The locator records his release that day under register number 23502-479. The Fifth Circuit had affirmed his convictions on 23 felony counts in January 2020.

A widely copied list of notable prisoners at “FCI Beaumont,” which treats the complex as one prison, names other men. None was at Beaumont Low as of September 2026, according to the Bureau’s records.

Name in the Bureau’s record	Register number	Bureau record, September 2026
Abdulrahman Odeh	26548-050	Released August 20, 2021
Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal	03367-078	USP Coleman I, Florida; life sentence
Luke D. Brugnara	12047-111	Released August 2, 2024
Richard Hoyt Crawford Jr.	70138-018	Montgomery, Alabama, residential reentry office; projected release November 13, 2026
Justin Volpe	49477-053	Released January 10, 2024
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem	44126-408	FTC Oklahoma City; projected release May 3, 2041
Dennis Raymond Alexio	93052-011	Sacramento residential reentry office; projected release August 23, 2027

How do I find someone at FCI Beaumont Low?

Search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator by the eight-digit register number or by first and last name, and read the line that begins “Located at”: “Beaumont Low FCI” is this institution, while “Beaumont Medium FCI” and “Beaumont USP” are its two neighbors.

The Bureau reports the camp under the Low’s code, so a “Beaumont Low FCI” result may not tell you whether someone is inside the fence or at the camp. Ask for the housing unit, which belongs on every envelope anyway. If the locator shows nothing, check whether the person is still held by the U.S. Marshals Service or a state, and try the committed name exactly as it appears on the judgment. Our note on how register numbers work helps.

How do I write to someone at FCI Beaumont Low?

Write to the post office box, never the street address, and use the right box: 26020 for the institution and 26010 for the camp. Both blocks appear below as the Bureau publishes them, the first on the Low’s page and the second on the penitentiary’s.

For someone at the institution	For someone at the satellite camp
Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Beaumont Low Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 26020 Beaumont, TX 77720	Inmate Name & Register Number USP Beaumont U.S. Penitentiary Satellite Camp P.O. Box 26010 Beaumont, TX 77710 (the Bureau’s ZIP; see below)

The camp’s ZIP code is disputed. The Bureau’s location record and the penitentiary’s page give it as 77710, but the complex handbook gives the camp’s return address as “P.O. Box 26010, Beaumont, TX 77720.” The Postal Service’s ZIP Code lookup turns “PO Box 26010, Beaumont, TX 77710” into “PO BOX 26010, BEAUMONT TX 77720-6010,” and box 26020 into 77720-6020. The 2008 supplement’s letterhead reads “Beaumont, Texas 77720-6015,” and a 2019 Supreme Court filing, No. 18-8910, signed at “FPC-Beaumont Camp,” gives “P.O. Box. 26010, Beaumont, Texas 77720-6010.”

Use “Beaumont, TX 77720-6010” on the camp block’s last line: it is the ZIP code the Postal Service assigns to box 26010. If a letter comes back, call 409-727-8172 and ask the mailroom which form it wants. FCC Forrest City’s 2026 handbook prints Beaumont’s boxes 26020, 26040 and 26030 under “Forrest City, AR 77720”; anyone writing to Arkansas should use the addresses on our FCI Forrest City Low page.

Some mail rules are looser here than across the road. Men at the Low and the camp may seal their outgoing letters, which the penitentiary and the Medium forbid, and books and magazines may reach them from any domestic address, while the other two accept them only from a publisher or bookstore; newspapers must come directly from a publisher or bookstore at all three. Nothing leaves without a TRULINCS label, the envelope still needs the sender’s name, register number, unit and return address, and there is no mail service on weekends or holidays. The 2013 handbook treats anything over 16 ounces as a package that must be marked “AUTHORIZED BY BUREAU POLICY” or be returned, and sends back money found in letters. Legal mail is opened in the prisoner’s presence under the Bureau’s correspondence rules; our guide to writing to a federal prisoner covers the rest.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Beaumont Low?

Send money to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa, or electronically through MoneyGram or Western Union; nothing mailed to Beaumont is credited. The Bureau’s funds page sets out the electronic routes.

• MoneyGram ExpressPayment: Receive Code 7932; company name Federal Bureau of Prisons; city and state Washington, DC; account number = the eight-digit register number followed at once by the last name, with no spaces or dashes (12345678DOE). Online payments are capped at $300.
• Western Union Quick Collect: Code City FBOP, DC, with the same account number and the committed name on the attention line; payments can also be made through the Send2Corrections app or website, or on 1-800-634-3422, option 2.
• For both, money sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern posts within two to four hours, and later payments post at 7:00 a.m. the next day, seven days a week.

By mail, the envelope and the instrument must both carry the committed name and eight-digit register number, addressed to Federal Bureau of Prisons, [committed name], [register number], Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001, with your return address in the upper left. The Bureau accepts money orders, U.S. government checks, cashier’s or certified checks and bank drafts, refuses cash and personal checks, and asks senders to wait until the person has physically arrived; business checks, which the 2013 handbook accepted, are not on the current list.

Money cannot be deposited in the visiting room. Money beyond the monthly commissary cap stays in the account, and court-ordered fines, restitution and assessments are paid under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program; the handbook says a man who refuses his plan cannot work for UNICOR or earn above the “maintenance pay level of $5.25.” Only the associate warden for programs may approve a withdrawal over $500. Each route is covered in more detail in our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Beaumont Low?

FCI Beaumont Low’s newest published schedule opens the institution on Friday evenings from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the camp on weekends and holidays only; two older Bureau schedules differ. The newest is in the complex handbook whose cover is dated September 19, 2013. The facility page prints no schedule of its own; it links the 2008 supplement and its Spanish edition. The national rules are in the Bureau’s visiting regulations.

Source	The Low	The camp	Low’s monthly points
Complex handbook, cover dated September 19, 2013	Friday 5:00–8:00 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays not falling on a Friday, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.	Weekends and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	12
Supplement BMX 5267.08A, October 9, 2008	Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.	Weekends and federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	15
Attachment E to that supplement, the visitor handout	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and federal holidays, in sessions of 8:00–11:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.	No separate camp schedule	15

The handbook and the supplement share a rule that is easy to miss: weekend visiting at the Low alternates by date according to the fifth digit of the register number. A man whose number is 12345-678, fifth digit 5, receives visits on odd-numbered weekend dates; a fifth digit of 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 means even-numbered dates. Saturday, September 19, 2026, is an odd date and Sunday, September 20, an even one, so a family that arrives on the wrong day of that weekend can expect to be refused. Both documents print the rule under the Low’s schedule, and neither says whether it binds the camp.

Both documents set the same cut-offs. Processing starts at 8:30 a.m., with no one admitted to the lobby earlier, and stops at 9:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays, for the 10:00 a.m. count, and at 2:00 p.m., for the 4:00 p.m. count. The handbook’s 8:00 a.m. start for the camp sits oddly beside its own 8:30 processing time, so plan on 8:30; neither document says when processing opens for the Friday evening session.

Visits at the Low are rationed by points. The handbook allows 12 a month: a Friday evening costs one, each weekend or holiday session two, a full weekend day four, and a Friday holiday two. The supplement allowed 15, at one for a weekday and two for a weekend or holiday. Lawyers’ visits, law-enforcement interviews and chaplain-approved pastoral visits cost nothing, and extra points need written approval from the Special Investigative Supervisor and the unit manager. Neither document sets points for the camp. Call 409-727-8172 before you travel and ask which day, session and date-parity apply.

Who can visit, and how many

• Five visitors at a time, children included, not counting an infant who must be carried.
• Immediate family, plus up to ten other relatives, friends and associates approved by the unit team; friendships must predate the incarceration unless the warden makes an exception. New arrivals may see only immediate family until a list is approved.
• Visitors under 18 need a parent’s or guardian’s written consent, and those under 16 must come with a responsible adult.
• Leaving the visiting room ends the visit for the day. If more than five arrive, the operations lieutenant may allow a single swap, and whoever leaves must leave the grounds.
• If the room overflows, the supplement ends visits for frequent visitors first and then for those who live within 100 miles; the handbook ends the earliest arrivals first but spares anyone who traveled more than 100 miles.
• A patient in a local hospital, at UTMB Galveston or in state prison custody ordinarily may not receive community visitors.

What visitors can wear and bring

Both documents bar revealing, sheer, tight or sleeveless clothing, athletic wear, shorts, hemlines two or more inches above the knee, open-toe or thong-style shoes, hats other than religious headwear, hoods, non-prescription sunglasses, camouflage, and khaki, which is what the institution issues. The visitor handout adds wired bras, white T-shirts and medical scrubs. A clear change purse may hold up to $20 in $5 and $1 bills and coins for the vending machines, where visitors buy food for themselves and for the man they are visiting, who may not handle money. Telephones, keys, cameras, reading material, tobacco and outside food go in a locker or the car. For a baby, the handbook allows a receiving blanket, one sealed formula, two empty plastic bottles, three diapers per child with wipes, two sealed jars of food and a plastic spoon in a clear bag, while the supplement allows five diapers and one bottle, so pack the smaller number of each. The man you visit wears khakis and institution-issued steel-toed shoes.

Identification and screening

Every visitor 16 or older needs photo identification. The handbook accepts a driver’s license, passport or state identification card, or three documents with full name and signature, one bearing a photograph — then gives a birth certificate as an example and in the next breath says birth certificates are not proper identification, so bring photo ID. Visitors sign the Notification to Visitor form, pass a walk-through metal detector, may have their persons and vehicles searched, and, under the 2008 supplement, get a hand stamp that staff check under a black light on the way in and out. The supplement warns that bringing any article onto the grounds without the warden’s consent is a federal offense and names phones, drugs, alcohol, firearms and explosives. See our guide to searches and contraband.

Getting there

The Inspector General’s 2011 audit placed the complex about four miles south of the city of Beaumont. From U.S. Highway 69, take the exit for West Port Arthur Road, Florida Avenue and Avenue A, follow the service road to the stop sign and turn onto West Port Arthur Road. After about five miles and a set of railroad tracks, turn right onto Knauth Road and drive straight onto the complex; at the flagpole, the Low is the first driveway on the right. The handbook lists the South East Texas Regional Airport and a Greyhound terminal. Our guide to visiting a federal prison explains how a first visit works.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Beaumont Low?

Each man with a telephone account may use 510 minutes a month under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, so the complex handbook’s 300-minute limit is obsolete. The first 300 minutes are free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, anyone who uses up those 300, eligible or not, may buy the other 210, and the warden may give an indigent man more for good cause. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, at least 30 minutes must separate completed calls, and unmonitored legal calls do not count against the 510.

The handbook still describes the local mechanics. A man must register his voice at the Inmate Services open house, Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to noon at the laundry, and receives a personal access code he must never share. Housing-unit telephones run from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; calls are debit or collect, never three-way or on a credit card; and placing calls for another man is treated as evading monitoring. Unmonitored calls to a lawyer are arranged through the case manager or counselor. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017 the Bureau reported intermittent telephone problems at the complex, so after a Gulf storm a silent telephone is not by itself a sign of trouble. Our guide to federal prison phone calls has more.

Email runs through TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks. The handbook allows 100 active contacts, up to 30 of them for telephone and 30 for email, bars local motel numbers, and allows one free electronic request to staff a day. See our guide to CorrLinks and TRULINCS.

What can people buy at the FCI Beaumont Low commissary?

The monthly spending ceiling at FCI Beaumont Low is $460 under the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360. The complex handbook still describes $160 per twice-monthly validation, on the 1st and 15th, or $320 a month; that figure is obsolete. Stamps, over-the-counter medicines, copy cards and paper, footwear and a few other items sit outside the ceiling, and the limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period.

One exclusion has changed. The handbook exempted “ITS,” the Inmate Telephone System, so telephone credit did not count against the old limit; Program Statement 4500.13 says its list of exclusions is the only one, and telephone credit is not on it. Ask the unit team how the complex handles that now.

At the camp and the Low, the fourth and fifth digits of the register number set a man’s shopping day, with a morning or noon sale to choose from. Purchases are authorized by fingerprint, and the notice on the form is final: “ONCE YOU RECEIVE A RECEIPT AND YOU LEAVE THE WINDOW, THE SALE IS COMPLETE.” A man on a spending restriction revalidates on the day found by multiplying his fifth digit by three and adding one, so number 12345-678 revalidates on the 16th.

The complex price list the Bureau posts for the Low is undated, and its prices show age: $9.80 for a book of stamps and single 49-cent stamps, where FCC Forrest City’s current list, which prints the $460 ceiling, charges $15.60 for a book of 20 Forever stamps. Ask for the current sheet. It sells typewriter ribbons at $4.50 and limits copy cards and photo tickets to five each. See our commissary guide.

What programs are available at FCI Beaumont Low?

FCI Beaumont Low stands out in the Bureau’s August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide for two programs — Pell-funded college and Federal Prison Industries — and for one it lacks: no Beaumont institution appears on the guide’s residential drug treatment list. The guide’s by-institution grid also marks the Low for 56 programs, but a mark in that grid is permission to offer a program, not proof that a class is running.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program is not listed at FCI Beaumont Low. The guide’s location list, marked “Updated 6/4/2026” and headed “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations,” names ten South Central Region sites — FCI Bastrop, FPC Bryan, FMC Carswell, FCI El Reno, the two Forrest City FCIs, FMC Fort Worth, FCI La Tuna, FCI Seagoville and the Texarkana camp — and no Beaumont institution. One of the ten, La Tuna, is itself on the July closure list.

Older records say otherwise. The 2013 handbook says drug treatment at FCC Beaumont “consists of Nonresidential Drug Abuse Treatment (NR DAP) and Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP),” and listings that say the Low has an RDAP are out of date. A man here who wants RDAP and the sentence reduction it can bring should plan on a transfer. Program Statement 5330.11 says participants ordinarily need 24 months or more left to serve, that people are moved “ordinarily at 24 months” before release, and that they “may be transferred to any suitable Bureau RDAP based on their release date.” Ask the Drug Abuse Program Coordinator for the eligibility interview in writing, early; our RDAP guide explains the rest. The grid does mark the Low for non-residential treatment, and the handbook warns that a man who refuses required drug education can be held at the lowest pay grade and denied halfway-house placement.

College, Pell funding and vocational training

FCI Beaumont Low is one of 16 institutions the August 2026 guide lists as sites “who offer PSE programs funded by PELL,” with FCI Beaumont Medium; USP Beaumont is not on the list. A Pell-funded seat is college paid for by a federal grant rather than by the family.

The guide does not say which college provides it, and no current public record settles it. Lamar State College–Port Arthur was chosen in 2016 for the Education Department’s Second Chance Pell experiment at “Federal Correctional Complex-Beaumont, Texas,” planning to reach 243 students that year there and at a Texas state prison, and its correctional-education page lists three associate degrees and 17 certificates, from welding to paralegal studies, offered to men in Texas state prisons and at the Beaumont complex. But it is not among the four Texas colleges on the Education Department’s March 2026 list of approved prison education programs. Ask the supervisor of education which college teaches here, what it awards, and whether a given seat is Pell-funded.

The 2013 handbook’s vocational list is complex-wide: major appliance repair, basic diesel, building trades, microcomputer applications, industrial sewing, commercial driver’s license, culinary arts, HVAC, business education, welding and desktop publishing, with apprenticeships in carpentry, electrical work, painting, plumbing, HVAC and teacher’s aide. Enrollment requires a high school diploma or GED, and with minor exceptions anyone without one must attend literacy classes. Our prison education and vocational training guides explain how these tracks work nationally.

UNICOR

Federal Prison Industries is listed at FCI Beaumont Low: the August 2026 guide’s industries entry names BML and no other Beaumont code, and says the program prioritizes people within three years of release, veterans and people with financial obligations. UNICOR’s map of factory locations, dated November 2025, lists “Beaumont, TX” for clothing and textiles and also among its “Available” locations, naming no institution.

The Beaumont factory has a history. In August 2016 the Inspector General reported that UNICOR had made about 23,000 combat helmets at its Beaumont facility, found “endemic manufacturing problems,” and recorded that “the FPI Beaumont facility that manufactured the ACH and LMCH helmets was closed.” Under the handbook, jobs are voluntary and filled from one waiting list, with former UNICOR workers first and men owing court fines over $1,000 next, at 23 cents to $1.15 an hour plus a 30-cent longevity premium. Ask the factory manager whether the shop is hiring; our UNICOR guide explains the jobs.

Psychology, faith and release preparation

Every new arrival is screened by a psychologist, mental health crisis help is available around the clock, and sessions are requested by electronic request to staff. Chaplains run religious services, diets and observances and arrange clergy visits. The 2013 handbook starts the Release Preparation Program 30 months before release and says “Inmates must participate in the RPP in order to be eligible for RRC (halfway house) placement.” Current policy differs: Program Statement 5325.09 (2026) enrolls men 18 to 24 months before they leave, and a man who refuses “will not ordinarily participate in an RRC” but “should not be automatically excluded from consideration for RRC referral.” See our pages on religious programs, halfway houses and First Step Act time credits, and the Bureau’s halfway-house placement rules.

What is daily life like at FCI Beaumont Low?

Life at the Low runs on a fixed clock of counts, controlled moves and meals called in order of housing-unit cleanliness. The 2013 complex handbook sets out a weekday like this.

Time	At the Low
6:00 a.m.	Wake-up; breakfast is called (also 6:00 a.m. at the camp)
7:30 a.m.	Work call
On the half hour	Controlled moves open for ten minutes, on the outer-circle sidewalks only
10:45 a.m.	Lunch (10:30 a.m. at the camp)
4:00 p.m.	Stand-up count
After 5:00 p.m.	Dinner, once the count clears
Friday, 5:00–8:00 p.m.	Evening visiting, in the handbook’s schedule
10:00 p.m.	Stand-up count; the housing-unit telephones close
11:00 p.m.	Television off (midnight on weekends)
12:00, 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.	Overnight counts, with flesh visible even if a man must be woken

Weekends and holidays add a 10:00 a.m. stand-up count, which is why weekend visitor processing stops at 9:30. At the camp, outdoor areas close at dark, an 8:30 p.m. yard recall puts everyone indoors, and no one leaves a unit until the count clears.

Housing units are lettered and all general population, and no man may enter another man’s unit. Rooms are inspected daily: at the Low nothing may sit on a desk and only one picture and one religious book on top of a locker, while at the camp a man may keep a religious book on the desk and a picture, a clock and one large clear water mug on the locker. The handbook warns that sanitation violations at the Low can end in “placement in a six-man cell.” Laundry machines are in each unit, haircuts are free, radios need headphones, and the complex is tobacco-free. Food is covered in our guide to prison meals.

Medical care

Medical care across the complex has come from a contractor rather than Bureau staff since the complex opened, according to the Inspector General’s December 2011 audit, which explains why: a Senate report told the Bureau to try “a health care privatization demonstration project,” and FCC Beaumont, coming online at the same time, was chosen. The University of Texas Medical Branch held the contract from 1996 at a “man-day rate” per prisoner, an arrangement the auditors called “currently the only one of its kind.” The 2013 handbook names League Medical Concepts as the provider; no current Bureau document names today’s contractor.

The contract matters in court. In Moreno v. United States, No. 1:19-cv-00156 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 20, 2020), a Federal Tort Claims Act suit over the care of a man held at the Low who died in 2017, the court found that the medical staff involved worked for League Medical Concepts, under a contract that began on August 1, 2013, and dismissed the case because “the FTCA’s waiver of sovereign immunity does not extend to acts and omissions of independent contractors.” See our guides to prison medical care, care levels and tort claims, and the Bureau’s tort claim rules.

Sick-call triage opens before breakfast on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and each visit a man requests costs $2.00, waived if his account has not held $6.00 in the past 30 days. New arrivals get a physical within 14 days; vision worse than 20/40 earns a referral to the optometrist; a release physical should be requested three months ahead; and the handbook warns of waits of “several months” between dental appointments.

Hurricanes

Storms have tested this Gulf Coast prison twice in the federal record. Hurricane Rita came ashore 30 miles east on September 24, 2005, and the Low’s roofs had to be replaced at a cost of $1,776,779, the Inspector General’s June 2006 audit records; the Low was not emptied, holding 2,015 people on September 24, 2005, and 1,844 on March 13, 2006. During Hurricane Harvey the Bureau reported on August 31, 2017, that the complex “has not been evacuated,” that there had been some flooding in areas where no one was housed, and that it was running on its own water reserve and generators.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Beaumont Low?

No outside body has published a general inspection of conditions at the Low; the nearest is the complex-wide PREA audit below. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its staff have worked on this campus for narrower reasons, among them a 1999 review of personnel-security files, a 2006 review of mail monitoring, a 2006 audit of the post-Rita roofing contract that included a site visit, a 2011 audit of the medical contract that included interviews at the complex, and an escape investigation at the camp that produced a 2021 memorandum. The District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council, which inspected USP Beaumont in November 2024, has published no inspection of the Low.

The camp escape the Inspector General investigated

The most revealing federal document about this institution concerns its camp. In Report 21-080, a memorandum dated June 4, 2021, the Inspector General told the Bureau’s director about an investigation at “the Federal Correctional Complex (FCC), SPC, Beaumont, Texas, where the escape of 4 inmates went undetected for more than 12 hours despite 3 overnight inmate counts.” The four were present at the 4:00 p.m. count, were missed at midnight, 3:00 and 5:00 a.m., and were found gone only at the 10:00 a.m. count.

It did not blame the officers, who had likely followed policy while the men may have used stand-ins or dummies in their beds. It blamed the buildings: outer doors that “were unlocked, were unmanned, were not equipped with surveillance cameras, and had either nonfunctioning alarms or alarms that could be manipulated by inmates.” Investigators were told that two of the four left “to obtain contraband,” and the complex had begun adding a perimeter fence, repairing alarms and installing cameras and lighting. The three recommendations went Bureau-wide. The memorandum does not date the escape.

What the audits and the staff survey recorded

The December 2011 medical-contract audit, Report GR-60-12-001, found that four of 110 contract employees were paid below Labor Department wage rates, that 16 of 24 vouchers tested were incomplete or wrong, and that the Bureau had overpaid $2,394 and $1,883; it audited money, not medicine. In the Inspector General’s follow-up staff survey on the pandemic, published September 28, 2021, 69.7 percent of Beaumont Low respondents said they had been required to perform tasks outside their normal duties and 48.5 percent to work overtime, and 75.8 percent reported increased stress or anxiety at work. The tables give percentages without the number of respondents, so treat them as a signal rather than a count.

The 2023 PREA audit

The audit the Bureau posts for the Low under the Prison Rape Elimination Act covers the whole complex: the same file is posted under all three Beaumont codes, and it names “FCC Beaumont.” Valerie Wolfe Mahfood, an auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, was on site November 14–16, 2023, and filed a final report dated January 1, 2024. She found five standards exceeded, 36 met and none unmet.

Its numbers disagree with each other: it gives the complex’s population as 4,769 on November 14, 2023, the first day on site, and as 4,847 in an undated “current population” field, and its average daily population as both 1,292 and 4,292. It records forensic examinations at Christus Health St. Elizabeth or by Child Abuse and Forensic Services, advocates from Family Services of Southeast Texas, and a video system “not installed or significantly updated” since the previous audit.

Sexual-abuse allegations reported to GAO

GAO-26-107343, published in May 2026, lists 11 allegations of sexual abuse by incarcerated people at the Low for incidents in 2020 through 2024 and 10 allegations against Bureau employees reported in those years. The two tables come from different systems and count different years, so they are never added together. They are allegations, not findings: most such allegations nationally from 2014 through 2022 ended as unsubstantiated, meaning the evidence could not show whether abuse happened — not that it did not. GAO did not adjust for population, so the figures cannot rank prisons.

Criminal cases from the Low and its camp

The camp has a long escape record. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas announced an indictment in October 2019 for a man missing since September 28, 2019; a 24-month sentence in February 2020 for a man who walked away on July 12, 2019, “one of several inmates who have walked away in recent months”; and an 18-month sentence in June 2020 for one of four men caught on October 11, 2019, retrieving cell phones and whisky from a field, adding that “these prison escapes have plagued Jefferson County for a long time.” And 12News reported on September 13, 2024, citing a Bureau news release, that another man had been found missing from the camp the evening before.

A Justice Department task force led by the Bureau and the Inspector General began an operation across the complex on March 3, 2026, and seized electronic devices, drugs and homemade weapons; on July 27, 2026, eight men were charged with possessing cell phones found that week “within the FCC Beaumont Medium and Camp facilities.” All eight pleaded guilty before a magistrate judge on August 13, 2026, and the U.S. Attorney’s release of August 14 says each admitted obtaining his phone while serving his sentence at the “FCC-Beaumont Camp”; each faces up to a year more in prison, with sentencing to follow a presentence investigation.

FCI Beaumont Low in the news

Recent news about FCI Beaumont Low centers on the July 2026 closure announcement, the 2026 contraband case at the camp and a December 2025 death in custody; older items concern the camp’s escapes, deaths reported from 2020 to 2022, Stephen Stockman’s commutation and the UNICOR helmet factory. Newest first:

• August 2026 — the eight men charged in July pleaded guilty on August 13, 2026, each admitting, the U.S. Attorney says, that he obtained a phone while serving his sentence at the camp.
• July 2026 — the Bureau announced on July 1, 2026, that it will close “Beaumont FCI Low,” with no date; the Low and its camp were still operating as of September 2026.
• July 2026 — eight men were charged on July 27, 2026, over cell phones found at the complex’s Medium and camp in March.
• March 2026 — a Justice Department task force began a contraband operation across FCC Beaumont on March 3, 2026.
• December 2025 — the Bureau’s news release reports that a 36-year-old man was found unresponsive at FCI Beaumont Low on December 29, 2025, and was pronounced deceased by hospital personnel; the Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified.
• September 2024 — 12News, citing the Bureau, reported a man found missing from the satellite camp on September 12, 2024.
• June 2021 — Inspector General Report 21-080 used the camp’s undetected four-man escape to press for door alarms and cameras at every federal camp.
• December 2020 to January 2022 — the Bureau posted four news releases reporting the deaths of men held at the Low who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19; the releases put the Low’s population at 1,331 in December 2020 and 1,575 in January 2022. The Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• December 2020 — former congressman Stephen Stockman’s sentence was commuted on December 22, 2020, while he was held here.
• August 2016 — the Inspector General reported defective UNICOR combat helmets made at Beaumont and the closure of the factory that made them.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Beaumont Low

Problems at FCI Beaumont Low: where we can help

The problems that recur at FCI Beaumont Low are worked on paper.

• A transfer caused by the closure. The Bureau decides where each man goes, and 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) puts that decision beyond court review, so requests about proximity to home, medical needs or programs belong in writing before the move, with the release address documented.
• Drug treatment that is not offered here. With no Beaumont institution on the June 2026 RDAP list, the eligibility interview and a transfer request have to be timed against the 24-month rule in Program Statement 5330.11.
• Medical care delivered by a contractor. Grievances go through the administrative remedy program, but Moreno shows that a tort claim against the United States can fail when contract staff made the decisions. Serious illness may also support a motion for compassionate release, which the sentencing court decides; the Bureau’s side of the process is set out in its reduction-in-sentence policy.
• First Step Act credits and home confinement. Petitions under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 from this institution are filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, whose docket carries a run of cases captioned “v. Warden, FCI Beaumont Low.” A magistrate judge’s recommendation in McDuff v. Warden, FCI Beaumont Low, No. 1:22-cv-133 (E.D. Tex. Aug. 7, 2024), shows two limits: 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B) bars credit for activity before December 21, 2018, and a claim that would not shorten custody does not belong in habeas. See our pages on sentence computation, home confinement and early release from federal prison, and the Bureau’s sentence computation manual.
• New charges at the camp. Walking away and holding a phone are prosecuted in the Eastern District of Texas, and in the 2020 escape cases the new terms of 18 and 24 months were added to the remainder of the sentences the men were already serving, the U.S. Attorney’s releases say. A man accused of either needs defense counsel before he answers questions.
• 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 Beaumont Low, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s page for the institution, with its addresses, phone numbers and posted documents.
• Admission and Orientation Inmate Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont, 2013.
• Admission and Orientation Inmate Handbook, Spanish edition, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont, 2013.
• Complex Supplement BMX 5267.08A, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont, 2008. Includes Attachment E, the visitor handout.
• Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Complex Beaumont. Undated.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026. Security points, Public Safety Factors and Management Variables.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Release Preparation Program, Program Statement 5325.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Psychology Treatment Programs, Program Statement 5330.11, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2009, as amended in 2016. Governs the Residential Drug Abuse Program.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Multi-Agency Task Force Operation at FCC Beaumont, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026), Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Includes the RDAP locations list and the Pell-funded education and Federal Prison Industries entries.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes and wire posting times.
• Death at FCI Beaumont (Low), Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025.
• Institution Care Levels for Medical Assignment and Institutional Mental Health Care Levels, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. Released under Freedom of Information Act request 2024-03455 and published by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Includes the four releases, December 2020 to January 2022, reporting deaths of men held at FCI Beaumont Low.
• Hurricane Harvey Update, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2017.

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: FCC Beaumont, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. Covers the whole complex.
• Staff Perceptions of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Survey of BOP Staff (Report 21-126), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Management Advisory Memorandum: Notification of Security Concerns at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Camp Locations (Report 21-080), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Summary of Investigative Findings Concerning the Manufacture and Sale of Combat Helmets by the Federal Prison Industries, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Medical Services Contract with the University of Texas Medical Branch (Audit Report GR-60-12-001), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2011.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Efforts to Manage Inmate Health Care (Report 08-08), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2008.
• Oversight of Department of Justice Expenditures Related to Hurricane Rita, Roof Repair at the Federal Correctional Complex, Beaumont, Texas (Audit Report 06-34), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2006.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Monitoring of Mail for High-Risk Inmates (Report I-2006-009), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2006.
• Bureau of Prisons’ Background Investigation and Reinvestigation Program (Report I-2000-01), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 1999.
• Federal Prison System Annual Financial Statement, Fiscal Year 1996 (Report 97-25A), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 1997. Lists the institutions activated in fiscal year 1996.

Court records

• Eight inmates guilty of possessing cellular phones while incarcerated in Beaumont’s Federal Correctional Complex, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, 2026. The guilty pleas of the eight men charged in July 2026.
• BOP Inmates Charged with Possession of Contraband in Prison, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. The charges against the eight men.
• McDuff v. Warden, FCI Beaumont Low, No. 1:22-cv-133, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, 2024. Magistrate judge’s report and recommendation.
• United States v. Stockman, 947 F.3d 253, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2020.
• Executive Grant of Clemency: Stephen E. Stockman, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney, 2020.
• Federal Inmate Sentenced for Escaping from Beaumont Facility, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, 2020.
• Moreno v. United States, No. 1:19-cv-00156, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, 2020.
• Federal Inmate Sentenced for Beaumont Prison Escape, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, 2020.
• Federal Inmate Indicted for Escaping from Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, 2019.
• Fisher v. United States, No. 18-8910, Supreme Court of the United States, 2019. The docket; the petition for rehearing gives the camp’s mailing address.
• United States v. Cano-Flores, 796 F.3d 83, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 2015.
• High-Ranking Gulf Cartel Member Sentenced in Washington, D.C., to 35 Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, 2013. Aurelio Cano-Flores’s sentence.

News and other sources

• Bureau of Prisons to close Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution Low, transfer staff to other units, 12NewsNow (KBMT), 2026.
• Approved Prison Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, 2026. The approval list for prison education programs.
• Correctional Education, Lamar State College Port Arthur, 2026.
• ZIP Code Lookup, U.S. Postal Service, 2026.
• Current and Available UNICOR Factory Locations, UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries), 2025. A map on the About UNICOR page.
• Inmate serving 20-year sentence missing from federal prison camp in Beaumont, 12NewsNow (KBMT), 2024.
• Second Chance Pell Pilot Program: Selected Institutions, U.S. Department of Education, 2016.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B), Development of risk and needs assessment system, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)(1), Criminal forfeitures, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 124(c)(2), Texas, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Power to grant writ, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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