FCI Three Rivers: Visiting, Mail, Commissary, Programs

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

FCI Three Rivers at a glance

FCI Three Rivers is a medium-security federal prison for men on Highway 72 in Live Oak County, Texas, with a minimum-security satellite camp beside it. It sits on about 300 acres between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, across the highway from Choke Canyon reservoir, in the Bureau’s South Central Region.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Three Rivers
BOP code	TRV
Security level	Medium; men · adjacent minimum-security satellite camp
Population	1,157 (as of September 2026) · 897 at the FCI, 260 at the camp
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:15 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · Jim Wells units on Fridays · processing stops at 2:00 p.m.
Inmate mail	INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER · FCI Three Rivers · FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION · P.O. BOX 4200 · THREE RIVERS, TX 78071  —  at the camp, add SATELLITE CAMP above the box number
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	361-786-3576 · Fax 361-786-5051
Street address	US Highway 72 West (1700 Highway 72 West), Three Rivers, TX 78071 · Live Oak County
Judicial district	Southern District of Texas
BOP region	South Central
Designated capacity	792 (FCI) and 256 (camp) — see The 2025 PREA audit
Housing	Four cell units at the FCI (Jim Wells, Karnes, Live Oak, McMullen) · two open dormitories at the camp (Tilden, Uvalde)
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 48 segregation cells
Medical care level	1
Mental health care level	1
RDAP	No
UNICOR	See Work assignments and UNICOR
Camp	Yes · minimum-security satellite camp

Is the prison in Three Rivers state or federal?

Federal. FCI Three Rivers is one of the federal prisons in Texas run by the Bureau of Prisons, and if the person you are looking for was sentenced in a Texas state court they are not here. The distinction catches families out in this corner of Texas because the state runs three prisons twenty-odd miles away in Beeville and a fourth up the road in Kenedy — and the federal prison’s own visiting supplement gives driving directions from Beeville.

Prison	Run by	County	How to find someone
FCI Three Rivers (this page)	Federal Bureau of Prisons	Live Oak	BOP Inmate Locator
Garza East Unit	Texas Department of Criminal Justice	Bee (Beeville)	TDCJ offender search
Garza West Unit	Texas Department of Criminal Justice	Bee (Beeville)	TDCJ offender search
McConnell Unit	Texas Department of Criminal Justice	Bee (Beeville)	TDCJ offender search
Connally Unit	Texas Department of Criminal Justice	Karnes (Kenedy)	TDCJ offender search

The two systems share a stretch of South Texas and nothing else. Mail rules, money routes, visiting lists, telephone accounts, release-date arithmetic and grievance procedures all differ.

Some renderings of the Bureau’s own page for this prison carry a heading reading “Other facilities at the Three Rivers Federal Correctional Complex” with nothing underneath, and empty address blocks for a “Federal Satellite Low.” Neither describes anything: the Bureau’s location record for TRV carries no complex code and no satellite low. One institution, one camp.

What is the security level at FCI Three Rivers?

Medium inside the fence, minimum at the camp beside it. Three Rivers and FCI Beaumont Medium are the only two medium-security federal correctional institutions in Texas, and Three Rivers is the only one standing on its own rather than inside a complex — every other Texas FCI is a low. The campus was built between February 1989 and October 1990, and its Warden is Richard A. Luna.

The 2025 PREA audit records the custody levels this campus actually holds as “Medium / Minimum – Community / In / Out,” and counts 39 buildings and 48 segregation cells across roughly 300 acres, 101 of them developed. It also counts housing units differently from the institution’s own handbook. The handbook names six general-population units — Jim Wells, Karnes, Live Oak and McMullen inside the fence, Tilden and Uvalde at the camp. The audit counts eleven, because an auditor counts each architecturally separate pod: nine multiple-occupancy cell units and two open-bay dormitories, with no single-cell housing unit anywhere on the campus. Video surveillance was installed or upgraded in the twelve months before the audit.

Which side of the fence someone lands on is decided before they arrive, by their security point score and by whether a Public Safety Factor applies. A Public Safety Factor overrides the points; it is what keeps a low-scoring person out of a camp regardless of arithmetic, and arguing about it is work for the designation stage, not afterward. Our guides to the intake process and preparing for prison cover the first weeks.

The two halves of the campus are run on opposite principles. Inside the fence the day runs on a pass system and controlled movement. The camp runs on check-ins: people report to the Camp Officer before 8:00 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m., and the camp gate is secured from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Three Rivers?

The lists that circulate are mostly about people who left years ago, and the Bureau’s public record does not show anyone widely known as designated here now.

Name	Status at Three Rivers	Case
Barrett Lancaster Brown	Former. Register number 45047-177. Bureau records show his facility as RRM Dallas and his release date as May 25, 2017	The journalist and Project PM founder prosecuted in the Northern District of Texas over the Stratfor hack; he left this prison in November 2016
Aramis Stuckman	Was here in October 2024. Convicted August 25, 2026; sentencing December 1, 2026. The Bureau does not publish him as designated here now	Convicted on eight counts including solicitation of the murder of federal law enforcement officers, for three letters written here
Daniel Pena	Former. Register number 46932-511. Walked away from the camp on March 10, 2026; his Bureau record shows “Escaped On: 03/10/2026” and still carries FCI Three Rivers as his facility	Was serving 70 months for possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine

Barrett Brown was not released from prison in November 2016. He left FCI Three Rivers then, but the Bureau’s own record gives his release date as May 25, 2017 and his last assignment as the Dallas residential reentry office. A halfway house transfer is not the end of a sentence, and confusing the two is how the internet gets release dates wrong.

A caution for anyone searching a common name: a search for Daniel Pena returns thirteen men at ten facilities. The eight-digit register number is the only reliable key, and the results list prints it beside every name.

How do I find someone at FCI Three Rivers?

Search the Bureau’s free public Inmate Locator by name or, better, by the eight-digit register number. 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. It matches the committed name from the judgment, not a nickname or a married name.

If nothing comes back, the usual reasons are that the person is in Texas state custody, that they are still in pretrial detention held by the U.S. Marshals Service, or that the name on the judgment differs from the name the family uses. Our guide to how register numbers work sets out how the eight digits are assigned.

How do I write to someone at FCI Three Rivers?

The FCI and the camp share a post office box, and the camp address differs only by one line. Put the committed name and the register number on the first line of the address; mail without a register number does not get delivered.

For someone at the FCI	For someone at the satellite camp
INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER FCI Three Rivers FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION P.O. BOX 4200 THREE RIVERS, TX 78071	INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER FCI Three Rivers FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION SATELLITE CAMP P.O. BOX 4200 THREE RIVERS, TX 78071

Do not use P.O. Box 4000. That is the staff mailbox, and it is the address that appears on the PREA audit’s facility form, which is how it ends up copied onto directory sites as an inmate address. Freight and non-USPS parcels go to the warehouse on Highway 72, addressed to a staff member.

Outgoing mail works differently at the two halves of this facility. At a minimum or low security institution a sentenced person may seal his own letters and they leave unopened and uninspected. At a medium or high security institution — which the FCI here is — outgoing mail other than special mail “may not be sealed by the inmate and may be read and inspected by staff.” Someone writing from the camp seals the envelope; someone inside the fence does not.

Incoming legal mail is privileged only if the envelope earns it: the attorney’s name, an indication that the sender is an attorney, and on the front “Special Mail – open only in the presence of the inmate.” Without that marking it is opened and handled as ordinary correspondence, and the handbook puts the burden of telling the lawyer on the incarcerated person. See our guides to writing to someone in federal prison and attorney-client communication.

On a transfer, general correspondence is forwarded for 30 days and then returned marked “Not at this address — return to sender.” Certified, registered and insured mail are accepted; express mail, cash on delivery and private carriers are not.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Three Rivers?

Money never goes to Three Rivers. Every deposit goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or through one of two wire services, and each of them wants the committed name and the eight-digit register number written on the instrument and on the envelope.

Route	Where it goes	What to expect
Postal money order	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Inmate Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	Posts without a hold; every non-postal money order and non-government check through the lockbox carries an automatic 15-day hold
Western Union Quick Collect	City code FBOP, state code DC, with the register number and name	The institution’s 2026 handbook says funds sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., Eastern time, on any day including holidays post within two to four hours, and later ones by 7:00 a.m. the next morning; the camp handbook names it as the wire service of record
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC	The same posting times as Western Union, under the same handbook

Cash and personal checks are not accepted. If the name and register number are wrong or missing, the funds go back to the sender where the envelope carries a return address, so put yours in the upper left corner, and put nothing else in the envelope — anything enclosed with the money is disposed of. If a deposit does not land, the handbook puts the tracer on the sender, through whoever sold the money order. Our full guide to sending money to a federal prisoner compares the routes and their fees.

Before wiring a large sum, look at the ceiling on what it can buy at this institution. Commissary spending is capped monthly and money above that sits in the account, and a person in refuse status under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program is capped at $25.00 a month, alongside loss of UNICOR eligibility and of performance pay above maintenance level.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Three Rivers?

Saturdays, Sundays and all federal holidays, 8:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at both the FCI and the camp — and processing of visitors at the entrances stops at 2:00 p.m. Arrive at 2:05 p.m. and you will not get in. That is institution supplement TRV-5267.09(i), dated August 4, 2026, which replaced three earlier editions going back to 2016.

One unit visits on a different day from the rest of the prison. Under the same supplement, people in Jim Wells B, described as “SHU Diversion” inmates, visit on Fridays from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and people in Jim Wells A visit Fridays from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. If your family member is in Jim Wells, a Saturday drive may be the wrong day; ask the unit team in writing which block applies before you book anything.

The institution’s Admission and Orientation handbook, updated one day after the supplement, prints the weekend start as 8:00 a.m. rather than 8:15. Both are current and they disagree by fifteen minutes. The supplement controls, being the institution supplement to the national visiting program statement, but be in the lobby well before either time and in any event before 2:00 p.m.

Special Housing Unit visits run in the non-contact video area inside the visiting room, by live video monitor and telephone handset, and last no more than two hours; the person is handcuffed behind the back for the escort and unrestrained once secured in the booth. Consular visits are permitted even where visiting has been suspended through discipline or the person is in the SHU.

Who can visit, and how many

• The visiting list holds up to twenty people, children included, and may be changed as often as you like.
• Only four visitors may see one person at a time, and that four includes minor children. More than one inmate at a visit needs written approval from the Captain and the Associate Warden for Programs, or from the Camp Administrator.
• If more than four approved visitors arrive together a split visit can be arranged — one changeover per day only, and whoever leaves must leave the institution and may not return that day. The room’s stated capacity is 150.
• Everyone needs an approved application: the person inside sends out form BP-A0629 and the visitor signs and returns it to the Correctional Counselor. Every application gets an NCIC check, the handbook asks for it at least three weeks ahead, and the visitor must have known the person before the incarceration.
• Visits may be cut short when the room fills, and the Institution Duty Officer or Operations Lieutenant decides the order — distance traveled, frequency and health of either party, with local, frequent visitors going first. One visit per day, and no leaving and returning.

What visitors can wear and bring

The dress code runs to a page and applies to children aged four and over. Nothing may sit more than two inches above the knee, and shirts must be tucked in or belted. Barred: sleeveless, strapless, halter and midriff tops; deep v-necks; anything tight, form-fitting, see-through or fish net; Lycra and spandex; mini-skirts and wrap-around skirts; athletic shorts, sweatpants and wind suits; swimwear; slippers, flip-flops and open-toed shoes; caps, hats and scarves of any kind; hooded or below-the-knee coats; gang symbols; and metal that will not clear the detector, body piercings included. Three colors are banned outright: khaki, orange and camouflage.

You may bring one clear plastic bag no larger than a gallon and $20 in change for the vending machines; everything else stays in the car. Barred: cosmetics of any kind, sunglasses, umbrellas, photographs, any purse or diaper bag that is not see-through, phones and MP3 players, glass and cans, gum, candy and food, baby carriers and strollers — and pens, pencils, paper, magazines, books and the Bible. Infant care is capped at three clear nursing bottles of pre-mixed formula or sealed liquid, three diapers, wet wipes and one small blanket per child under a year. Medication is barred apart from nitroglycerine tablets and inhalers, which are held at the officer’s desk. Seating may be assigned, embracing and kissing are permitted at the start and end of a visit only, and money may not be left for an account.

Identification and screening

Everyone over sixteen needs current state or federal photo identification — a driver’s license, a state identification card or a passport. No photograph, no visit. A visitor under sixteen must be with a responsible adult, and an applicant under eighteen needs a parent or guardian signature on the form.

Screening runs in three layers: a metal detector, an x-ray machine for personal effects, and an ion spectrometry device the supplement identifies by model as a Smith IONSCAN 500dt. Anyone who does not clear the metal detector is refused entry; a prosthesis or surgical pins means a wand and a visual examination. Pat searches are random and same-sex, apply to visitors eighteen and over, and the day’s random number is set by the Operations Lieutenant and written into a search log. A full visual search needs reasonable suspicion, the visitor’s written consent and the Warden’s approval. Refusing any search means leaving, and not returning without the Associate Warden’s approval.

Two warnings the supplement gives. Processing “can exceed 30 minutes when there is a large group of visitors waiting,” so budget for it against the 2:00 p.m. cut-off. And if someone is dropping you off, make sure you can clear screening “prior to allowing their transportation to depart institution grounds” — a visitor turned away eight miles out of town with no car is stranded. Every adult signs a Notification to Visitor form; the signed forms go to the Special Investigative Supervisor’s office and are kept for a year, and bringing anything to a federal prisoner without the Warden’s consent carries up to twenty years under 18 U.S.C. § 1791. See our guides to searches and contraband and federal prison visitation.

One rule applies to the person inside rather than the visitor, and families are rarely told it. At the FCI everyone is pat searched at the start of a visit and strip searched at the end of every one. At the camp the pat search is routine and the strip search random. That is why some people decline visits they say they want.

Getting there

The prison is eight or nine miles west of the town of Three Rivers on Highway 72, across from Choke Canyon reservoir. The supplement tells visitors to take the second entrance on the left.

• From San Antonio: about 67 miles south on Interstate 37, then Exit 72 for US 281 South toward Three Rivers and Alice, about 5 miles, then right onto TX-72 West / West Thornton Street for about 9 miles.
• From Corpus Christi: about 65 miles north on Interstate 37, Exit 69 toward Three Rivers and Kenedy, left onto TX-72 West about 3 miles, left on North Harborth Avenue about half a mile, then right onto TX-72 West / West Thornton Street for about 9 miles.
• From Beeville: about 22.5 miles west on US-59 South, right onto US-281 for about 16.5 miles, then left onto TX-72 West for about 9 miles.

Plan the last leg. Both the visiting supplement and the A&O handbook state that local public transportation is not available in Three Rivers, and the supplement points visitors to a local taxi service or an intercity bus line instead. Visitor parking is to the right of the front entrance building, no one may wait in a vehicle or at the entrance for more than fifteen minutes, and vehicles are locked and subject to search. The only animals allowed on the grounds are service dogs, and the handler must produce certification that the dog is trained.

If you read Spanish, read this first

The Bureau hosts a Spanish version of this prison’s visiting rules, and it is wrong. It sits at the facility’s own web address but is not linked from the facility page, and it is institution supplement TRV-5267.09(g), dated on its own face 5 de octubre de 2018. The Bureau’s two documents do not quite agree about what (g) is: the August 2026 English supplement lists a TRV-5267.09(g) among the three editions it rescinds, but dates that one November 26, 2016. On either reading the Spanish file is an earlier letter in the same series and is not the edition in force; (i), of August 4, 2026, is.

The difference is not cosmetic. The Spanish document tells families that ordinarily no more than six visitors including children may visit at one time; the current English supplement says four. A family reading the only Spanish text the Bureau publishes would arrive six strong and two would be turned away at the lobby. The hours in the two documents match, which makes the discrepancy harder to catch, not easier.

It matters here more than most places. The 2025 PREA audit counted nineteen people with limited English proficiency on its first day, the institution contracts for telephone interpretation in 240 languages, and both Admission and Orientation handbooks are published in Spanish and are current. The visiting rules are the one document where the Spanish edition was left behind.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Three Rivers?

Calls go out, never in. The person inside dials a number on his approved list, which holds up to thirty, using a nine-digit Phone Access Code from the Correctional Counselor, and the call is cut off automatically at fifteen minutes. Three-way calls, call forwarding and anything else that puts a third party on the line are disciplinary offenses for everyone involved, and so is sharing an access code. Collect calls to pre-approved numbers are possible; credit-card, 800, 888, 900 and 976 numbers are not.

On the monthly allowance the institution’s handbook is out of date by enough to matter. Updated August 5, 2026, it still says 300 minutes a month with an extra 100 in November and December. Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, replaced that: 510 minutes per calendar month, 300 of them free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone may purchase once the first 300 are exhausted. The November and December supplement belonged to the 2008 policy and did not survive its rescission. The program statement controls.

Phone hours run from 6:00 a.m. to no later than 9:30 p.m., normally closed on weekdays from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. until the 4:00 p.m. count clears, because people are expected to be at work; where shifts vary, one telephone per unit may be left open. Everything but a properly arranged legal call is monitored and recorded. How the rates, the accounts and the restrictions work across the system is on our page about federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs on TRULINCS and reaches families through CorrLinks: text only, no attachments, no internet, 13,000 characters a message, charged by the minute. The person inside adds your address and nothing passes until you accept the system’s invitation. The menu here also carries a law library service, prescription refills that go straight to the pharmacy, and a Department of Justice sexual abuse reporting mailbox that reaches the Inspector General without passing through the institution. What TRULINCS costs, and how CorrLinks works at the family’s end, is on our page about CorrLinks and TRULINCS.

For lawyers, one local detail. An unmonitored attorney call is arranged through the Case Manager and the handbook requires a demonstrated need such as an imminent court deadline. It then adds what most institutions leave unsaid: “Inmates are responsible for the expense of unmonitored attorney telephone calls. When possible, it is preferred that inmates place an unmonitored, collect legal call.” Budget for accepting collect calls from this prison.

What can people buy at the FCI Three Rivers commissary?

Three Rivers works to the national ceiling, which Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, raised to $460 a month from $360, and which rises by a further $50 across the November–December holiday period for no more than one validation period. What falls outside the ceiling is a shorter list than the one this prison hands out: section 3.2 of that manual excludes postage stamps, nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges, over-the-counter medicines and vitamins, copy cards and copy paper, footwear, mattresses and a secured media device, and nothing else. Telephone credits are not on it. Neither are chaplain-approved religious purchases or education-approved purchases, all three of which the institution’s handbook still lists as exempt. Budget phone time as money that counts against the $460.

The institution’s own handbook still prints the old number. Updated August 5, 2026, three months after the increase, it says “The National Spending Limit is $360.00 but may be further restricted at the local level,” and the order form itself prints no limit at all. If a family member tells you the limit is $360 because that is what the handbook in his locker says, he is reading a superseded figure.

Shopping day is decided by how clean the unit is: “Commissary shopping order is ordinarily based on weekly sanitation ratings of each unit. The unit with the highest sanitation is called first, and the unit with the lowest rating is called last.” The camp uses a different system entirely — Tuesday for register numbers with 00–33 in the fourth and fifth digits, Wednesday 34–66, Thursday 67–99, with sales at 6:30 a.m. and again at 10:30 a.m.

The rules printed on the order form are unforgiving, and several carry disciplinary consequences rather than mere inconvenience. No additions or substitutions once the list is submitted; lists are collected at the unit and not accepted at the window; all sales final; stay in the waiting area, because your name is called three times and then you are canceled. And, in capitals on the form: attempting to shop on a day other than the one posted “will result in Incident report for out of bounds.”

The category caps on the April 2026 form give a fair picture of a month: fifteen meat, fish and food items, twenty-four soups, twenty cookies and pastries, twelve chips, ten bars of soap, two pairs of shoes. Electronics sit at the top — a tablet at $137.80, a crank radio at $79.95.

Swintec typewriter ribbons are still stocked at $7.75 beside legal pads, legal envelopes and expanding folders, which tells you how much legal work here is still typed rather than filed from a terminal. The food reads as South Texas: Sazon Goya, El Pato jalapeño sauce, San Miguel red salsa, chile con queso, chorizo refried beans, pork carnitas, chili-lime and Texas beef ramen, chili mango candy, corn and flour tortillas by the packet. What the money actually buys across the system, and the rules behind it, are set out on our page about the federal prison commissary.

What programs are available at FCI Three Rivers?

RDAP and drug treatment

One answer matters more than the rest, so it goes first: the Residential Drug Abuse Program does not run here. The institution’s own Admission and Orientation handbook, updated August 5, 2026, says it in six words after describing the program — “It is not available here” — and the Bureau’s August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide agrees. The guide’s list of RDAP locations, dated June 4, 2026 and totaling 57 programs at 50 locations, does not include Three Rivers, and neither does its by-institution grid.

That has a consequence families learn too late. Someone who qualifies for RDAP and the year off a sentence 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) allows for a non-violent offense cannot earn it at Three Rivers. He has to be transferred to an institution that runs it, with enough sentence left to finish the nine-month unit component and the community transition that follows. Interviews ordinarily happen between 42 and 24 months from release, so starting the conversation at eighteen months is starting it too late. See our guides to the Residential Drug Abuse Program and federal prison transfers.

What runs here instead is the Drug Abuse Education Course, which is not treatment, and the non-residential treatment program. Both come out of Psychology Services, staffed at this institution by a Chief Psychologist, a Drug Abuse Program Coordinator, a staff Psychologist, a Drug Treatment Specialist and a Psychology Technician, with offices beside the Recreation gate at the FCI and in the Camp Administration Building at the camp. Open house is Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. at the FCI and Fridays at 12:30 p.m. at the camp. Skipping the education course when it is required costs performance pay above maintenance level and eligibility for a Federal Prison Industries job.

Education and vocational training

Literacy is mandatory for anyone without a high school credential — at least 240 instructional hours, or until the credential is earned — and good conduct time turns on satisfactory progress. An incident report connected to the literacy program flips a person to unsatisfactory progress, good conduct time stops vesting, and another 240 hours are needed to get the code back. English as a second language is required for anyone testing below an eighth-grade level, diploma or degree notwithstanding.

The Bureau’s August 2026 approved-programs guide marks nineteen evidence-based recidivism reduction programs and thirty-two productive activities as available here, among them apprenticeship training, vocational training, occupational certificate and degree tracks, anger management, criminal thinking, the national parenting program, Seeking Safety, the suicide inmate companion program, Threshold, and two aimed at veterans, Soldier On and Service Fit. Our guides to prison education and vocational training explain how they work across the system.

In the narrative half of the August 2026 guide, every program that could apply to Three Rivers carries the location line “may be offered at all BOP institutions” — permission, not a record of delivery. The by-institution grid is the only per-institution record there is, and a mark in it means approved, not that a class is running, that there is an instructor, or that the waiting list is short. Those are questions for the unit team, in writing, with the answer kept.

The law library is electronic at both the FCI and the camp, with a charged copying machine in the Education Department; at the camp the 2013 handbook records library hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays, a book cart on weekends, and typewriters reserved for legal work. Under 18 U.S.C. § 4004 Case Managers may notarize documents, and the institution keeps a notary public for the states that will not accept a government notarization. Our page on the prison law library covers what an electronic law library does and does not give you.

Work assignments and UNICOR

Everyone medically able works, and first assignments are usually institutional maintenance. At the camp an outside detail is the prize and the bar is high: the camp handbook requires a year at the camp, exemplary conduct, no pending charges with any other law enforcement agency, and a review of criminal history.

Whether UNICOR operates at Three Rivers is genuinely unclear, because the two halves of the Bureau’s own guide disagree. The August 2026 guide lists Federal Prison Industries by name for 54 institutions and Three Rivers is not among them; the by-institution grid inside the same document does mark it. The institution’s handbook never describes a factory — it mentions UNICOR only to say a person in refuse status cannot work there. The claim repeated across the internet, that Three Rivers runs a fleet management and vehicular components shop, traces to UNICOR’s annual report for fiscal year 2001, a twenty-five-year-old source. Ask the unit team whether there is a factory and whether it is hiring.

Faith-based and reentry programming

Religious Services runs worship, religious education and the Alternative Diet Program, which provides both self-selection from the mainline and certified processed foods. Threshold, the Bureau’s faith-based reentry program, is marked as approved here in the August 2026 guide; Life Connections is not. Release preparation begins at initial classification within 28 days of arrival, and program reviews follow every 90 to 180 days depending on release date — and the handbook is clear that a person may not waive appearance at those reviews.

What is daily life like at FCI Three Rivers?

The shape of a weekday at the FCI, from the institution’s August 2026 handbook:

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Wake-up	6:00 a.m.	6:00 a.m.
Uniform required	Khaki shirt and pants, tucked in, 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.	—
Stand-up counts	4:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.	10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.
Compound secured	For each official count	9:30 a.m., ahead of the 10:00 a.m. count
Pass system	7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.; more than ten minutes between areas is a disciplinary matter	—
Controlled movement	Ten minutes before the hour, ending on the hour, usually one direction	Resumes after the brunch meal
Telephones	6:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., closed 7:30–10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. until the 4:00 p.m. count clears	6:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

There are at least five official counts every 24 hours and a sixth at 10:00 a.m. on weekends. Cells are locked for all of them unless someone is on an out-count, and a person has to be seen, awake or not. Call-outs for the next day go up on the unit board after 4:00 p.m., and missing a medical call-out draws an incident report.

Life inside the unit is governed by a sanitation rating checked daily and published, and it has teeth beyond tidiness — it decides which unit shops at the commissary first. Laundry runs on a roster, Jim Wells and Karnes on Mondays and Wednesdays, Live Oak and McMullen on Tuesdays and Thursdays; linen exchange day is set by the fourth and fifth digits of the register number; and routine clothing exchange comes round in the anniversary week of arrival.

Recreation covers intramural leagues, fitness and wellness programming, art and hobby craft, under the Zimmer Amendment restrictions that apply system-wide: no R, X or NC-17 films, no martial arts or weightlifting instruction, no electric instruments. See our page on recreation in federal prison. Food service runs the Bureau’s National Menu with regular, heart-healthy and no-flesh options, and nothing leaves the dining hall.

Medical care is delivered on site through sick call, chronic care clinics and routine dental, with a co-payment charged unless a person is verified indigent. The Bureau’s care-level chart of February 13, 2024, released under Freedom of Information Act request 2024-03455, rates Three Rivers (“TRV | ALL”) at medical Care Level 1, the lowest of four, and the undated mental-health chart released with it also gives the institution level 1 — the same medical level the Inspector General’s 2008 inventory recorded for both the FCI and the camp. See medical care in federal prison.

Life at the satellite camp

The camp is a different prison sharing an address, and the Bureau’s only published handbook for it is dated June 2013 and signed by a warden three editions ago. It gives the shape of the place rather than current times. The Camp Administrator here is also the Executive Assistant, and runs the department handling administrative remedies, tort claims and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Housing is two open dormitory units, Tilden and Uvalde, rather than the four cell units inside the fence, and bed assignments are changed through the Unit Counselor, with medically authorized bottom bunks taking priority. The uniform is green rather than khaki: institutional green clothing and footwear are required for every noon meal except on weekends and holidays. The camp’s own counts run at midnight, 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with a 10:00 a.m. count added on weekends.

Meals run on a camp schedule: breakfast 6:00 to 7:00 a.m., a coffee hour from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. on weekends, lunch or brunch 10:30 to 11:15 a.m., dinner as soon as the 4:00 p.m. count clears. The handbook’s rule for the dining hall is four words in capitals: nothing in, nothing out.

Recreation is what most distinguishes the camp. Beside the leagues and fitness classes, the Leisure Center keeps acoustic guitars, accordions and percussion instruments to check out, beginner and intermediate music classes run through the year, and a person may buy exactly one harmonica through a special purpose order. Nothing may be played in the dormitories; there is a music room in the hobby craft shop.

Minimum security is not no security. At about 4:30 p.m. on March 10, 2026 a man serving 70 months for a cocaine offense was discovered missing from this camp; the Marshals Service and the FBI were notified and the institution opened an internal investigation. The Bureau headed its own notice “Walkaway” rather than escape, but leaving an open facility without permission is chargeable under 18 U.S.C. § 751(a), it attaches an escape history to the security classification of the person who walks, and it tightens accountability for everyone else on the compound for months.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Three Rivers?

Little, and none of it recently from an inspector whose job is conditions. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility, and the District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council — the only other body publishing facility-level inspection reports — has never inspected it either. What exists is a Prison Rape Elimination Act audit, a procurement audit that happened to bring auditors here, a national staff survey broken out by institution, and a decade of criminal prosecutions.

The 2025 PREA audit

FCI Three Rivers was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on site from July 15–17, 2025 by Cynthia Swier of Corrections Consulting Services, who finalized her 129-page report on August 11, 2025. The facility came through it clean: 45 standards met, none exceeded, none unmet, and no corrective action ordered.

It is also the most detailed public description of this prison that exists: an age range of 18 to 70, an average stay of 445.9 days at the FCI and 373.5 at the camp, 1,239 admissions in twelve months, accreditation by the American Correctional Association only, and sexual assault forensic examinations performed at a local hospital rather than at the prison. On day one of the audit the facility held 1,126 people, of whom 54 had disclosed prior sexual victimization during risk screening and 19 were limited English proficient. The form also records that Three Rivers holds inmates for one other agency, and the only box ticked is a branch of the United States military. The practice is ordinary: Program Statement 5100.08 provides that the Bureau “cooperates with the Security, Force Protection and Law Enforcement Division of the Armed Services for the transfer of military prisoners into the Bureau’s custody,” coordinated through the Designation and Sentence Computation Center.

Designated capacity is given as 792 at the FCI and 256 at the camp; average daily population for the preceding twelve months as 1,008 and 187. Asked whether the facility had been over capacity at any point in those twelve months, the answer recorded is yes. The institution’s own handbook of August 2026 gives a rated capacity of 1,056 for the FCI and 256 for the camp instead. Two Bureau documents a year apart give two numbers for the same buildings.

On sexual abuse the audit is candid in a way the pass grade obscures. In the twelve months before it, the facility received nine allegations of sexual abuse — five inmate-on-inmate, four staff-on-inmate — and two of sexual harassment, both staff-on-inmate. Eleven administrative investigations were opened. Criminal investigations opened: none. Of the resolved inmate-on-inmate allegations, one came back unfounded and four unsubstantiated; of the staff-on-inmate abuse allegations one was unfounded and three were still open. Unsubstantiated does not mean false — it means the evidence was not enough either way.

The audit also shows how a report travels here. An allegation goes to the Operations Lieutenant and straight to the facility investigator; the Inspector General takes potential criminal staff-on-inmate cases, the Office of Internal Affairs the administrative ones, and the institution’s Special Investigative Services lieutenant everything else. The TRULINCS mailbox reaches the Inspector General without passing through the institution, and the prison has a gratuitous service agreement with The Purple Door, the Corpus Christi victim services organization.

What the allegation counts look like over five years

The Government Accountability Office published per-institution allegation counts for every Bureau facility in May 2026. For Three Rivers:

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
Alleged perpetrator another incarcerated person	1	2	1	1	2	7
Alleged perpetrator a BOP employee	1	0	3	2	3	9

These are reported allegations, not findings, and nationally most of those GAO examined from 2014 through 2022 resolved as unsubstantiated. The two rows are not additive: the first counts by the year the incident occurred and the second by the year the allegation was reported, from different Bureau systems with different cut-off dates. GAO does not adjust for population anywhere in the report, so the numbers cannot rank one prison against another — a large institution out-counts a small one at identical risk, and a low count can mean people are not reporting.

The one time the Inspector General came here

The Inspector General audited the Bureau’s September 2011 purchase of x-ray equipment and reported in June 2014, and FCI Three Rivers was one of nine institutions its auditors visited. The purchase followed a thwarted smuggling attempt at USP Pollock in August 2010: 65 pallet-sized machines for $3,955,382, about $60,852 each. Three Rivers received two, delivered December 20, 2011 and installed February 14, 2012 — two machines where most institutions on the list got one.

Warehouse staff then demonstrated the machines at seven of the nine sites. At Three Rivers they scanned four pallets with items concealed in them, and the audit records that the auditors could not identify one concealed item in one pallet but could locate it clearly in another. Across the seven sites the Inspector General said it had “identified significant concerns about the ability of the pallet x-ray machines to assist with contraband detection.” A finding about equipment, not about conditions here, and fourteen years old.

Contraband and staffing

Eight Inspector General press releases name this institution between 2014 and 2025, covering two correctional officers, an officer’s spouse, a religious services assistant and several incarcerated men. The pattern was pronounced enough that the Inspector General’s 2022 evaluation of the Bureau’s policy development process used a Three Rivers conviction as one of three illustrations of what followed the Bureau’s failure to implement an effective staff search policy after a 2015 Federal Labor Relations Authority ruling. Contraband drives searches, searches drive incident reports, and incident reports cost good conduct time and time in the Special Housing Unit.

The audit gives the clearest staffing picture available: 225 staff who may have contact with inmates, 24 hired in the preceding twelve months, nine contractors and eight volunteers — none of whom were present during the audit. The staffing plan, the Warden told the auditor, is calculated on an average daily population of 1,273; the prison held 1,157 on September 10, 2026.

The Warden also certified by memorandum that the institution had not deviated from its staffing plan in the previous twelve months, and told the auditor that posts are not authorized to be unmanned: overtime, mandatory overtime, or augmentation with non-custody staff would be used instead. Augmentation is what to listen for — a teacher or a case manager standing an officer’s post is why a program does not run and a call-out is canceled.

FCI Three Rivers in the news

• August 2026 — solicitation of murder. A federal jury convicted Aramis Stuckman, 39, on all eight counts after prosecutors showed that in October 2024, while held here, he wrote three letters seeking the assault, torture and murder of multiple correctional officers in exchange for up to $50,000. Sentencing is set for December 1, 2026.
• July 2026 — assault on an officer. Melvin Jones, 27, of Houston was sentenced to two years consecutive to his existing sentence for forcibly assaulting a correctional officer here on September 25, 2025; the officer sustained abrasions and soreness to his head and neck.
• March 2026 — walkaway from the camp. The institution’s own press release, issued the same day by its public information officer, records that Daniel Pena, 29, serving 70 months out of the Southern District of Texas for possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, was discovered missing from the satellite camp at about 4:30 p.m. on March 10, 2026, and that the Marshals Service, the FBI and other agencies were notified. The public record shows no report of a recapture and no escape prosecution.
• April 2025 — religious services assistant. Ashley Priscilla Garza, 33, of Beeville pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into the prison, admitting 13 payments totaling about $11,400 during 2022 and 2023 to bring in cigarettes, an MP3 player and papers laced with synthetic opioids.
• August 2024 — correctional officer. Justin Matthew Gonzalez, 26, of Three Rivers pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official, having accepted about $1,600 to bring cigarettes in; sixteen packets were found. The conduct dated to February 2021.
• September 2020 — heat and water at the camp. Camp residents complained publicly about weeks without working air conditioning. The Bureau responded that “[i]n early July, FCI Three Rivers experienced issues with its air conditioning system and a water line break,” that portable coolers and industrial fans were used, that inmates were seen by medical staff and given bottled water daily, and that a contractor repaired the system.
• March 2008 — the riot. Fighting between rival groups on March 29, 2008 killed one man, Servando Rodriguez, 38, and injured 22 others. The prosecution that followed years later, in the Southern District of Texas, charged conspiracy to murder arising out of the same fight.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Three Rivers

Problems at FCI Three Rivers: where we can help

The issues that recur here are visible in the institution’s own record — the handbook it publishes, the audit it passed, the prosecutions brought out of it. These are the ones families call about:

• Getting to an RDAP institution. Three Rivers does not run the Residential Drug Abuse Program, so eligibility here is worth nothing without a transfer that leaves enough sentence to finish the program, and an RDAP placement argument is made before the designation, not after.
• Designation and camp placement, which turns on security points, a Public Safety Factor and a Management Variable — all arguable before the designation is made rather than after.
• First Step Act time credits — whether they are earned, calculated and applied, and whether a program the guide marks as approved here is actually running.
• Incident reports arising out of contraband. A prison with this many contraband prosecutions runs frequent searches, and the person who takes delivery takes the incident report.
• Special Housing Unit placements that outlast their justification, and protective custody for someone who reported an assault and finds himself in segregation for his own safety.
• Medical care that is not happening: sick call requests that go nowhere, chronic care appointments that slip, a co-payment charged to someone indigent. The route is a written request to staff and then the administrative remedy process, which has a clock at every stage, and where negligence caused injury a Federal Tort Claims Act claim.
• Visiting list denials. Every application gets an NCIC check and the Warden may refuse on security grounds; a refusal can be challenged, and so can a removal after a terminated visit.
• Making a report of sexual abuse or harassment stick. Nine abuse allegations here in twelve months produced no criminal investigation at all, which is why the reporting routes that go round the institution matter.
• Halfway house and home confinement placement, compassionate release and the motion that asks for it, sentence computation errors and the challenge to one, and good conduct time lost to a literacy-program code.

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 Three Rivers, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The institution’s own page.
• Institution Supplement TRV-5267.09(i), Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2026. Dated August 4, 2026; it replaced TRV-5267.09(f) of December 29, 2016, (g) of November 26, 2016 and (h) of August 3, 2021.
• FCI Three Rivers Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2026. Updated August 5, 2026.
• FCI Three Rivers Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2026. Revised April 30, 2026.
• Walkaway from FCI Three Rivers’ Satellite Camp, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2026. Press release of March 10, 2026.
• Institution Supplement TRV-5267.09(g), Regulaciones para Visitas a Reos, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2018. The Spanish edition, dated October 5, 2018 and superseded.
• FCI Three Rivers Satellite Camp Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Three Rivers, 2013. The only handbook the Bureau publishes for the camp.
• 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.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• 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, 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Visiting Regulations, Program Statement 5267.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015.
• Sexually Abusive Behavior Prevention and Intervention Program, Program Statement 5324.12, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015. The Bureau publishes no English edition.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. The August 2026 edition.

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse, GAO-26-107343, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026.
• PREA Audit Report: Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Three Rivers, Cynthia Swier, Corrections Consulting Services, LLC, 2025. On-site audit of July 15–17, 2025; final report August 11, 2025.
• Evaluation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Policy Development Process, Report 22-115, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ September 2011 Procurement of X-Ray Equipment Under Contract GS-07F-0182T, Report 14-27, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2014.
• 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.

Court records

• Federal Inmate Convicted of Soliciting Murder of Prison Officials, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, 2026.
• Inmate Receives Additional Sentence for Punching Law Enforcement Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, 2026.
• Former Religious Services Assistant Admits to Smuggling Contraband into Federal Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, 2025.
• Former Corrections Officer Admits to Accepting Bribes, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, 2024.

News and other sources

• Unit Directory, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 2026. The Garza East, Garza West, McConnell and Connally units.
• UNICOR Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2001, Federal Prison Industries, 2001. The fleet management and vehicular components locations; the scan is hosted by the Prison Policy Initiative.
• 18 U.S.C. § 751(a), Prisoners in custody of institution or officer, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 1791, Providing or possessing contraband in prison, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 4004, Oaths and acknowledgments, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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