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Federal Prisons in Illinois

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

Federal prisons in Illinois at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates 5 institutions in Illinois, four of them with a satellite camp, holding 6,326 people as of September 2026. All five sit in the Bureau’s North Central Region, which is run from Kansas City, Kansas.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FCI GreenvilleFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen and women1,135Camp: 113GreenvilleSouthern District of Illinois
FCI MarionFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen1,007Camp: 202MarionSouthern District of Illinois
FCI PekinFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen and women1,058Camp: 230PekinCentral District of Illinois
FCI ThomsonFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen1,927Camp: 147ThomsonNorthern District of Illinois
MCC ChicagoMetropolitan Correctional Center · AdministrativeMen and women507—ChicagoNorthern District of Illinois
Total5 institutions5,634692
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

Two of the five go by retired names. USP Marion became FCI Marion on April 4, 2024, and Bureau data printed in the Inspector General’s restraints audit, Report 25-070 of July 29, 2025, dates Thomson’s switch from USP to FCI to the same day. This site’s web addresses still carry the old ones.

How many federal prisons are in Illinois?

Five, counting institutions on the Bureau of Prisons roster. Three are medium security: FCI Greenville, FCI Marion and FCI Pekin. FCI Thomson is low, and MCC Chicago, the Bureau’s jail in the Loop, is administrative. Four carry a satellite camp, and two of those camps hold women. Our guide to security levels explains the grades; the Bureau of Prisons directory holds the national list.

What is each federal prison in Illinois like?

In the table’s order.

FCI Greenville

Medium security for men in Bond County, east of St. Louis, with a satellite camp that holds women. The camp runs Female Integrated Treatment, one of five such programs in the federal system, and it is the only residential drug treatment on this campus. Greenville, South Carolina has no federal prison — see FCI Greenville.

FCI Marion

Medium security for men on Prison Road in the far south of the state, with a satellite camp. It held one of the Bureau’s two Communications Management Units, where contact with the outside is limited and monitored, for seventeen years; that unit closed in 2025 without a Bureau announcement, and Marion’s own handbooks still describe it. See FCI Marion.

FCI Pekin

Medium security for men in Tazewell County south of Peoria, with a satellite camp that holds women. Pekin’s is the only camp row in the Bureau’s population report carrying an F, printed in the report as “PEKIN-CAMP F.” Institution and camp share a warden but differ on visiting and commissary. See FCI Pekin.

FCI Thomson

Low security for men in Carroll County, with a satellite camp. It was a penitentiary until the Bureau lowered its security level on April 17, 2023, and the federal system’s last Special Management Unit closed here in February 2023. The Inspector General’s 2025 restraints audit recorded more restraint applications here than anywhere else in the system. See FCI Thomson.

MCC Chicago

The Bureau’s jail in downtown Chicago, near the Dirksen federal courthouse, holding men and women, most awaiting trial or sentencing. It has no camp. The Bureau’s Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook names it one of ten designated pretrial detention facilities, each with a telephone for brief unmonitored calls to defense counsel. See MCC Chicago.

Which federal prisons in Illinois hold women?

Three of the five, and none of them alone. The camps beside FCI Greenville and FCI Pekin hold women while the institutions hold men; MCC Chicago holds both. No Illinois institution is recorded as holding women only. Placement is covered in our guide to women’s federal prisons.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Illinois?

The North Central Regional Office, in Kansas City, Kansas. All five Illinois institutions sit in the Bureau’s North Central Region. A remedy goes there after the Warden answers: Program Statement 1330.18 provides at pp. 6–7 that “An inmate who is not satisfied with the Warden’s response may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-10) to the appropriate Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response.” The step before it is filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Illinois?

Two offices, split by judicial district. Illinois has three federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. § 93. The Bureau’s page for RRM Chicago prints Central Illinois and Northern Illinois; its page for RRM St. Louis prints Southern Illinois. No district is claimed twice and none is left out.

The office that takes a case follows the district a person is going home to, not the one the prison stands in. Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” See federal halfway houses.

How do I find, write to, visit or send money to someone in an Illinois federal prison?

Finding someone is a national search. The inmate locator covers every institution rather than one state, and a name search needs a first and a last name. One Illinois trap: a record reading “Chicago” may be RRM Chicago, the reentry office, and not MCC Chicago.

Mail takes the exact address block the institution publishes, and an institution and its camp do not always share one; visiting runs on each institution’s own supplement, and Greenville and Pekin each run an institution and a camp under different rules. See writing to someone inside and visitation.

Money reaches an account by three national routes: the lockbox by mail, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Fund transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST are posted by 7:00 a.m. the following day.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in Illinois are closing or have closed?

None. The Bureau’s July 1, 2026 announcement named six institutions it “will close” and two camps it will convert; no Illinois facility is among them, and no former Illinois federal prison keeps a page here. What changed was mission, not status. Our explainer on major federal prison closures sets out the pattern.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau run in Illinois?

Five institutions on the roster snapshot behind this page: three medium-security prisons, one low-security prison and one administrative-security jail in Chicago. Four also carry a satellite camp, which the Bureau counts inside that institution rather than as a separate prison.

What is the largest federal prison in Illinois by population?

FCI Thomson, at 1,927 people as of September 2026. It is the largest Illinois institution counted on its own, and it stays largest once camps are counted, because its satellite camp adds to a figure already ahead of every other institution.

Does Illinois have a penitentiary or a prison camp?

No penitentiary, and four camps. The Bureau runs no United States Penitentiary in Illinois. Each camp is a minimum-security satellite beside a larger institution, at Greenville, Marion, Pekin and Thomson, rather than a prison with a listing of its own.

Where are women held in federal custody in Illinois?

At three of the five institutions, none of them alone. The camps beside FCI Greenville and FCI Pekin hold women while the institutions hold men, and MCC Chicago holds both. The Greenville camp runs Female Integrated Treatment. Illinois has no women-only institution.

Where are federal pretrial detainees held in Illinois?

At MCC Chicago, where most people inside are awaiting trial or sentencing in the Northern District of Illinois rather than serving a sentence. It is the only Bureau detention facility in the state; the inmate locator shows where a person is held.

How do I look up an Illinois federal prisoner?

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which searches the whole federal system, not one state, by name or register number. Read the facility field carefully: a record reading “Chicago” may be RRM Chicago, the reentry office for the area, rather than MCC Chicago.

Which reentry office handles Illinois halfway-house placement?

RRM Chicago or RRM St. Louis, depending on where the person is going home. The Bureau’s page for RRM Chicago prints Central and Northern Illinois, and its page for RRM St. Louis prints Southern Illinois. Placement follows the release district, not the prison’s.

Can someone ask to be designated to an Illinois prison?

A request can be made and a judge can recommend a facility, but the Bureau decides. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it must place a prisoner “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence,” subject to bed availability, security designation and other listed factors.

How can a federal defense firm help a family with someone in an Illinois federal prison?

Three problems recur here. Programs: drug treatment at Greenville runs only at the camp, so program access and First Step Act credit disputes are early release work. Force: the restraints audit put Thomson first in the country; such complaints run through the administrative remedy program. Detention: legal access at MCC Chicago is among the problems we work on inside.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Illinois places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.

Call 843-620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Audits and inspections

Court records and statutes

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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

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