FCI Cumberland | Federal Correctional Institution Cumberland

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

FCI Cumberland at a glance

FCI Cumberland is a medium-security federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland, holding 1,202 men as of September 2026: 940 at the main institution and 262 at the adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. It is also the site of the Bureau’s Communications Management Unit, which federal courts have recorded, on the government’s own representation, as the only one the Bureau now operates.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland
BOP code	CUM
Security level	Medium; men
Population	1,202 (as of September 2026) · 940 at the FCI, 262 at the camp
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:15 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · CMU: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Cumberland · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 1000 · Cumberland, MD 21501 Camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Cumberland · Federal Correctional Institution · Satellite Camp · P.O. Box 1000 · Cumberland, MD 21501
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	301-784-1000 · Fax 301-784-1008
Street address	14601 Burbridge Road SE, Cumberland, MD 21502 · Allegany County
Judicial district	District of Maryland
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Designated capacity	1,280
Housing	Two-man cells at the FCI · dormitory cubicles at the camp
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 72 segregation cells
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	Yes · FCI and camp
UNICOR	Yes · signs and license plates for government vehicles
Camp	Minimum-security satellite camp for men, adjacent to the FCI

It opened in 1994, sits in Allegany County about 130 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and falls under the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region; it is the only Bureau of Prisons institution in Maryland (see our guide to federal prisons in Maryland). People sentenced in the District of Maryland are designated here, but so are people from anywhere in the country: the Bureau designates by security points and program need, not by home state. The Communications Management Unit is the most closely monitored form of general-population housing in the federal system.

There are three prisons in Cumberland, Maryland. Only one is federal.

FCI Cumberland is the only federal prison of the three; Western Correctional Institution and North Branch Correctional Institution are Maryland state prisons.

Prison	Run by	How to find someone
FCI Cumberland (this page)	Federal Bureau of Prisons	BOP Inmate Locator
Western Correctional Institution (WCI)	Maryland state — DPSCS	Maryland state inmate locator
North Branch Correctional Institution (NBCI)	Maryland state — DPSCS	Maryland state inmate locator

If the person you are looking for was sentenced in a Maryland state court, they are not at FCI Cumberland and the BOP locator will not find them. If they were sentenced in federal court — a U.S. District Court — this is the right place. The two systems share a city and nothing else: different rules on mail, money, visiting, phone calls, release dates and grievances.

What is the security level at FCI Cumberland?

The main institution at FCI Cumberland is medium security. The satellite camp next to it is minimum security. They share a commissary list and a mailing address, but they are different places to serve a sentence, and which one you land in is decided before you arrive.

A medium-security designation at Cumberland means secure perimeter fencing with electronic detection, cell housing rather than dormitories, and a higher staff-to-inmate ratio than a camp. Our guide to the intake process covers what happens in the first days after arrival, and how to prepare for prison covers what to do before a self-surrender date. The 2024 PREA audit recorded no single-cell housing units at all — every unit is multiple-occupancy — and the 2021 Admission & Orientation handbook states that “each Unit at FCI Cumberland has all two-man cells.” Refusing a cellmate can result in an incident report or placement in the Special Housing Unit.

Whether someone is designated to the FCI or the camp turns on their security point score and on whether any Public Safety Factor applies. A PSF overrides the point total — it is what keeps a person out of a camp no matter how low they score, and it is where a lawyer’s work on designation usually lands.

Does FCI Cumberland have a Communications Management Unit?

Yes. FCI Cumberland operates a Communications Management Unit, and on the government’s own representation to a federal court it is the only one the Bureau of Prisons currently runs. Until 2025 there were two, at FCC Terre Haute and FCI Marion.

The Bureau’s news page carries no release about it and this facility’s page on bop.gov carries no notice; the only published Bureau documents that place the unit here are two of Cumberland’s own institution supplements. The rest of the public record is the federal court filings described below.

What a Communications Management Unit is

A CMU is “a general population housing unit where inmates ordinarily reside, eat, and participate in all educational, recreational, religious, visiting, unit management, and work programming, within the confines of the CMU.” Its purpose is to let staff “more effectively monitor communication” between the people held there and people outside, and the regulation is unusually frank about how far that goes: the volume, frequency and methods of contact “may be limited as necessary to achieve the goal of total monitoring.” That language is at 28 C.F.R. § 540.200(b)–(c), in subpart J of part 540, which runs from § 540.200 to § 540.205 — telephone limits at § 540.204, visiting limits at § 540.205.

The units were created in 2006 and 2008 “to address a deficiency in the Department of Justice’s ability to monitor inmates with terrorism-related convictions and their communications,” and they hold people who “present security risks [and] require heightened monitoring.” Aref v. Garland, No. 20-5368, 2022 WL 605726, at *1 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 25, 2022); Aref v. Lynch, 833 F.3d 242, 247 (D.C. Cir. 2016).

Designation to a CMU is not a punishment and does not lengthen a sentence. The regulation says so in terms: placement “is not punitive and, by itself, has no effect on the length of the inmate’s incarceration,” and people in CMUs “continue to earn sentence credit in accordance with the law and Bureau policy.” (28 C.F.R. § 540.202(c)(3).) It is a classification decision about communication risk, and it is made well above the institution.

What the record shows, and what it does not

The clearest statement is a federal judge’s. Screening a complaint brought by a man who had been in the Terre Haute CMU, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana wrote that “after this lawsuit was filed by counsel, the BOP closed the CMU at FCI – Terre Haute (and another at FCI – Marion in Illinois), and a new, single CMU was established at FCI – Cumberland in Maryland.” Turning to venue, the court recorded that the plaintiff’s own counsel “did not dispute that the only CMU that BOP currently operates is at FCI – Cumberland,” and that “counsel for Defendants have represented to the Court that FCI – Cumberland is now the only BOP prison with a CMU.” Duka v. Rule, No. 2:25-cv-00224-JPH-MG (S.D. Ind. Sept. 9, 2025), ECF No. 15, at 1, 4–5.

A second case, in a different district and decided nine months later, says the same thing from the other direction. The United States District Court for the District of Maryland described a petitioner who had been held in a CMU since 2020 and recorded that “[i]n June 2025, BOP transferred [him] to the CMU at FCI-Cumberland in Cumberland, Maryland.” The same opinion reproduces the Bureau’s report that a program review on December 16, 2025, determined his “placement in the Communications Management Unit (‘CMU’) remains appropriate at this time.” Muse v. Warden, FCI Cumberland, No. 1:25-cv-02884-ABA (D. Md. June 10, 2026), ECF No. 20, at 1, 3.

Cumberland’s own paperwork matches. Its Legal Activities supplement, CUM 1315.07K dated October 31, 2025, refers to “the Communications Management Unit (CMU) law libraries” and to CMU programming hours. Its Visiting Regulation supplement, CUM 5267.09L dated July 7, 2026, sets out a complete CMU visiting regime across four numbered paragraphs. Neither document is boilerplate: the Bureau’s program statement provides that “[e]ach institution with a CMU must develop an Institution Supplement that addresses local operations and procedures,” reviewed for legal sufficiency by Regional Counsel before it takes effect. (PS 5214.05 § 1.b.) Of the institution visiting supplements the Bureau publishes, three set out rules for a Communications Management Unit. Cumberland’s is the current one. The other two are documents left standing, not other locations: USP Marion‘s MAR-5267.09A of March 6, 2020, a full CMU visiting regime under a facility name the Bureau retired in 2024, and the Terre Haute complex’s THX-5267.09D of November 20, 2020, still linked from the pages for both FCI Terre Haute and USP Terre Haute, which sets out “The Communication Management Unit (CMU) Visiting Procedures At The FCI.” Both describe units the Bureau closed in 2025.

The Bureau’s news page carries no announcement of the move, and the text of its facility pages for Cumberland, Marion and Terre Haute says nothing about a CMU. The CMU-specific institution supplement that PS 5214.05 § 1.b requires is not published; what is public about local operations comes from the visiting and legal-activities supplements, which were written for other purposes. The exact date the Cumberland unit opened is not on the public record, and neither is the date either of the old units closed: the court says only that the closures happened after the Terre Haute complaint was filed on May 7, 2025, and before its order of September 9, 2025. There is no published count of how many people are in the unit.

How someone is designated to a CMU

Not by the warden, and not by the prison someone is currently in. A referral can come from almost anywhere — communication monitoring and intelligence work by the Bureau’s Counter-Terrorism Unit, the Designation and Sentence Computation Center during an initial designation or a redesignation, an institution or regional office reacting to behavior, or a recommendation from another law enforcement agency or a court. The CTU then assembles the packet, reviewing the presentence report, the judgment and commitment, the statement of reasons, discipline hearing officer reports, intelligence reports and correspondence from courts, United States Attorneys’ offices and law enforcement. It completes form BP-A0944, Notice to Inmate of Placement at a Communications Management Unit, and sends the packet to the Office of General Counsel for review.

One official decides. “Only the Assistant Director, or the individual appointed by the Director to serve as acting Assistant Director, CPD, has the authority to designate an inmate to a CMU. CMU designation approval authority may not be delegated below this level.” (PS 5214.05 § 4; 28 C.F.R. § 540.202(b).) The criteria are set out at 28 C.F.R. § 540.201: an offense or offense conduct involving association, communication or involvement related to international or domestic terrorism; a substantial likelihood the person will encourage, coordinate or facilitate illegal activity through communication with people in the community; an attempt or a propensity to contact victims of the offense; misuse or abuse of approved communication methods while incarcerated; or other substantiated evidence of a threat arising from the person’s communications.

On arrival the warden must hand over written notice covering six specific points: that the designation allows complete monitoring of telephone, mail and visiting, and that contact may be limited to achieve total monitoring; that general conditions of confinement may also be limited; that the placement is not punitive and does not affect the length of the sentence; an explanation of the decision “in sufficient detail,” unless the Assistant Director decides that giving specifics would jeopardize safety or security; that continued designation “will be reviewed regularly by the inmate’s Unit Team under circumstances providing the inmate notice and an opportunity to be heard”; and that the person “may challenge the CMU designation decision, and any aspect of confinement therein, through the Bureau’s administrative remedy program.” (28 C.F.R. § 540.202(c).) If that notice was never given, say so in the first administrative remedy filed.

The three phases, and what each one restricts

The current rules are new. The Bureau’s CMU rules, Program Statement 5214.05, dated February 26, 2026, rescinded PS 5214.02 of April 1, 2015, and rebuilt the unit around three phases and an Enhanced Classification Range, updating the BP-A0944 notice form and clarifying how designation and redesignation work. The phase a person is in decides how much contact with the outside they get:

Communication	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
Telephone	3 connected 15-minute calls a month	1 connected 15-minute call a week	2 connected 15-minute calls a week
Electronic messaging	To and from 10 approved contacts	To and from 20 approved contacts	The standard active-contact limit in the Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual
Social postal mail	Up to 10 approved social contacts	Up to 20 approved social contacts	The standard active-contact limit
Legal mail and legal calls	No limits in any phase, unless otherwise restricted
Visits	As limited by 28 C.F.R. § 540.205

People “typically enter Phase 1.” Movement up or down is started by Unit Management at a scheduled program review, considered with Intelligence Research Specialists, the CTU and department heads, “with the Warden making the final determination,” and turns on conduct, programming and adherence to the phase allowances. Misconduct of any kind triggers a review of phase progression and “consideration for phase regression to Phase 1.” Phase status is not itself part of the disciplinary process, so a single incident report can cost months of telephone and visiting access through a channel that has none of the procedural protections of a discipline hearing.

What it means for mail, telephone and visiting

General correspondence may be limited to six pieces of paper no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches, written on both sides, once per calendar week, to and from a single recipient, at the warden’s discretion. Those page limits apply in all three phases. Incoming and outgoing general mail “must be reviewed by CTU staff before delivery,” and anything in a foreign language must be translated first, which adds delay. Social contacts are vetted and pre-approved: ten of them in Phase 1, twenty in Phase 2. (28 C.F.R. § 540.203; PS 5214.05 § 9.)

Electronic messaging runs on TRULINCS as it does elsewhere, but every message in and out is read by CTU staff before it is delivered, and foreign-language messages are translated first. Telephone calls “may be limited to immediate family members only,” are placed on monitored inmate telephone system lines, are “ordinarily live monitored by CTU staff,” are recorded, and are translated where needed; the warden may require English or an approved interpreter. (28 C.F.R. § 540.204.) Calling windows under the program statement are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time Monday to Friday except holidays, and 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

Visiting differs most. Under 28 C.F.R. § 540.205, regular visiting “may be limited to immediate family members,” frequency and duration “may also be limited to four one-hour visits each calendar month,” the number of visitors at any visit is within the warden’s discretion, and “[s]uch visits must occur through no-contact visiting facilities.”

Cumberland’s own supplement puts times to that. CUM 5267.09L, dated July 7, 2026, sets CMU visiting at Monday to Friday, excluding federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The rest of this prison visits on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, and the CMU visits on exactly the days the rest of the institution does not, so the weekend hours in the visiting section do not apply to the unit.

The rest of the local regime, from the same supplement: visits are non-contact; people in the CMU “may typically visit two days per month, for a total of up to eight (8) hours monthly”; in all three phases they will ordinarily be allowed up to eight hours and no fewer than four per month, scheduled in blocks of up to four hours, with no single visiting day longer than four hours; and “[a]ll CMU visits will be approved and scheduled through the Unit Team prior to the visit.” There is no turning up on the day. Every visit other than a properly scheduled unmonitored legal visit is conducted through non-contact facilities, “ordinarily live monitored by Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) staff,” recorded, and translated where the conversation is not in English.

What it means for a lawyer

Legal mail and legal calls carry no numerical limit in any of the three phases. Privileged correspondence with an attorney is special mail, opened for contraband in the client’s presence and not read, and the program statement is explicit that only attorney-privileged communication gets that handling — mail to courts, United States Attorneys’ offices, members of Congress, the Bureau itself and media representatives is treated as general correspondence and counted against the page and frequency limits. Attorney visits “may be visually, but not auditorily monitored,” under 28 C.F.R. § 540.205(b), which Cumberland reproduces verbatim at paragraph 11.b of its visiting supplement.

Cumberland’s Legal Activities supplement, CUM 1315.07K of October 31, 2025, applies the Bureau’s legal activities rules and adds three local details that matter to anyone preparing a filing from inside the unit. The CMU law libraries “may additionally remain open during CMU programming hours,” so library access is tied to the unit’s own schedule rather than the institution’s 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. window. Approved legal materials for people in the CMU are stored by Unit Team staff in a secure location, not by Education staff in the Education Department as they are for everyone else at the FCI and the camp. And access to the discovery machine “will be prioritized to inmates with a verifiable active case(s)” — so a person working on something not yet filed goes to the back of the queue.

The pinch point is the unmonitored telephone call. Under 28 C.F.R. § 540.204(b), an unmonitored privileged call with counsel “is permitted as necessary in furtherance of active litigation, after establishing that communication with the verified attorney by confidential correspondence or visiting, or monitored telephone use, is not adequate due to an urgent or impending deadline.” In practice that has been read to mean no filed case, no confidential call — which is a problem precisely when a lawyer is trying to work out whether there is a case to file.

That reading is being litigated now, and no court has decided it. On April 3, 2026, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia refused to dismiss a First Amendment challenge to the restriction, holding that its justification under the Turner v. Safley factors was not self-evident and that the government “has provided no illumination into the restriction on legal calls for CMU inmates besides generalized assertions of ‘security concerns.'” The court dismissed the companion Fourteenth Amendment claim, because that Amendment binds the States rather than the federal government, and said that “no view is provided on the ultimate merits.” Duka v. Marshall, No. 1:25-cv-03111-BAH (D.D.C. Apr. 3, 2026), ECF No. 25, at 10, 12–13. The case is in discovery. Nothing in it has changed the rule yet.

How someone leaves a CMU

Slowly, and through the same office that approved the placement. To be considered for redesignation out of the unit a person “must ordinarily be in Phase 3,” and “ordinarily will not be considered for redesignation until Unit Management has conducted at least one program review of the inmate in Phase 3,” although exigent circumstances allow an earlier look. Good behavior is necessary and not sufficient: “[p]rogression through the three phases with clear conduct does not outweigh other contributing factors that support continued placement in the CMU.” The review revisits the original designation criteria and asks in addition whether the person can safely function in a less restrictive unit. The recommendation travels from Unit Management to the warden, then to the CTU, then to the Assistant Director for Correctional Programs — whose approval authority, again, “may not be delegated below this level.” (PS 5214.05 § 10.)

Approval does not mean leaving the prison. Someone approved for transfer out of a CMU is “ordinarily redesignated to the general population in the institution where the CMU is located, for a period of no less than six months” — that is, to general population at FCI Cumberland — provided they meet medium-security classification requirements; those needing high security go to an appropriate facility for the same minimum period. During that six-month step-down “the inmate’s communications continue to be monitored by the CTU.”

A refusal has to be explained. People “denied redesignation from a CMU are notified in writing by Unit Management of the reason(s) for continued CMU designation,” and may appeal that decision, or any other aspect of confinement in the unit, through the administrative remedy program; unit staff are required to provide the forms. Use it, and finish it: the Maryland petitioner described above went to federal court over his CMU placement and the incident reports that came with it, and the court dismissed his petition without prejudice in June 2026 because he had not exhausted the Bureau’s administrative remedy process first.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Cumberland?

Ryan Salame, the former FTX executive, is the best-known person currently held at FCI Cumberland; Aldrich Ames died here in January 2026, and the camp once held Jack Abramoff and Bernard Kerik. Each entry below says whether the person is still held, released, transferred or dead.

Name	Status at Cumberland	Case
Ryan Salame	Currently held here, register number 76655-510. Reported October 2024; projected release May 17, 2030	Former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO. Pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York and was sentenced in May 2024 to 90 months for conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business
Aldrich Ames	Died here on January 5, 2026, aged 84; register number 40087-083	The CIA officer who sold the identities of U.S. assets to the Soviet Union and Russia. Pleaded guilty in 1994 to espionage and tax fraud; sentenced to life without parole
Stewart Rhodes	Former — released January 21, 2025. Bureau records carry him under his committed name, Elmer Rhodes, register number 81981-509	Oath Keepers founder, convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack; sentence commuted
Bernard Kerik	Former — at the camp 2010 to 2013. Pardoned in 2020; died in May 2025	Former New York City Police Commissioner; pleaded guilty to tax fraud and false statements
Jack Abramoff	Former — at the camp from November 2006 to June 2010	Lobbyist; convicted of conspiracy, honest-services fraud and tax evasion in two federal districts
Jeffrey MacDonald	Former — now at FCI Butner Medium II, register number 00131-177. Four prisons share the Butner campus and only this one is his	Former Army physician serving three consecutive life sentences for the 1970 murders of his wife and two daughters
Masoud Khan	Former — released August 1, 2018	Convicted in 2004 in the Eastern District of Virginia in the “Virginia jihad” prosecution. Several firearms counts were vacated in 2018 and he was ordered freed

Jeffrey MacDonald is no longer at FCI Cumberland; Bureau records place him at FCI Butner Medium II. Vittorio Amuso, the Lucchese figure, is held at FCI Butner Medium II, and no reliable record places him at Cumberland at any point.

How do I find someone at FCI Cumberland?

To find someone at FCI Cumberland, use the Bureau’s free public Inmate Locator. Search by name, or by the eight-digit register number if you have it — the number is the reliable key, because names are common and the locator matches the committed name, not a nickname. For someone still held, the locator returns the facility and projected release date; for someone released it shows “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, with no facility. It covers everyone in federal custody since 1982.

If the locator shows no result, the most common reasons are that the person is in state custody rather than federal, that they are in pretrial detention under the U.S. Marshals Service rather than in a BOP institution, or that the name is spelled differently on the judgment than in daily use. Our guide to how register numbers work explains how the number is assigned and how to read it.

How do I write to someone at FCI Cumberland?

Write to the person by committed name and register number at FCI Cumberland, P.O. Box 1000, Cumberland, MD 21501; the FCI and the camp share the box, and camp mail adds a line for the Satellite Camp. Put the person’s committed name and register number on the first line — mail without a register number is returned.

For someone at the FCI	For someone at the satellite camp
Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 1000 Cumberland, MD 21501	Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution Satellite Camp P.O. Box 1000 Cumberland, MD 21501

General correspondence is opened and inspected for contraband, and may be read. Legal mail is different: it is opened only in front of the person it is addressed to, and it is not read — but only if the sender is clearly identified on the envelope and the front is marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate.” An attorney’s letter without that marking is handled as ordinary mail. Our guide to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons covers the whole privilege question. The Bureau puts the burden on the incarcerated person to tell their lawyer to mark it. Our guide to writing to someone in federal prison covers what gets rejected and why.

Never put money in a letter. Under the Bureau’s correspondence rules, funds enclosed in correspondence are rejected and returned to the sender. See below.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Cumberland?

Send money for someone at FCI Cumberland to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or through one of two wire services, never to the prison’s address. All three routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number.

Route	Where it goes	How fast it posts
Postal money order (or cashier’s check)	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	Processed the day it arrives; funds available the next day. U.S. postal money orders post without a hold; most other instruments carry an automatic 15-day hold
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	Within 2 to 4 hours for a transfer sent 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern, per the Send Money section of the Bureau’s Community Ties page (Program Statement 4500.13 § 9.7 still says two hours); later ones post at 7:00 a.m. the next morning
MoneyGram	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC. Up to $300 online	Same as Western Union

No cash and no personal checks — both are returned or deposited to the Treasury. If the committed name and register number are not on both the instrument and the outside of the envelope, the funds go back to the sender, and if there is no return address they go to the U.S. Treasury. Our full guide to sending money to a federal prisoner compares every route and its cost.

Before you send a large amount, note that commissary spending at Cumberland is capped at $460 a month under the Bureau’s trust fund rules (see below), so money beyond that sits in the account rather than buying anything.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Cumberland?

Visiting at FCI Cumberland, at both the FCI and the camp, runs 8:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays. The schedule is set by Institution Supplement CUM 5267.09L, dated July 7, 2026, which replaced the February 2026 version.

Friday evening visiting no longer exists. Listings that give weekday evening hours of 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., including the Bureau’s own 2021 Admission & Orientation handbook, are out of date.

Special Housing Unit visits run on the same days but last one hour and end at 2:30 p.m.

Who can visit, and how many

• The visiting list may hold up to ten friends and associates, plus immediate family. There is no limit on how often the list can be changed, as long as it stays at ten.
• A maximum of six visitors at one time, and no more than three adults — and for this purpose an adult is anyone sixteen or older. More than three adults needs advance written approval from the Captain, or the Camp Administrator for camp visits.
• Immediate family identified in the presentence report go on the list for 30 days. At the FCI a background investigation is required before permanent approval; at the camp one may be required.
• Everyone else needs a background check. The incarcerated person mails out form BP-A0629; the visitor signs and returns it.
• Only immediate family may appear on two different inmates’ visiting lists.
• People in holdover status may visit immediate family only.
• Visits may be cut to a minimum of two hours when the room is crowded. Terminations start at 2:30 p.m. and are decided by how often the person visits, how far the visitor traveled, and what time they arrived. Someone terminated on a Saturday will not be terminated again on Sunday.

The body of the 2026 supplement says each person receives nine points a month — two for a Saturday or Sunday visit, one for a holiday. The visitor handout attached to the same supplement says six points, and gives the opening time as 8:00 a.m. rather than 8:15. The supplement does not say which controls; call 301-784-1000 before you travel.

What visitors can wear and bring

Cumberland’s dress code is detailed. Skirts, dresses and shorts can be no more than one inch above the knee, including any slit. Prohibited: leggings, spandex or any tight or stretch clothing; see-through or revealing tops; sleeveless shirts, tank tops and halters — shoulders must be covered, for men and women; hoodies, sweatpants and jogging shorts; wrap-around or button-down skirts; open-toe, open-back or flip-flop shoes; hats, bandanas, sweatbands and do-rags, except approved religious headwear; sunglasses, scarves, camouflage, and torn clothing. Also barred: bobby pins, hair clips, scrunchies and watches of any kind.

Nothing may resemble an inmate uniform. Visitors wearing brown, light brown, beige, khaki, tan or green are turned away, as is anyone in gray, in a plain white T-shirt as their only shirt, in medical scrubs, or in professional sports team clothing. Female visitors must wear a bra.

You may bring one clear change purse no larger than six inches square, holding up to $20 in quarters — two rolls, unwrapped before entry — and one credit card for the vending machines. You may also bring a comb or hairbrush, a sweater or coat, three feminine hygiene items, and, for an infant, two bottles, two diapers and wipes, three sealed containers of baby food with a plastic spoon, one change of clothes, a bib and a small blanket. Diaper bags and baby carriers are not permitted. Neither are cameras or recording equipment, books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, personal papers, tobacco, lighters, or any food or drink other than infant care.

Inmates may never handle money, and visitors may not leave money for deposit into an account. Everything else goes in a lobby locker or stays in your car.

Medication: cardiac and epilepsy medication and inhalers may come in. Diabetic medication and syringes are not treated as life-maintenance medication and must be left in your vehicle or a lobby locker.

Identification and screening

Photo ID is required for everyone sixteen and over. Government-issued ID must show photo, name, date of birth, sex, height, eye color and address. A U.S. military ID with photo works, and a passport works only with a U.S. visa stamp or I-94. Not accepted: a passport without a visa stamp, consular ID or border-crossing cards, and photo ID from a bank, business, high school or college.

FCI visitors pass through a walk-through metal detector; camp visitors are screened with a hand-held one. A medical implant will stop entry unless you carry documentation that specifically describes it. All visitors are subject to random pat searches under a documented selection method logged daily. See searches, shakedowns and contraband for how these rules are applied. Religious headwear is not ordinarily removed for a pat search — that needs the Warden’s authorization — though headwear covering the face must be lifted enough to confirm identity. At the FCI, visitors are marked with an invisible-ink stamp checked under black light on entry, on leaving the visiting room, and again at the control center.

Our general guide to federal prison visitation and the Bureau’s visiting regulations cover the rules that apply system-wide.

Getting there

The institution is at 14601 Burbridge Road SE, in the Allegany County Industrial Park. From Interstate 68, take the Industrial Boulevard exit (Route 51 South) in Cumberland — Exit 43B westbound. Follow Route 51 south for 5.6 miles and turn right into the industrial park at PPG Road. After 1.6 miles, turn left at the main gate. The camp entrance is the second left; the FCI is straight on for another 0.4 miles, ending at the visitor parking lot on the right.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Cumberland?

Phone calls at FCI Cumberland are placed by the incarcerated person — you cannot call in — to numbers on an approved list that holds up to 30 numbers. Across the Bureau, people are allowed 510 minutes per calendar month under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, which rescinded the 2008 policy: 300 minutes come free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and anyone who exhausts those 300 may then buy the other 210, whether or not they are FSA-eligible. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, and at least 30 minutes must pass between completed calls. The extra 100 minutes in November and December belonged to the 2008 policy and did not survive its rescission. Properly arranged unmonitored legal calls do not count against the 510.

At Cumberland specifically, the 2021 handbook records that phones operate from 6:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., with access limited on weekdays to roughly 6:00–8:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 3:00–11:30 p.m., and open from 6:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays. One phone in each unit stays on until 11:30 p.m. All calls except properly placed legal calls are recorded. See our guide to federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs on TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks. It is available at Cumberland from 6:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. It is text only — no attachments, no internet access, 13,000 characters a message — and there is a per-minute charge. The person inside adds your address; you then have to accept the system’s invitation before anything can pass. Messages are held at least an hour before release and kept for 180 days.

Email with a lawyer is not privileged. The Bureau permits attorneys on the messaging list and states in the same breath that those messages “will not be treated as privileged communications and will be subject to monitoring.” Privileged written communication has to go by marked special mail. Our page on CorrLinks and TRULINCS explains the system and its costs.

What can people buy at the FCI Cumberland commissary?

People at FCI Cumberland can spend up to $460 a month at the commissary, the limit printed on the facility’s own commissary order form (2026) and set by the Bureau’s trust fund rules. Stamps, copy cards and over-the-counter medications do not count against it. The limit rises by $50 during the November and December holiday period, for no more than one validation period.

Listings that give $320, including the Bureau’s own 2021 handbook for this facility, are out of date.

Shopping is by housing unit, one day each, and the rules are strict: one list, on your day only, no additions or substitutions after submission. Submitting a second list, or a list on the wrong day, forfeits the next shopping day. Being in the commissary on someone else’s day can be written up as being out of bounds.

The form sets quantity caps per category — 24 soups, 18 meat items, 28 fish, 16 candy, 14 chips, one deodorant, two laundry items — and prices a tablet at $131.30. Around sixty items carry kosher or halal labeling. Sugar is sold at the camp only. Typewriter ribbons and print wheels are still stocked. Our page on the federal prison commissary covers the national rules and what the money actually buys.

What programs are available at FCI Cumberland?

FCI Cumberland runs the Residential Drug Abuse Program at both the FCI and the camp, along with GED and English-as-a-second-language classes, occupational training and apprenticeships, UNICOR, and faith-based and reentry programming.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program runs at both the FCI and the camp. It is a minimum nine-month modified therapeutic community, delivered as a half-day program, and for people convicted of non-violent offenses completion can mean up to a year off the sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e). The facility’s handbook notes that people are ordinarily interviewed 42 to 24 months before release, so the referral timing matters. Drug Abuse Education and the non-residential program are also offered; the non-residential program carries a $30 completion incentive.

Education and vocational training

GED and English-as-a-second-language classes, split into pre-GED, GED, advanced and special learning needs levels; Adult Continuing Education; parenting; release preparation; Correctional Learning Network classes; and the Hope House book-reading program, which records a parent reading to their children. Literacy carries 240 mandatory instructional hours. There is an electronic law library and a leisure library in the Education Department, and a Career Resource Center. Our guides to prison education and vocational training explain how these programs work system-wide. The Reentry Affairs Coordinator can be reached in Education, through TRULINCS, or by written request.

Track	At the FCI	At the camp
Advanced occupational education	Carpentry, drywall	Dog trainer, pet grooming, veterinary assistant
Apprenticeships	Baker, carpentry maintenance, peripheral equipment operator	Automobile mechanic, computer peripheral equipment operator, powerhouse mechanic
Apprenticeships at both	Cook, electrical maintenance, HVAC, landscape/gardener, painter, welder-fitter

UNICOR at Cumberland produces signs and license plates for government vehicles. Working there comes with a housing condition: the 2021 handbook states that UNICOR workers must live in the unit that houses all other UNICOR workers, with exceptions for people in RDAP.

Faith-based and reentry programming

Religious Services runs First Step Act productive activities, including a Life Connections Program referral at the main institution and the Threshold Program at the camp. Chaplains also administer the religious diet program. The FCI’s admission and orientation handbook (2021) says each man is reviewed for Second Chance Act halfway-house placement 17 to 19 months before release; that window is the handbook’s, not any current program statement’s. The facility holds parole hearings three times a year; a small number of people at Cumberland are still serving pre-1987 sentences under the old parole system.

The Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026) lists which programs are approved to be offered at each institution. Approval is not the same as delivery — whether a class is actually running, and whether there is a waitlist, changes constantly and is a question for the unit team. The 2022 inspection of this facility found people eligible for college courses with none being offered.

What is daily life like at FCI Cumberland?

Days at FCI Cumberland start at 6:00 a.m. and run on set meal times, controlled movement on the half hour and fixed telephone and TRULINCS hours, as the 2021 handbook records them; schedules change, so treat the table as the shape of the day rather than a guarantee.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Wake-up	6:00 a.m.
Breakfast and lunch	6:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.	7:00 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
Dinner	After the 4:00 p.m. count clears
Uniform required	7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., and any time at the Unit Team office	—
Controlled movement	7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., on the half hour for ten minutes	Five minutes before the hour to five past
Common-area games	4:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.	All day, ending 10:00 p.m.
Telephones	6:00–8:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 3:00–11:30 p.m.	6:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
TRULINCS	6:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.

Housing is all two-man cells at the FCI and dormitory cubicles at the camp. Every room has a duress button. Which unit eats first is decided by weekly sanitation ratings — the cleanest unit is called first. Psychology Services holds open house on Tuesdays and Thursdays; the Records Office does the same. Callouts for the next day’s appointments reach the units after 4:00 p.m.

Recreation covers intramural sports, physical fitness and wellness programming, art in oils, pastels, pencil, ink and charcoal, and hobby craft including ceramics, leatherwork, crochet and woodworking. The Zimmer Amendment restrictions apply: no R, X or NC-17 films, no martial arts or weightlifting instruction, and no electric instruments.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Cumberland?

Only the District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council has inspected conditions at FCI Cumberland, in reports published in 2017 and 2022, because DC residents are held here. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. The Inspector General’s staff have walked this compound three times, each time as one stop on a Bureau-wide study rather than to examine the place itself. Cumberland was one of nine institutions visited for Criminal Calls, the August 1999 review of inmate telephone privileges, which records it as medium security with 987 men. It was one of eight visited for the review of the aging federal prison population, chosen, with USP Hazelton and FCI Morgantown, because “the institutions follow the same growing aging inmate trend” (E&I Report 15-05, May 6, 2015). And it was visited for the review of the Bureau’s Release Preparation Program, where staff watched the institution’s events for the launch of the inaugural National Reentry Week (E&I Report 16-07, August 31, 2016). None of the three makes a finding about conditions here.

Two other things the Inspector General has published name this prison. Its September 2021 follow-up survey of Bureau staff on the pandemic breaks its results out by institution, and Cumberland is one of them, listed as “Cumberland FCI.” And one of its criminal investigations here ended in a conviction: Robb Phillips, hired as a correctional officer in 2000 and working in the Education Department by 2001, took more than $14,000 from men inside to bring cigarettes in after the Bureau banned them in April 2006 — $50 a pack, $1,000 a carton. Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced him on March 17, 2008, to a year and a day, with two years of supervised release.

The most recent systematic conditions oversight of this 1,200-bed federal prison is therefore more than four years old.

The 2022 inspection

The Corrections Information Council inspected FCI Cumberland in June 2021 and reported in March 2022. It surveyed 61 of the 137 DC residents then held here, out of a total population of about 1,120.

• Medical care was the dominant complaint. More than 72% of respondents rated it unsatisfactory or very unsatisfactory. The report noted that the facility “has been involved in at least five lawsuits regarding medical care during the past few years,” and that healthcare had also been the leading concern in the Council’s earlier inspection.
• Vacancies at the time of the visit included two lieutenants, four correctional officers, two staff psychologists, a clinical nurse, the Drug Abuse Program Coordinator and the Supervisor of Education.
• Programming gaps: more than 40 men were eligible for college courses and none were being offered. Eight respondents said they had been ruled ineligible for programs based on their maximum sentence rather than their earliest release date.
• Mental health: of 61 respondents, 28 said services were available, 12 found the programming helpful, and 56% were dissatisfied with its quality.
• The inspectors were not permitted to tour the Special Housing Unit. The Bureau cited the inspection agreement and “safety and security.”

The Bureau’s written response is published alongside the report. It declined to address the medical and education complaints without “specific case information,” characterized the Council’s assessment as “anecdotal,” denied that maximum sentence drives program eligibility, and attributed the absence of college courses to pandemic delays while citing 17 First Step Act programs including HVAC and drywall apprenticeships.

The 2017 inspection

The earlier report, published in September 2017 on a December 2014 visit, is now a decade old. Two of its findings show a pattern. The facility was then operating at 168% of its rated capacity — 1,129 people against a rated capacity of 672. And on medical care the Council wrote that “the number and seriousness of the complaints are greater than those CIC has received from most other facility inspections,” with a wait for routine dental procedures of over eighteen months caused by the facility having no dentist for three to four months.

The 2024 PREA audit

The institution was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on October 29–31, 2024, by an independent auditor, Lynni O’Haver of Corrections Consulting Services. The final report is dated December 12, 2024.

The facility passed. Forty-four standards met, one exceeded — standard 115.33, inmate education — and none not met. No corrective action was required.

The report discloses one limitation. In the twelve months before the audit the facility reported four allegations of sexual abuse and one of sexual harassment. Three of the four abuse allegations were staff-on-inmate. The auditor was not permitted to review any of those three — the investigations were pending with the Office of Internal Affairs and were “deemed unavailable for review.”

The audit is also the most detailed public description of the physical plant that exists:

Buildings	15
Inmate housing units	11 — all multiple-occupancy; no single-cell units
Segregation cells	72
Designated capacity	1,280
Staff who may have inmate contact	266, of a total staff of 282
Contractors / volunteers on site	9 / 18
Age range of population	20 to 80
Average length of stay	60 to 119 months
Accreditation	ACA, NCCHC and CALEA, all within three years

Three further details from the audit carry practical weight. Of 748 people housed on the first day of the audit, 144 disclosed prior sexual victimization during risk screening, five identified as transgender or intersex, and 24 were limited English proficient. Sexual assault forensic examinations are performed off-site at a local hospital, not at the prison. And as of October 2024 the facility was renovating the interior of a housing unit and upgrading its video surveillance — so the housing configuration described in the older handbooks may since have changed.

Staffing

A 2023 Government Executive report on Cumberland found the institution and camp running on just under 100 correctional officers, down from 119 in 2015 and 110 in 2002, against a congressional baseline of 120. The union put the optimum at 107. The facility recorded 21 retirements in 2022 and 18 in 2021, against seven to nine a year before the pandemic — with the gap filled by augmentation, the practice of assigning teachers, counselors and other non-correctional staff to officer posts.

In May 2024, a Federal Labor Relations Authority administrative law judge ruled against the Bureau in a dispute with AFGE Local 4010 at this facility, finding that it had unlawfully refused the union’s request for the institution’s current staffing guidelines and that its stated reasons were “conclusory and unsupported.” The Bureau later confirmed that the staffing guidelines in force date from 2016.

Short staffing is the reason a callout gets canceled, a program has a waitlist, a medical appointment slips, or a visit is cut short.

FCI Cumberland in the news

Recent news about FCI Cumberland centers on a June 2026 contraband operation at the prison’s vehicle checkpoint and the January 2026 death of Aldrich Ames; older items concern a 2018 cell-phone jamming test, the 2017 YMI pilot and smuggling cases in 2007 and 2004.

• June 2026 — contraband interdiction. Three people were arrested at the prison’s vehicle checkpoint during a joint Allegany County Sheriff’s Office and Bureau operation. K-9 scans of seven vehicles turned up two loaded handguns; charges included carrying a loaded handgun and possession of suspected crack cocaine.
• January 2026 — Aldrich Ames died here at 84, more than three decades into a life sentence for espionage.
• 2018 — cell phone jamming test. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration tested micro-jamming technology at FCI Cumberland to disrupt contraband cell phone signals, one of the first such federal trials.
• 2017 — the YMI pilot. The Bureau adopted Young Men Incorporated, a reentry program created and run by incarcerated people, as a pilot at FCI Cumberland. It was founded by Dominic Henry while he was serving life plus 40 years at USP Allenwood, and first established at FCI Otisville; Henry was released in 2015 after 35 years.
• 2007 — staff smuggling conviction. Officer Robb Phillips pleaded guilty to accepting more than $14,000 to bring tobacco into the institution.
• 2004 — visitor smuggling arrest. A visitor was arrested for bringing heroin and marijuana into the prison in body cavities.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Cumberland

Problems at FCI Cumberland: where we can help

One complaint dominates the independent record of this prison, and it has dominated it for a decade. Medical care drew the heaviest criticism in the District of Columbia inspectors’ 2014 visit — more numerous and more serious, they wrote, than at most facilities they saw — and again in 2021, when more than seven in ten of the men who answered called it unsatisfactory and the Council recorded “at least five lawsuits regarding medical care during the past few years.” The issues below are the ones that recur at this address, and each runs on a clock:

• Medical care that is not happening. It has been the leading complaint in both independent inspections of this facility. The route is a written request to staff, then the administrative remedy process — and that process has a clock on every rung. See medical care in federal prison and, where negligence has caused injury, Federal Tort Claims Act claims.
• Designation and transfer. Whether someone is at the FCI or the camp, and whether they can be moved closer to home, turns on security points, Public Safety Factors and a Management Variable — all of which are arguable. See our guide to federal prison transfers.
• RDAP eligibility and the § 3621(e) year. Timing matters: the handbook says interviews ordinarily come 42 to 24 months before release.
• First Step Act time credits — whether they are being earned, calculated and applied correctly.
• Halfway house and home confinement placement, which runs through the Residential Reentry Management office for the district a man is releasing to; for Maryland, Eastern Virginia and the District of Columbia, that is RRM Baltimore.
• Disciplinary proceedings that threaten good conduct time, and SHU placements that outlast their justification, including protective custody.
• CMU designation and step-down review. Placement in the Communications Management Unit is approved by a single Bureau official whose authority cannot be delegated downward, it is revisited by the Unit Team at program reviews, and both the designation and any condition of confinement inside the unit can be challenged through the administrative remedy program under the Bureau’s CMU rules. The restriction on unmonitored attorney calls that comes with it is being litigated now.
• Compassionate release (see the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules) and sentence computation errors, both routes to early release.
• 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 Cumberland, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with address, contact details, population, region and judicial district.
• Institution Supplement CUM 5267.09L, Visiting Regulation, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Cumberland, 2026. Visiting hours, including the CMU, visitor lists, dress code, identification, screening and directions; replaced Institution Supplement CUM 5267.08K (2026).
• FCI Cumberland Commissary Order Form, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Cumberland, 2026. Spending limit, shopping rules and category limits.
• Institution Supplement CUM 1315.07K, Legal Activities, Inmate, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Cumberland, 2025. Law library hours, the CMU law libraries, storage of legal materials and discovery-machine priority.
• FCI Cumberland Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2021. Daily schedule, housing, programs, work assignments and halfway-house review timing.
• FCI Cumberland Satellite Camp Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2014. Camp housing and schedule; superseded in part.
• Institution Supplement THX-5267.09D, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Terre Haute, 2020. CMU visiting procedures at FCI Terre Haute, a unit since closed.
• Institution Supplement MAR-5267.09A, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, USP Marion, 2020. CMU visiting rules for a unit since closed.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The $460 commissary limit, deposit routes and holds.
• Communications Management Units, Program Statement 5214.05, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Phases, referral, designation, notice, redesignation and step-down; replaced Program Statement 5214.02 (2015).
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Correspondence, Program Statement 5265.14, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011. General and special mail; funds enclosed in correspondence.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Program availability by institution.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes and wire-transfer posting times.
• 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.
• Micro-jamming Technology Testing, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2018. The contraband cell-phone jamming test at FCI Cumberland.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FCI Cumberland, Corrections Consulting Services, LLC, 2024. On-site audit of October 29–31, 2024, by Lynni O’Haver; physical plant, capacity, staffing, accreditation and allegation data.
• FCI Cumberland Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2022. Inspection of June 8–9, 2021, with the Bureau’s response.
• FCI Cumberland Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2017. Inspection of December 5, 2014, with the Bureau’s response.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Release Preparation Program, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016. Report 16-07; FCI Cumberland was a site visit.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015. Report 15-05, revised in 2016; FCI Cumberland was a site visit.
• Criminal Calls: A Review of the Bureau of Prisons’ Management of Inmate Telephone Privileges, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 1999. FCI Cumberland was one of nine institutions visited.

Court records

• Muse v. Warden, FCI Cumberland, No. 1:25-cv-02884 (D. Md.), U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, 2026. Memorandum opinion: the June 2025 transfer to the Cumberland CMU, the December 2025 program review and dismissal for failure to exhaust.
• Duka v. Marshall, No. 1:25-cv-03111 (D.D.C.), U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2026. Memorandum opinion on the First Amendment challenge to the CMU legal-call rule.
• Duka v. Rule, No. 2:25-cv-00224 (S.D. Ind.), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, 2025. Screening and transfer order recording the closure of the Terre Haute and Marion CMUs and the single CMU at FCI Cumberland.
• Former FTX Executive Ryan Salame Sentenced to 90 Months in Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, 2024. Ryan Salame’s sentence.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland, Maryland and AFGE Local 4010, No. WA-CA-22-0409, Federal Labor Relations Authority, Office of Administrative Law Judges, 2024. Staffing guidelines; unfair labor practice.
• Aref v. Garland, No. 20-5368 (D.C. Cir.), U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 2022. Docket.
• Aref v. Lynch, 833 F.3d 242 (D.C. Cir. 2016), U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 2016.
• Former Correctional Officer Sentenced for Taking Bribes to Smuggle Contraband Into Federal Prison, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2008. Robb Phillips’s sentence.
• Former Correctional Officer Sentenced for Taking Bribes to Smuggle Contraband Into Federal Prison (District of Maryland release), U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland, 2008. Robb Phillips’s plea and sentence; hosted by the Inspector General.

News and other sources

• Three arrested at federal prison checkpoint, Cumberland Times-News, 2026. By Todd Bowman.
• Aldrich Ames, Most Damaging CIA Traitor in Agency History, Dies at 84, The Washington Post, 2026.
• “It’s Not Just Club Fed”: A Day Inside One Facility in the Strained Federal Prisons System, Government Executive, 2023. Correctional officer staffing levels.
• BOP approves prisoner-created and run rehabilitation and reentry program, San Francisco Bay View, 2017. By Kevin Jones-Bey.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. §§ 540.200–540.205, Communications Management Housing Units, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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