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Federal Prisons in Michigan

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

Federal prisons in Michigan at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs one institution in Michigan, FCI Milan, a low-security prison for men that held 1,546 people as of September 2026. It sits in the Bureau’s North Central Region, run from Kansas City, Kansas.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FCI MilanFederal Correctional Institution · LowMen1,546—MilanEastern District of Michigan
Total1 institution1,546—
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in Michigan?

Just one on the Bureau of Prisons roster, and the roster is what this page counts. FCI Milan is a low-security institution for men on East Arkona Road in Washtenaw County, about thirty miles southwest of Detroit, and it carries no camp. Every other prison a Michigan search turns up belongs to the Michigan Department of Corrections, whose prisoners the federal locator does not list. The Bureau’s categories are explained in our guide to security levels, and the national picture in the Bureau of Prisons directory.

Milan is really two prisons inside one fence. Alongside the sentenced compound the Bureau runs a Federal Detention Center for people awaiting trial or sentencing in the Eastern District of Michigan, and the population report gives a single figure for the whole site. Which side of it a person is on decides almost every practical answer — visiting, work, programming, and whether First Step Act time credits can run at all — and our FCI Milan page sets the two regimes out side by side.

The roster records the institution as holding men, so the Bureau holds no women in Michigan. A woman sentenced in a Michigan federal court is designated to an institution in another state, and our guide to women’s federal prisons explains how that placement is made and what programs travel with it.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Michigan?

The North Central Regional Office, at 400 State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. FCI Milan is a North Central Region institution, and the region is the middle rung of the administrative remedy ladder: a BP-10 appeal from Milan is decided there, and the rung above it leaves the region altogether. Program Statement 1330.18 provides at p. 7 that “An inmate who is not satisfied with the Regional Director’s response may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-11) to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the response.” The rung below is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Michigan?

Two offices, divided by judicial district. 28 U.S.C. § 102 provides that “Michigan is divided into two judicial districts to be known as the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.” The Bureau’s page for RRM Detroit prints Eastern Michigan and nothing else; its page for RRM Chicago prints Western Michigan beside Illinois, Wisconsin and Northern Indiana. Each Michigan district is named once, so none is claimed by both offices and none is left unassigned.

RRM Detroit is not in Detroit. The Bureau’s record puts it on East Arkona Road at Milan, a couple of door numbers from the prison, so a family working on an Eastern District release plan is dealing with the same road whether or not their person was ever held there. The office that takes a case follows the district someone is going home to rather than the one the prison stands in, and Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden, where significant doubt about a referral exists, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” Our page on federal halfway houses covers the timing.

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

Finding someone is a national search rather than a Michigan one. The inmate locator takes a name or a register number, and a name search needs a first and a last name. One local trap: the screen reads “Milan FCI” for a sentenced man and for a detainee alike, so the record will not tell a family which half of the site someone is in.

Letters go to the address block Milan itself publishes, which is a post office box and not the East Arkona Road street address a map returns; mail sent to the street does not reach the person it was written for. The block is on our FCI Milan page, and the general rules are in our guide to writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on the institution’s own supplement, and Milan operates two regimes under one roof: the compound admits visitors on Fridays, weekends and federal holidays, while detention-side visits are shorter, restricted to verified immediate family and scheduled on rotating days. Confirm the schedule before traveling, and see our page on visitation.

Money reaches an account through national channels: the lockbox by mail, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Ordinarily, funds sent to an inmate via the Western Union Quick Collect/MoneyGram Program are posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST.” See sending money.

Which federal prisons in Michigan are closing or have closed?

None, and none has. The Bureau’s July 1, 2026 announcement named six institutions it “will close” and two minimum-security camps it will convert to Federal Satellite Lows; no Michigan facility appears on either list, and no former Bureau institution in this state keeps a page here. Our explainer on major federal prison closures sets out what has happened elsewhere in the system.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau of Prisons run in Michigan?

One. FCI Milan, at Milan in Washtenaw County, is the only institution the Bureau of Prisons operates in the state, and it is rated low security for men. A Federal Detention Center shares its perimeter and is counted inside the same record rather than as a prison of its own, so the roster shows a single Michigan entry.

What is the largest federal prison in Michigan by population?

FCI Milan, because it is the only one. The Bureau reports 1,546 people there as of September 2026, and because Milan carries no satellite camp that figure covers everyone on the site, including the detention center inside the same fence. With one federal prison in the state there is no second institution to rank it against.

Does Michigan have a federal prison camp?

No. The Bureau’s roster record for FCI Milan flags no satellite camp and no Federal Satellite Low, and the population report carries no camp row for the state. Anyone told to expect a camp in Michigan should plan instead for a low-security institution, which is a fenced compound with controlled movement rather than an open camp.

Where are women held in federal custody from Michigan?

Outside the state. The roster records Michigan’s one institution as holding men, so a woman sentenced in a Michigan federal court is designated to a women’s facility elsewhere in the system. Visiting, mail and telephone rules then follow that institution’s own supplement, and travel becomes the practical problem for a family at home.

Where are pretrial federal detainees held in Michigan?

At the Federal Detention Center inside FCI Milan, which takes people awaiting trial or sentencing in the Eastern District of Michigan along with holdovers in transit. The federal courthouse sits in Detroit and the detention beds do not, so a family attending a hearing downtown is visiting someone held roughly an hour away.

How do I look up someone held in a Michigan federal prison?

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which searches the whole federal system rather than one state, by register number or by a full first and last name. It does not reach the Michigan Department of Corrections, so a person sentenced in a Michigan state court will not appear there however carefully the name is spelled.

Which reentry office handles halfway-house placement for someone releasing to Michigan?

One of two, depending on where the person is going home. The Bureau’s page for RRM Detroit lists Eastern Michigan, and its page for RRM Chicago lists Western Michigan. Placement follows the release district rather than the prison’s location, so someone serving a sentence far from the state can still be an RRM Detroit matter.

Can someone ask to be designated to the federal prison in Michigan?

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

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

Three problems recur at Michigan’s one institution, each of them visible in its own record. Custody status comes first: someone on the detention side is waiting to be designated, earns no First Step Act time credits before sentence, and needs the sentence computation checked against the judgment, which is where early release work begins. Medical care is second: the only independent review of Health Services at Milan found it badly short of staff in 2020, and when treatment stalls the route runs from a written request to the administrative remedy chain and then, where injury followed, a tort claim — among the problems we work on inside. Third is housing: with open-bay dormitories and no single cells on the site, separation and protective custody turn on unit staff rather than on architecture.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Michigan 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

Court records and statutes

  • 28 U.S.C. § 102, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. The two Michigan judicial districts.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 3621, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Designation at § 3621(b).

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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