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Federal Prisons in Missouri

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

Federal prisons in Missouri at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates one institution in Missouri: MCFP Springfield, an administrative-security medical center for men that held 1,099 people as of September 2026, in the Bureau’s North Central Region.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
MCFP SpringfieldFederal Medical Center · AdministrativeMen1,099—SpringfieldWestern District of Missouri
Total1 institution1,099—
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in Missouri?

One institution appears when the Bureau of Prisons roster is filtered on this state, and the roster is what this page counts: MCFP Springfield, on West Sunshine Street in Greene County. The Bureau types it MCFP — Medical Center for Federal Prisoners — rather than FCI or FMC, and rates it administrative security, which is not a rung on the low-to-high ladder but the category kept for an institution with a special mission. Every other prison in the state belongs to the Missouri Department of Corrections. Our guide to security levels explains the ladder, and the Bureau of Prisons directory the system.

Because the mission is medical, a security point score is not what puts a man here. Program Statement 5100.08 provides at p. 29 that “Only the OMDT will make designations for study cases or for cases requiring medical or psychiatric evaluation or treatment” — the Office of Medical Designations and Transportation, in the Central Office rather than at the designation center that handles ordinary cases. Our MCFP Springfield page sets out how that referral is made and who can start it.

Springfield also holds people for whom the ordinary vocabulary of a sentence does not fit, which is why so much federal mental-health litigation is Missouri litigation. Under 18 U.S.C. § 4246 the director of the facility where a person is hospitalized must “transmit the certificate to the clerk of the court for the district in which the person is confined” — for this institution, the Western District of Missouri. The Supreme Court’s decision in Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), started the same way: “The Magistrate sent Sell to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (Medical Center) at Springfield, Missouri, for examination.”

The roster records the institution as holding men, so the Bureau holds no women in Missouri; our guide to women’s federal prisons explains where a woman sentenced here is designated instead.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Missouri?

Springfield answers to the North Central Regional Office in Kansas City, Kansas, its roster record placing it in the North Central Region. The region decides the middle appeal, which matters here because a complaint about medical care usually has to travel the whole chain first. Program Statement 1330.18 records at p. 7 that “In many cases, courts require a proper Appeal to the General Counsel before an inmate may pursue the complaint in court.” The first step is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from Missouri?

Two offices, and one of Missouri’s districts is claimed by both. 28 U.S.C. § 105 provides that “Missouri is divided into two judicial districts to be known as the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri.” The Bureau’s page for RRM Kansas City prints Missouri as a bare state name, taking in both districts; its page for RRM St. Louis prints Eastern Missouri. bop.gov therefore lists both offices for the Eastern District, and RRM Kansas City alone for the Western District, where Springfield sits.

Which office ends up with a case is settled by the district a person is going home to, not by where the sentence was served, and the paperwork moves earlier than families expect: Program Statement 7310.04 provides at p. 14 that “The referral packet shall be forwarded to the CCM at least 60 days prior to the maximum recommended range or date.” See federal halfway houses.

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

Start with the national search. The inmate locator matches the committed name on the judgment, not a name in daily use, so a register number finds someone faster. For a man held here the screen reads “Springfield MCFP”; someone committed under the mental-health statutes appears with no meaningful release date, because there is no sentence to compute.

Springfield takes inmate mail at a post office box rather than at its Sunshine Street address, and a parcel sent by any carrier other than the Postal Service goes to the warehouse at the street address. The blocks are on the institution page; the national rules are in our guide to writing to someone inside.

Visiting here is a hospital’s version of the Bureau’s rules: general visiting on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, plus bedside visits arranged on other days for a patient who cannot reach the visiting room. Ask the unit team before traveling, and see our page on visitation.

Money moves on the Bureau’s national channels: 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 Missouri are closing or have closed?

Neither, on the Bureau’s published record. Its July 1, 2026 announcement of closures and operational changes names no Missouri institution, and no former Bureau institution here keeps a page on this site. Our explainer on major federal prison closures covers the states where that is not so.

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

One. MCFP Springfield is the only institution the Bureau of Prisons operates in the state, and it is a medical center rather than a conventional prison: an administrative-security facility for men whose mission is inpatient medical, surgical and psychiatric care. There is no camp and no second institution anywhere in Missouri.

What is the largest federal prison in Missouri by population?

MCFP Springfield, since it is the only one. The Bureau reports 1,099 people there as of September 2026, and because the institution carries no satellite camp that figure covers everyone on the site. Missouri has a single federal prison, so there is no second institution to measure it against.

Is Missouri’s federal prison a hospital or a prison?

Both at once. It is an administrative institution with a perimeter, a control center and a special housing unit, and also a referral hospital with wards, a surgical suite and dialysis. Men arrive because a clinician referred them and the Bureau approved it, not because a security score sent them.

Why are people held in Missouri who have not been convicted of anything?

Because federal courts commit them there under the commitment chapter of title 18, which covers defendants found incompetent to stand trial, sentenced patients who need psychiatric hospitalization, and those whose sentence has ended but whose release a court finds dangerous. Springfield files the certificates, and the cases are heard in the Western District of Missouri.

Where are women held in federal custody from Missouri?

Outside the state. The roster records the one Missouri institution as holding men, so a woman sentenced in a Missouri federal court is designated elsewhere, including when the reason for the placement is medical. Her visiting, mail and telephone rules then follow that institution’s own supplement rather than anything published here.

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

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which searches the whole federal system by register number or by a full first and last name. It does not cover the Missouri Department of Corrections or a county jail, and the committed name on the judgment can differ from the name a family uses every day.

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

It depends on the district, and for one district the Bureau lists two offices. RRM Kansas City prints Missouri without a division, so it reaches the whole state; RRM St. Louis prints Eastern Missouri. Placement follows the district a person is releasing to rather than the prison’s location.

Can someone ask to be sent to the federal medical center in Missouri?

A referral can be requested, but it is written by clinicians at the sending prison and approved in the Bureau’s Central Office, not by the court or the family. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment” after weighing the statutory factors.

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

The problems that recur at Missouri’s one institution are not an ordinary prison’s. Commitment and evaluation come first: the hearings, the reports they turn on, the independent examiner a person may ask the court to appoint, and the conditional-release regimen a judge cannot approve unless somebody has built it. Getting there and staying there is second: the referral is written at the sending prison, and an argument against being sent back belongs on clinical grounds before redesignation, which is federal prison consulting work. Third is treatment that is not happening: a written request, then the administrative remedy chain, then a tort claim where injury followed. Delayed care is also the record a compassionate release motion is built on, and it sits 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 Missouri 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

  • Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), Supreme Court of the United States, via CourtListener.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 4246, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Certification and venue at § 4246(a).
  • 28 U.S.C. § 105, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. The two Missouri 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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