FCI Fairton (NJ): Visiting Hours, Mail, Money and Programs

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

FCI Fairton at a glance

FCI Fairton is a medium-security federal prison for men in Cumberland County, New Jersey, with a minimum-security satellite camp beside it and a detention center that the Bureau of Prisons names on its own facility page. It held 746 men as of September 2026: 675 at the FCI and detention center together and 71 at the camp.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Fairton
BOP code	FAI
Security level	Medium; men · satellite camp: minimum · detention center on site
Population	746 (as of September 2026) · FCI and detention center 675 · camp 71
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 6:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. · no processing after noon · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Fairton · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 420 · Fairton, NJ 08320 Camp: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Fairton · Federal Correctional Institution · Satellite Camp · P.O. Box 420 · Fairton, NJ 08320
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	856-453-1177 · Fax 856-453-4015
Street address	655 Fairton-Millville Road, Fairton, NJ 08320 · Fairfield Township, Cumberland County
Judicial district	District of New Jersey
BOP region	Northeast
Designated capacity	FCI 830 · camp 104
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 48 segregation cells
Medical care level	2
Mental health care level	FCI 3 · camp 2
RDAP	Yes, at the FCI
Sex offender treatment	See sex offender treatment
UNICOR	See work and training
Camp	Yes · minimum security, beside the FCI

The prison stands at 655 Fairton-Millville Road in Fairfield Township, about 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia by its handbook’s reckoning, and reports to the Bureau’s Northeast Region. Of the two federal prisons in New Jersey, it is the only one the Bureau’s roster flags as having a detention center, and its visiting room keeps morning hours only: 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on weekends and federal holidays.

Is FCI Fairton one prison or three?

FCI Fairton is one institution with three kinds of housing: a medium-security FCI, a minimum-security satellite camp and a detention center. The three share one address, the Bureau code FAI and the same institution supplements, but they hold different people under different rules, and which one a man is in decides when you can visit him and what he can do.

The medium-security FCI

The FCI is the main compound. Fairton’s handbook says it opened in early 1990 on 51 acres with four major housing units, HA through HD. Cassandra McGilbra’s PREA audit, from an on-site visit on December 3–5, 2024, records a designated capacity of 830 there and a first-day count of 743 men. That is far from the crowding the D.C. Corrections Information Council described after its March 5, 2013 visit, when the Bureau’s July 2013 data put 1,368 men in an FCI designed to house 864.

The minimum-security satellite camp

The camp is a minimum-security unit beside the FCI, with 71 men as of September 2026 and a designated capacity of 104 in the PREA audit. The handbook issues each camp resident three yellow jumpsuits and keeps camp residents to the area in front of the second trailer, which houses laundry, the library and religious services, and to the track on the left of the camp; the woods beyond the fence are out of bounds. In May 2026 the Bureau announced that it would begin moving eligible people who have a halfway-house or home-confinement date to camps, excluding groups that include “sex offenders” and “deportable aliens.” The announcement names no camp.

The detention center

The Bureau’s facility page describes Fairton as “a medium security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp and a detention center,” and counts 675 “Inmates at the FCI & FDC” together in its September 2026 figures. The Bureau’s roster flags Fairton, and not FCI Fort Dix, as having a detention component.

Fairton’s own documents mention it only in passing. The PREA auditor reported interviews across “the main building, jail, and camp” and a tour of “the jail units.” The visiting supplement seats holdover prisoners, who are in transit to their designated prison, directly in front of the officer’s station and keeps them away from the vending machines, and among its governing directives it lists the Bureau’s pretrial-inmates statement in its January 2003 edition, PS 7331.04, which Program Statement 7331.05 has since replaced. That pretrial policy lets institutions other than detention centers hold pretrial inmates “in specific units within the main facility or in jail units located in satellite buildings separate from the main facility,” kept apart from convicted prisoners “to the extent practicable.”

Fairton is on neither roster in the Bureau’s national Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook, and the Bureau’s site gives no separate handbook, population line or security level for the detention center. Listings that describe it as “Administrative-Security” rest on no Bureau record. If your family member is held here before trial or in transit, ask which unit he is in, because pretrial and holdover prisoners live under different work, telephone and legal-access rules.

New Jersey’s other federal prison

FCI Fort Dix, on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is the only other Bureau institution in the state: a low-security prison with its own camp and 4,214 people as of September 2026. The two prisons are about 51 miles apart in a straight line, and both sit in one federal court district, because under 28 U.S.C. § 110 New Jersey “constitutes one judicial district.” See our FCI Fort Dix page.

What is the security level at FCI Fairton?

FCI Fairton is a medium-security prison, and its satellite camp is minimum security. Under the Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, a medium-security institution holds men in OUT and IN custody and a minimum-security camp holds men in COMMUNITY and OUT custody, which matches the levels on Fairton’s 2025 PREA audit form: “Medium, Minimum, Community, In, Out.”

Where a man serves his sentence is the Bureau’s decision. Staff at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, usually make the first designation, and a man scoring 16 to 23 security points matches a medium institution. A Public Safety Factor or a Management Variable can move him up or down; the Sex Offender factor, for example, requires at least a low-security institution unless it is waived, which rules out Fairton’s camp. The Bureau weighs bed space, security, program and health needs and the judge’s recommendation and tries to stay within 500 driving miles of home, but 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) puts its choice beyond review by any court. Requests for lower security or a move nearer home go through the unit team; see our guides to designation and transfers.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Fairton?

Five men whose cases drew public attention are held at FCI Fairton, according to the Bureau’s Inmate Locator as of September 2026 (their records carry the code FAI); a sixth has been released, and a seventh often listed here is at another prison.

Name	Register number	Custody status	What the public record shows
Nicodemo S. Scarfo	01381-748	At Fairton; projected release May 14, 2036	Sentenced in July 2015 (D.N.J.) to 30 years for racketeering conspiracy and related crimes in a scheme to seize control of FirstPlus Financial Group; the U.S. Attorney’s release headlined him as a member of the Lucchese organized crime family.
Christian Lee Dedmon	71503-510	At Fairton; projected release September 2, 2057	Former Rankin County, Mississippi, sheriff’s narcotics investigator; sentenced in March 2024 (S.D. Miss.) to 40 years, the longest of the six former officers’ terms, after guilty pleas over the torture and abuse of two Black men and a separate beating of another man.
Luke Elliott Sommer	38474-086	At Fairton; projected release June 9, 2034	Former Army Ranger sentenced for a 2006 armed bank robbery in Tacoma and a 2009 attempt to hire someone to murder an Assistant U.S. Attorney; resentenced to 31 years in November 2022 (W.D. Wash.) after petitioning for review based on his youth at the time of the crimes and his reform in prison.
Fred Daibes	71997-050	At Fairton; projected release October 6, 2030	Convicted in July 2024 alongside former Senator Robert Menendez; sentenced in January 2025 (S.D.N.Y.) to seven years and a $1,750,000 fine.
Carmine G. Agnello	37944-511	At Fairton; projected release August 23, 2027	Sentenced to 15 months (E.D.N.Y., announced April 20, 2026) for wire fraud involving about $1.1 million in COVID-19 disaster loans. CBS News New York identified him as a grandson of John Gotti; the Justice Department’s release does not.
George Anthony Devolder Santos	58474-510	Released October 17, 2025	Former U.S. Representative sentenced in April 2025 (E.D.N.Y.) to 87 months for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft; reported to Fairton in July 2025, where the Associated Press said he would serve his time at the camp; sentence commuted October 17, 2025.
Lamor Whitehead	36692-510	Not at Fairton: at FCI Danbury (record code DAN); projected release June 1, 2031	Brooklyn church leader sentenced in June 2024 (S.D.N.Y.) to nine years for fraud, attempted extortion and false statements to federal agents.

Lamor Whitehead is held at FCI Danbury in Connecticut, not at Fairton, and George Santos left Fairton when his sentence was commuted.

How do I find someone at FCI Fairton?

To find someone at FCI Fairton, search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, ideally with the eight-digit register number. A current Fairton result reads “Located at: Fairton FCI” (code FAI in the locator’s record), an entry the FCI, the camp and the detention center all share, so it cannot tell you which of the three a man is in; his letters or his unit team can. Our Inmate Locator guide explains the search.

Name searches need care. The locator rejects a last name on its own and can miss compound surnames: a search for “George Santos” returns five other men, and one for “George Devolder” returns no one, because the former congressman’s record is filed under the surname Devolder Santos. Try the full surname as court papers give it, or the register number, and never treat an empty result as proof that someone is not in federal custody. If you are stuck, call the institution at 856-453-1177 or email FAI-ExecAssistant-S@bop.gov.

How do I write to someone at FCI Fairton?

Letters to someone at FCI Fairton go to P.O. Box 420, Fairton, NJ 08320, never to the street address. The Bureau’s facility page gives the same box for the FCI and the camp, with one extra line for the camp:

For someone at the FCI	For someone at the satellite camp
INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER FCI Fairton FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION P.O. BOX 420 FAIRTON, NJ 08320	INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER FCI Fairton FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION SATELLITE CAMP P.O. BOX 420 FAIRTON, NJ 08320

Fairton’s policy documents print P.O. Box 280 in their letterhead, but the Bureau’s facility page lists that box for staff mail, not for people held here, and 655 Fairton-Millville Road is for visitors and freight. The handbook asks writers to add the man’s housing unit to his name and register number.

Legal mail is protected only if it is marked. The handbook requires an attorney’s envelope to identify the sender as an attorney and to carry the words “Special mail” and “open only in the presence of the inmate”; unmarked legal mail is opened as general correspondence. Outgoing legal mail must be handed to a staff member at both the FCI and the camp, since a letter left in a unit mailbox is not processed as legal mail, and anything weighing 16 ounces or more goes as a package on a BP-329 authorization. The national rules are in the Bureau’s correspondence regulations.

The mail room does not deliver on weekends or holidays. Fairton’s handbook bars packages from home: a mailed-in item needs a department head’s approval on file in the mail room, and the handbook lists only release clothing, medical items such as glasses or hearing aids, and a plain wedding band. At the FCI, publications may come only from their publisher, a book club or a bookstore, as the handbook says; at the camp, softcover books and magazines may come from any source, though hardcover books and newspapers still need one of those three. See our guide to writing to someone in federal prison.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Fairton?

Money for someone at FCI Fairton goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Des Moines, Iowa, or through Western Union or MoneyGram, never to the prison itself. Each route needs the man’s committed name and eight-digit register number, and the Bureau’s money instructions set out the details:

Route	What to use	When it posts
Mail: money order, U.S. government check, certified or cashier’s check, or bank draft	Federal Bureau of Prisons, committed name, register number, Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001; name and number on the instrument and the envelope, return address upper left	Non-U.S. Postal Service money orders and non-government checks are held 15 days; foreign instruments 45 days
Western Union Quick Collect	Account: register number plus last name, no spaces (12345678DOE); attention line: committed name; code city FBOP, DC; online, by app, at an agent or at 1-800-634-3422, option 2	Sent 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern: within two to four hours; later: at 7:00 a.m. the next morning
MoneyGram ExpressPayment	Account: register number plus last name; company Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC; receive code 7932; online up to $300 with a Visa or MasterCard	Same as Western Union

Never mail cash or personal checks, which are not accepted; other items sent to the lockbox are thrown away. Questions about a deposit go to Bureau staff at 202-307-2712, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Commissary spending is capped at $460 a month (see below), and a man who wants to send money home files a BP-199 withdrawal that, under Fairton’s handbook, his Unit Manager can approve up to $500. More in our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Fairton?

Visiting at FCI Fairton runs on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, from 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at both the FCI and the camp. That is the schedule in Institution Supplement FAI 5267.09F, dated May 14, 2025, which replaced the October 2024 supplement and is the visiting document the Bureau’s Fairton page links. Its visitor instructions rule out visiting Monday through Friday unless a federal holiday falls on one of those days.

Three times shape the day. Visitors are not admitted before 6:30 a.m., no one is processed in after noon, and everyone must be out of the visiting room by 1:00 p.m., so plan the drive around the noon cutoff. An official count is taken at 10:00 a.m. on weekends and holidays, and no one is called to the visiting room from 9:30 a.m. until it clears.

Visits for men in the Special Housing Unit are set for Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., requested by email to FCIFairtonVisiting@bop.gov by that week’s Thursday, with no entry after 11:30 a.m. Elsewhere the same supplement says such men ordinarily keep general-population privileges, so ask the unit team which rule applies before you travel.

Visits are rationed by points: ten a month, two for each weekend or holiday visit, so five visiting days a month. Attorney visits and visits from an approved clergy member cost nothing.

Listings that give 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., Fridays through Mondays, are out of date. Fairton’s own 2023 handbook still prints 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on weekends, and a Spanish-language supplement from 2012 (FAI 5267.08G) set visiting from Thursday through Monday. The May 2025 supplement is the rule now, and it says visitor forms translated into Spanish will be made available in the lobby.

If visiting is canceled for an emergency, the supplement says the institution’s visitation website will say so; check it before you leave, or call 856-453-1177.

Who can visit, and how many

Up to four visitors per man, unless the Captain approves more in advance. Immediate family (parents, stepparents, foster parents, brothers, sisters, wife and children) ordinarily go on the list, and up to ten other visitors can be added; only the Warden can make exceptions, and friends the man did not know before prison need the Warden’s approval. Every proposed visitor, family included, is checked for criminal convictions, and someone removed at the prisoner’s request stays off the list for at least 90 days.

Children under 16 must come with a parent or legal guardian; 16- and 17-year-olds may visit alone with written consent. A man convicted of a sex offense involving a minor must sit at the table closest to the officer’s station for any visit with a child and may not use the parenting room, which is otherwise kept for men in the Education Department’s parenting program, one family for an hour at a time. Special visits, such as from a prospective employer, need the man’s written request at least four weeks ahead and, at the FCI, count against his points. The national rules are in the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our guide to visiting someone in federal prison.

What visitors can wear and bring

Very little. Each adult may bring up to $40 in cash in a clear change purse no larger than 10 inches; parents may add 10 diapers, three bottles of formula, four jars of baby food and a spoon; and life-saving medication is held at the officer’s desk. Phones, cameras, photographs, papers, wallets, large purses, strollers, baby carriers, toys, extra clothing and “electronic car locking devices” stay in a lobby locker or the car. Canes, walkers, crutches and wheelchairs are swapped for the institution’s own at the entrance, unless a wheelchair carries life-support equipment. Vending-machine food bought for a prisoner is opened onto a paper plate, and nothing may be shared or taken out.

The dress code is enforced at the door. It bars see-through, sleeveless, low-cut and backless clothing, swimwear, shorts or skirts more than 3 inches above the knee, sweat suits, spandex, hooded tops, hats other than religious head coverings, flip-flops and shower shoes, watches, and khaki, orange, tan, beige or green military-style clothing that resembles prisoners’ uniforms. Pants may never be tucked into shoes or boots. A visitor turned away for dress may come back once properly dressed.

Identification and screening

Every visitor needs valid photo identification issued by a state or government, such as a driver’s license or passport, and must be on the man’s approved list. At the FCI each visitor gets a black-light hand stamp that is checked again at J-3 before the J-Building sally port; belongings are searched, and everyone walks through a metal detector. No one may wait in the parking lot, so drivers who drop visitors off must leave the grounds. When the room fills, visits end first for visitors who live within 50 miles, and van or car-pool passengers are not exempt, so their drivers must leave a way to reach them.

Getting there

The prison is at 655 Fairton-Millville Road, Fairton, New Jersey 08320, about 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia and 40 miles southwest of Atlantic City by the handbook’s count. From Philadelphia, both Fairton documents route drivers over the Walt Whitman Bridge, down Routes 42 and 55 to Exit 27, south on Route 47 and west on Route 49, then left for about five miles to the prison on the left; they name that road differently, so navigate to the street address. Without a car, the 2023 handbook points to New Jersey Transit and Garden State Coachways buses and Amtrak.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Fairton?

Men at FCI Fairton make monitored calls through the Bureau’s telephone system and send email through TRULINCS. The Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, cap calls at 510 minutes a calendar month: men eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives get 300 of them free, and any man who exhausts 300 minutes, eligible or not, may buy 210 more. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, with at least 30 minutes between calls, and unmonitored legal calls do not count against the cap. See our guide to federal prison phone calls.

Fairton’s 2023 handbook, which predates that statement, sets FCI telephone hours at 6:00 to 7:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to noon and 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays; the camp’s evenings end at 9:30 p.m. It allows 20 numbers on a list, where PS 5264.09 says 30 should meet most needs. Where the two differ, the 2026 program statement controls.

A new arrival gets a personal access number by mail and cannot call until his voice is recorded. Unmonitored calls with a lawyer are arranged through the unit team, and Fairton’s legal activities supplement allows them when mail and legal visits are shown to be inadequate. For pretrial and holdover prisoners, PS 5264.09 lets the Warden allow collect calls for good cause and says its hour limits should not be imposed in pretrial or holdover units where prisoners are not required to work.

TRULINCS email costs 5 cents a minute, bought in blocks from 40 to 600 minutes, and printing costs 15 cents a page. FCI terminals are in every housing unit except the Special Housing Unit, and the camp’s are in the common area next to the dining hall. The Bureau’s pretrial legal-access handbook warns that email with a lawyer is not confidential. See our CorrLinks and TRULINCS guide.

What can people buy at the FCI Fairton commissary?

The FCI Fairton commissary sells food, hygiene products, over-the-counter medicine, shoes, radios, watches, stamps and a tablet, up to a national spending limit of $460 a month. The Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, raised the limit from $360; during the November and December holiday period it rises by $50, for no more than one validation period. See our guide to commissary in federal prison.

Fairton’s handbook still says $320 and says only stamps and over-the-counter medications fall outside the limit; both statements are out of date. Under PS 4500.13 the only exclusions are postage stamps, nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges, over-the-counter medications, medical products and vitamins, kosher and halal shelf-stable entrées for men in financial-responsibility refusal status, copy cards and paper, footwear, mattresses and a secured media device. Telephone credit is not on that list.

Men shop Monday through Thursday on their unit’s assigned day, turning in the list between 6:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. the day before and bringing the numbered receipt and an ID card. The monthly limit resets on a date set by the fifth digit of the register number: three times that digit, plus one. Radios, watches and footwear need a counselor’s form first. Fairton’s 2023 order form prints no limit and its prices are out of date, but it shows what the shelves hold:

Item	Price on the 2023 form	Limit on the form
Tablet	$118.30	None printed
Sangean DT-120 radio	$52.00	None printed
Swintec 1045 typewriter ribbon	$7.85	None printed
Omeprazole (acid reducer)	$15.75	None printed
Book of stamps	$12.00	One per shopping visit
Photo tickets	$1.00	Eight per shopping visit
Ramen	$0.50	24 per flavor
Kosher beef, chicken or fish meal	$7.10 to $7.75	12 of each
Soda	Not printed	Two 12-packs in total

What programs are available at FCI Fairton?

FCI Fairton offers a residential drug abuse program at the FCI, required schooling, jobs and a psychology department, but the Bureau’s records disagree on several programs, including the two halves of the First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (2026). A program the guide says “may be offered at all BOP institutions” has permission to run anywhere, not proof that it meets at Fairton; where the guide’s program descriptions and its by-institution matrix conflict, get the unit team’s answer in writing. Approved programs are how eligible men earn First Step Act time credits.

RDAP and drug treatment

FCI Fairton has a Residential Drug Abuse Program at the FCI. The RDAP list in the 2026 guide, which counts “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations,” names “FCI Fairton (NJ)” but no program at the camp, so a camp resident should ask the unit team where he would take it. Fairton’s handbook describes a program that typically lasts nine months, run as a modified therapeutic community on treatment unit D-L. A man who voices interest at his psychology intake is referred automatically; otherwise questions go to the TRULINCS mailbox FAI/InmateToDAP or on a written request, because drug-treatment staff hold no open house. The Bureau’s treatment program rules and our RDAP explainer cover the national program.

The handbook also lists a 12-hour Drug Abuse Education course and a weekly non-residential program that pays up to $30 on completion. For a man convicted of a nonviolent offense who completes RDAP, the Bureau may cut the sentence by no more than one year under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B), screening eligibility against the offense list in the Bureau’s Categorization of Offenses statement, Program Statement 5162.07 (2026). See our guide to RDAP and early release.

Sex offender treatment: the records disagree

Bureau records disagree on whether the Non-Residential Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP-NR) runs at FCI Fairton. The guide’s own program description says it is “available in nine institutions” and names FMC Carswell (for women), FCI Elkton, FCI Englewood, FCI Marianna, FCI Marion, FCI Milan, FCI Petersburg Medium, FCI Seagoville and USP Tucson. Fairton is not among them. The guide’s by-institution matrix marks Fairton for the program and does not mark Petersburg Medium.

Fairton’s own paperwork points the other way: its January 2025 PREA audit says that “due to the FCI Fairton’s mission of providing sex offender treatment programs, most inmates had prior convictions for sex offenses against adults and children.” The Bureau’s 2017 Directory of National Programs placed the non-residential program at eight institutions, none of them Fairton. A man who needs this treatment should ask, in a written request, whether SOTP-NR is meeting at Fairton now, whether there is a waiting list and whether he would have to transfer. The guide says participation is voluntary and ordinarily falls in the last 36 to 48 months of a sentence. The national rules are in the Bureau’s sex offender program statement; see also our guide to sex offender treatment in federal prison.

Work, education and vocational training

Every medically cleared new arrival works in Food Service for his first 90 days before moving to a permanent job or training. The handbook lists pay of 12 to 40 cents an hour across four grades, and a man without a high school diploma or GED cannot rise above grade 4.

Factory work pays 23 cents to $1.15 an hour in the handbook, but the factory’s records disagree too. The 2026 guide’s description of Federal Prison Industries names 54 institutions and not Fairton, although its matrix marks Fairton. Other Bureau records disagree with that description: Fairton’s 2023 handbook reports “an operational box program at our UNICOR factory,” and the Bureau’s 2017 directory placed Federal Prison Industries at Fairton. In 2013 the D.C. Corrections Information Council found the factory making electronics and cables for the Department of Defense, and plates, spoons and forks for Bureau use. Ask whether the factory is hiring before counting on a UNICOR job; pay rules are in the Bureau’s work and performance pay statement.

School is compulsory for men without a verified high school diploma or GED, as are English classes for men who fail the proficiency test. College-level study is by correspondence or, in the handbook’s words, “the Cumberland Community College in-house program.” Fairton is not one of the sixteen institutions the 2026 guide names for Pell-funded post-secondary education, so do not assume federal aid is available here. More in our education guide.

For vocational training the most detailed account is old: in 2013 the Corrections Information Council recorded horticulture and K-9 training courses and Department of Labor apprenticeships in trades from HVAC to plumbing. The guide’s matrix also marks Fairton for technical certificate and degree programs, a matrix row with no matching program description. Ask the Education Department what runs now; see our vocational training guide.

Psychology and mental health

The Bureau’s 2024 care-level charts, republished by the D.C. Corrections Information Council in January 2025, rate FCI Fairton mental health care level 3 at the FCI and 2 at the camp, and medical care level 2 throughout; see the Bureau’s care level rules and our guide to care levels. A psychologist interviews every man new to the Bureau within his first two weeks, and treatment is mostly in groups. In 2013 the Council found a Care Level 3 mental health unit of no more than seven men and a department without the staff to offer trauma therapy to all who needed it.

The guide’s matrix marks Fairton for the Mental Health Inmate Companion Program, one of only five institutions the matrix marks for that program, and for dialectical behavior therapy, but the program descriptions behind those matrix rows say only that the programs may be offered anywhere. Ask Psychology Services what is running; see our guide to mental health programs.

Faith-based and reentry programming

Staff chaplains and contract and volunteer leaders of other faiths run religious programs, and the Council counted 17 in 2013. Life Connections, the Bureau’s residential faith-based reentry program, is another disagreement: the guide’s description names FMC Carswell, FCI Milan, USP Terre Haute, FCI Fort Dix and FCI Greenville, and not Fairton, while its matrix marks Fairton. The Inspector General’s February 2026 menu audit found that 71 percent of the certified religious meals it tested from a week of Fairton’s menus lacked documentation of required vegetables, while noting that missing paperwork does not necessarily mean missing food. See our guide to religious programs.

What does Fairton’s legal activities supplement say?

Fairton’s legal activities supplement sets local rules for the law library, legal copies, electronic discovery and attorney visits at the FCI and the camp. The “Legal Activities” link on the Bureau’s Fairton page opens Institution Supplement FAI 1315.07O (2025), signed by Warden L.B. Kelly. Its number ties it to PS 1315.07, which the Bureau’s legal activities rules, Program Statement 1315.08, replaced in May 2026; where the two differ, the program statement controls.

The electronic law library is in the FCI’s Education Department, with terminals at the camp and in the Special Housing Unit. Men use it in their own time, though a man facing an imminent court deadline can ask for the Associate Warden for Programs’ permission to use it during work hours. Legal copies come from a key-card photocopier, and men in the Special Housing Unit pay 15 cents a page. Men may help each other in the law library, but no one may hold another prisoner’s legal papers.

Electronic discovery is accepted only if the man’s legal representative mails it; the unit team checks the contents, staff keep the media in the Education Department, and Education staff issue it to him at the access computer there and log its return. PS 1315.08 accepts e-discovery from the man’s attorney or a U.S. Attorney’s Office, read-only, on an external hard drive or USB drive but not on CDs or DVDs, with the Warden’s prior approval on form BP-A1155, so lawyers should use that form and confirm Fairton’s procedure first.

An attorney already on a man’s visiting list may visit during normal hours without calling ahead; others must arrange the visit with the unit team or write to the Warden. The visiting supplement asks attorneys to call the case manager or counselor 24 hours ahead, assigns the FCI’s private rooms first come, first served, and bars khaki pants. Paralegals and investigators need the Associate Warden for Programs’ approval and a records check; the supplement still cites “Attachment F” of the rescinded statement, where PS 1315.08 now uses forms BP-A0242 and BP-A0243. See our guide to attorney-client communications.

If a disruption stops a legal visit, both supplements call for a next-day reschedule and a telephone or video option, which the visiting supplement reserves for disruptions lasting multiple days. PS 1315.08 requires alternative legal access once a disruption passes 24 hours and, at facilities housing pretrial inmates, notice to the local Federal Public Defender, the district court and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

What is daily life like at FCI Fairton?

Daily life at FCI Fairton runs on a fixed weekday schedule of counts, meals, work hours and pill lines. Fairton’s 2023 handbook sets the rhythm below; weekends and holidays swap breakfast and lunch for a coffee hour and brunch.

Time	What happens
Midnight, 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.	Official counts
6:00 to 7:00 a.m.	Breakfast, with units called in rotation
6:15 a.m.	Pill line, the only one factory workers may attend
6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Work hours, in khaki
10:30 a.m., weekends and holidays	Stand-up count (the May 2025 visiting supplement gives 10:00 a.m.)
11:00 a.m. to noon	Lunch; brunch on weekends and holidays
4:00 p.m.	Stand-up count; dinner once it clears
5:00 p.m.	Evening pill line
9:15 p.m.	Men in their cells for the night
9:30 p.m.	Count, with cells locked

The FCI houses men in cells. When the Corrections Information Council inspected in March 2013, each of the four units had 170 cells and eight showers, with two, three, six or eight men to a cell; the 2025 PREA audit form records no single-cell housing units and 48 segregation cells. Recreation runs from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily, and the Council wrote in 2013 that “Fairton has the largest recreation field of any prison facility in the Northeast.” Weddings are held once a year, in June, as Fairfield Township’s officials allow, at the man’s own expense. See the Bureau’s recreation rules and our guide to prison recreation.

The handbook says the health services unit is accredited by the Joint Commission and staffed from early morning until 8:30 or 10:00 p.m., with a practitioner on call otherwise and 911 for emergencies. Sick call starts with a form placed in the box by the pharmacy between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and the appointment can be anywhere from a day to two weeks away; it appears on the call-out list the evening before, and missing it is a disciplinary matter. A visit a man requests usually costs $2, waived for men who have not had $6 in their account for the past 30 days. Refills must be requested at least three working days before they run out. More in the Bureau’s patient care rules and our guide to medical care.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Fairton?

FCI Fairton’s most recent outside review was a PREA audit in December 2024; the D.C. Corrections Information Council last inspected conditions there in March 2013, and the Justice Department’s Inspector General has looked at the prison only within Bureau-wide reviews. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility.

The Inspector General

Inspector General staff have been inside Fairton, but not to inspect it. For Criminal Calls, its August 1999 review of the Bureau’s management of prisoners’ telephone privileges, the OIG visited nine institutions in 1998, Fairton among them, when Fairton held 1,150 men. For its April 2004 review of how the Bureau selects Muslim religious-services providers, OIG staff visited Fairton, examined its chaplaincy program and observed Muslim services. The February 2026 National Menu audit (Report 26-021) reviewed a week of Fairton’s as-served menus on paper; its team observed meals only at FCI Atlanta. The Inspector General’s own count of its unannounced inspections, 14 Bureau institutions since 2023 as of its May 2026 report on USP Canaan (Report 26-055), does not include Fairton.

The D.C. Corrections Information Council, 2013

The Council, which monitors conditions for people convicted under the District of Columbia Code, inspected Fairton with a site visit on March 5, 2013 and published its report on February 28, 2014, so its findings describe the prison of 2013. It interviewed 27 randomly selected D.C. prisoners out of the 211 held there, and the Bureau’s July 2013 data put 1,368 men in the FCI and 1,489 in all, with 285 staff.

The Council said it was “impressed” with Fairton’s innovative practices for D.C. prisoners and recommended a video visitation pilot. It also urged an investigation of medical care, the largest concern in its interviews and in the grievance data: from October 2012 to September 2013, prisoners filed 53 first-level medical grievances, second only to the 65 about unit discipline committee actions. Bureau incident data for August 2012 through August 2013 recorded five institution lockdowns, 15 assaults on staff and nine on prisoners. No Bureau response was published with the report.

The 2025 PREA audit

Cassandra McGilbra of Corrections Consulting Services audited Fairton under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on December 3–5, 2024, and the final report of January 13, 2025 found that Fairton exceeded four standards (115.13, 115.43, 115.65 and 115.68), met 41 and failed none. The auditor toured every housing unit, the jail units and the camp, interviewed 30 prisoners, and recorded that prisoners “reported overall satisfaction with the facility, often comparing it favorably to other BOP facilities.” The Bureau’s Fairton page links this report. An older audit, by Dr. Valerie Wolfe Mahfood after an on-site visit on December 7–9, 2021, is superseded. The national rules are in the Bureau’s sexual abuse prevention statement.

On December 3, 2024, the first day of the visit, the audit counted 743 men at the main facility and 58 at the camp, including 39 who identify as transgender or intersex and 133 who had disclosed prior sexual victimization during risk screening. For the prior 12 months it lists two allegations of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and none against staff, plus three allegations of sexual harassment by prisoners and five by staff; the auditor could not review the five staff cases, which the Bureau’s Office of Internal Affairs was still investigating. Forensic examinations take place at Inspira Medical Center in Vineland.

Sexual-abuse allegations in national data

GAO’s May 2026 report on sexual abuse in federal prisons (GAO-26-107343) lists, for Fairton, 30 allegations naming a prisoner as perpetrator for incidents in 2020 through 2024 (10, 9, 5, 1 and 5 by year) and 14 against Bureau employees reported in those years (2, 1, 1, 1 and 9). The tables count by different years, incident and report, from different systems, so they cannot be added. They are allegations, not findings; GAO found that most allegations reported nationally between 2014 and 2022 ended as unsubstantiated, meaning the evidence could not show whether the conduct happened, which is not the same as false. GAO did not adjust for size, so the numbers cannot rank prisons.

Staffing

The PREA audit holds the only recent published statement about Fairton’s staffing. Interviews with the warden and the administrative team, the auditor wrote, “confirmed that staffing has been challenging, but all shifts are adequately covered with overtime,” and the auditor saw enough staff in every area visited. The form counts 272 staff who may have contact with prisoners.

In the courts

Two recent Third Circuit decisions arose at Fairton. In Muniz v. United States, 149 F.4th 256 (3d Cir. 2025), a prisoner alleged that after his 2019 transfer to Fairton the medical director stopped his diabetes medication based on an earlier pre-diabetic reading, that staff shortages interrupted his wound care, and that his toe was amputated. Taking those allegations as true, the court held that his Eighth Amendment damages claim under Bivens could not proceed because he had access to the Bureau’s administrative remedy program, and it affirmed the dismissal; it noted that relief may remain where prison administrators thwart prisoners from using that program. Judge Restrepo, concurring, called the approach of the Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits “different and superior.”

In Romano v. Warden, FCI Fairton, No. 25-1876 (3d Cir. June 29, 2026), a non-precedential decision, the Bureau had placed a man on CARES Act home confinement in June 2022 and returned him to prison 27 days later without notice or a hearing. The District of New Jersey dismissed his habeas petition, holding that revocation of home confinement is not a cognizable claim under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. He was later released on a compassionate-release order, so the Third Circuit dismissed the appeal as moot and declined to vacate the district court’s judgment, deciding nothing about the merits.

FCI Fairton in the news

Recent news about FCI Fairton centers on the Bureau’s July 2026 closure announcement, which does not name it, Carmine Agnello’s sentence, George Santos’s stay and commutation, and a 2025 death after an altercation; older items concern deaths in 2021 and 2018 and the prosecutions of a correctional officer and the prison’s chief pharmacist. Newest first:

• July 1, 2026: The Bureau announces facility closures and operational changes. Fairton is not on the list.
• April 20, 2026: The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announces a 15-month sentence for Carmine Agnello, whom CBS News New York identifies as a grandson of John Gotti, for COVID-19 loan fraud; the locator now places him at Fairton.
• October 17, 2025: George Santos’s sentence is commuted, and the locator records his release the same day.
• September 17, 2025: NJ.com reports a letter in which Santos says he was put in solitary confinement at Fairton while the FBI investigated a threat against his life.
• July 25, 2025: Santos reports to Fairton; the Associated Press reports he will serve his sentence at the minimum-security camp.
• March 2025: Markis Nathan Rattling Leaf, register number 11745-273, dies after being found unresponsive on March 4 following what the Bureau’s release called a “perceived altercation”; staff “initiated life-saving measures” and the FBI was notified, NJ.com reported. The locator lists his death on March 5, 2025.
• January 11, 2021: The Bureau announces the death of Fred Keys, 57, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in December 2020 and was pronounced deceased by hospital staff on January 9, 2021; its release said Fairton then housed 889 men.
• February 2018: Salomon Hernandez-Vega, serving 77 months for illegal re-entry, is found unresponsive in his cell after what authorities called an “apparent altercation,” The Daily Journal reported; the locator lists his death on February 9, 2018.
• September 20, 2012: Former Fairton correctional officer Job Brown is sentenced to a year and a day for taking $3,600 in bribes to smuggle contraband in and out of the prison.
• August 17, 2010: The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey announces that Fairton’s chief pharmacist has pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the prison pharmacy for his own use.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Fairton

Problems at FCI Fairton: where we can help

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. can help with the problems that recur in FCI Fairton’s own record, and several of them run on deadlines:

• Medical care. It was the leading concern in the 2013 inspection, and in a 2025 Fairton diabetes case the Third Circuit held that access to the Bureau’s administrative remedy program foreclosed the prisoner’s constitutional damages claim. Use the administrative remedy process and keep copies: under 28 C.F.R. §§ 542.14–.15 a BP-9 is due within 20 calendar days of the event, with 20 days after the Warden’s response to appeal to the region and 30 after the regional response to appeal to the Central Office. Negligent care can support a Federal Tort Claims Act claim, which must be presented in writing within two years under 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) and the Bureau’s tort claim rules.
• The camp. Its count rose from 58 in December 2024 to 71 as of September 2026, and the Bureau’s May 2026 initiative moves eligible men with a halfway-house or home-confinement date to camps. Security points, a Public Safety Factor or a Management Variable can be contested with the unit team and through the remedy program.
• Programs the records disagree about. Sex offender treatment, UNICOR jobs and Life Connections carry contradictory Bureau records for Fairton; get the unit team’s answer in writing. See early release from federal prison and our First Step Act time credit work.
• Home confinement and halfway houses. Romano involved a placement revoked within a month and a district court holding that the revocation could not be challenged under § 2241. See home confinement and halfway houses.
• Pretrial and holdover confinement, with its own work, telephone and legal-access rules.
• The Special Housing Unit and discipline. Visits from the unit are limited, and the handbook’s sanction tables let a disciplinary finding cost good conduct time; see SHU placement, disciplinary proceedings and the Bureau’s discipline program.
• Sentence reductions and post-conviction relief. Romano left prison on a compassionate release motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), which ordinarily begins with a request to the Warden under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules. Credit errors under the Bureau’s sentence computation manual call for a sentence computation challenge, and the conviction or sentence itself can be challenged through § 2255 motions and federal appeals.

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 Fairton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with addresses, contact details, population and mail blocks.
• Institution Supplement FAI 5267.09F, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fairton, 2025. Visiting days and hours, points, dress code, visits for men in the Special Housing Unit and legal visits.
• Institution Supplement FAI 1315.07O, Legal Activities, Inmate, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fairton, 2025. Law library, legal copies, electronic discovery and attorney visits.
• FCI Fairton Inmate Information Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fairton, 2023. Housing, daily schedule, mail, telephone, commissary, programs, work and health services.
• FCI Fairton Commissary Ordering Form, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fairton, 2023. Items stocked and prices as printed; no spending limit stated.
• Suplemento Institucional FAI 5267.08G, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Fairton, 2012. The superseded Spanish-language visiting supplement.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 1315.07.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the $460 commissary spending limit and the items excluded from it.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026. Security levels, custody, Public Safety Factors and security points.
• Categorization of Offenses, Program Statement 5162.07, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The 510-minute monthly limit, call length and telephone lists.
• Sex Offender Programs, Program Statement 5324.10, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2013, as amended in 2025.
• Pretrial Inmates, Program Statement 7331.05, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023, as amended in 2025. Replaced Program Statement 7331.04 (2003).
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Program descriptions, the by-institution matrix and the RDAP locations list.
• Directory of National Programs, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2017.
• Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Undated. Lists the institutions that hold pretrial detainees and warns that email with a lawyer is not confidential.
• 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.
• Community Ties, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s instructions for sending money by mail, Western Union and MoneyGram.
• Strategic Expansion of Minimum-Security Camp Utilization, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Moving eligible people with a halfway-house or home-confinement date to camps.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Death at FCI Fairton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2021. The release reporting the death of Fred Keys.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FCI Fairton, Corrections Consulting Services, 2025. On-site audit of December 3–5, 2024, by Cassandra McGilbra.
• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Report 26-055, with the Inspector General’s count of its unannounced inspections.
• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Report GAO-26-107343, with allegation counts by institution.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Documentation of Its Compliance with Select National Menu Requirements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Report 26-021.
• PREA Audit Report: FCI Fairton, PREA Auditors of America, 2022. On-site audit of December 7–9, 2021, by Dr. Valerie Wolfe Mahfood; superseded.
• FCI Fairton Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2014. Site visit of March 5, 2013.
• A Review of the Bureau of Prisons’ Selection of Muslim Religious Services Providers, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2004.
• 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.

Court records

• Romano v. Warden, FCI Fairton, No. 25-1876, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2026. Not precedential.
• Long Island Man Sentenced to Prison for $1 Million Covid-19 Fraud, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, 2026. Carmine Agnello’s sentence.
• Muniz v. United States, 149 F.4th 256, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 2025.
• Former U.S. Senator Robert Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Bribery, Foreign Agent, and Other Offenses, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, 2025. Also Fred Daibes’s sentence.
• Lamor Whitehead, Brooklyn Church Leader, Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Fraud, Extortion, and Lying to Federal Agents, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, 2024. Lamor Whitehead’s sentence.
• Six Former Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Sentenced for Torturing and Abusing Two Black Men, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, 2024. Christian Dedmon’s sentence.
• Former Army Ranger Bank Robber Resentenced to 31 Years in Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, 2022. Luke Elliott Sommer’s resentencing.
• Member of Lucchese Organized Crime Family Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Racketeering and Other Crimes, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, 2015. Nicodemo S. Scarfo’s sentence.
• Former Federal Corrections Officer Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Receiving Bribes, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, 2012. Job Brown’s sentence; posted by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
• Former Federal Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Receiving Bribes, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, 2012. Job Brown’s guilty plea; posted by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
• Federal Prison Pharmacist Admits Stealing Drugs from FCI Fairton Prison Pharmacy for Personal Use, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, 2010. Posted by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

News and other sources

• John Gotti’s Grandson Carmine Agnello Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for COVID Fraud, CBS News New York, 2026.
• Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump (2025–Present), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney, 2026. Includes George Santos’s commutation.
• Ex-Rep. George Santos Says Death Threat Has Left Him in Solitary Confinement at N.J. Prison, NJ.com, as published by Corrections1, 2025.
• Ex-US Rep. George Santos Reports to N.J. Federal Prison to Serve 7-Year Fraud Sentence, Associated Press, as published by Corrections1, 2025.
• Inmate Dies After He’s Stabbed Through the Eye with Pencil in N.J. Prison, NJ.com, 2025.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Institutions and Their Distance, Security, Health, and Mental Health Levels, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2025. Republishes the Bureau’s care-level charts.
• Inmate Dies at Fairton NJ Prison After Altercation, The Daily Journal, 2018.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), Imposition of a sentence of imprisonment, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), (e)(2)(B), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 110, New Jersey, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Power to grant writ, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b), Time for commencing action against United States, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.71, Procedures, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute). Where publications may come from, by security level.
• 28 C.F.R. §§ 542.14–.15, Administrative Remedy, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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