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Federal Prisons in New York

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

Federal prisons in New York at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs three institutions in New York, one of them with a satellite camp, holding 3,045 people as of September 2026. All three sit in the Bureau’s Northeast Region, which is run from Philadelphia.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FCI OtisvilleFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen845Camp: 91OtisvilleSouthern District of New York
FCI Ray BrookFederal Correctional Institution · MediumMen843—Ray BrookNorthern District of New York
MDC BrooklynMetropolitan Detention Center · AdministrativeMen and women1,266—BrooklynEastern District of New York
Total3 institutions2,95491
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

A fourth New York address families still search for is off the roster: the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, closed since 2021.

How many federal prisons are in New York?

Three, on the Bureau of Prisons roster, which is the list this page counts from. Two are medium-security institutions for men, FCI Otisville and FCI Ray Brook; the third, MDC Brooklyn, is an administrative-security detention center holding men and women. Only Otisville has a satellite camp, counted inside its row rather than as a prison of its own. The state has no penitentiary, no medical center, no free-standing camp and no complex. Levels are explained in our guide to security levels, and the wider picture in the Bureau of Prisons directory.

What is each federal prison in New York like?

Each of the three, in the order the table lists them.

FCI Otisville

Medium security for men on Two Mile Drive in Orange County, with a satellite camp beside it. No federal prison is discussed more for one thing — its certified religious diet and its observant Jewish population — and that reputation runs ahead of what the Bureau’s documents support. Two local traps: the camp visits on odd and even weekends, and a New York State prison of nearly the same name stands in the village. See FCI Otisville.

FCI Ray Brook

Medium security for men in the Adirondacks between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, and the one New York institution without a camp. Its buildings went up to house athletes at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games and were dedicated as a prison seven months after the closing ceremony. It runs no Residential Drug Abuse Program, which makes the § 3621(e) reduction a transfer question. See FCI Ray Brook.

MDC Brooklyn

A detention center on the Brooklyn waterfront holding men and women, and the Bureau’s only jail in the city since the Manhattan one shut. Its district record is unusual: the Bureau prints the Eastern District of New York and adds that the jail also serves the Southern District, so people detained by judges sitting in Brooklyn and in Manhattan share one building and one set of rules. See MDC Brooklyn.

Which federal prisons in New York hold women?

One of the three. MDC Brooklyn is the only New York institution the roster records as holding men and women; Otisville, its camp and Ray Brook are recorded as male. With no federal institution here for sentenced women, that jail is the only New York address the roster gives. Programs and placement are covered in our guide to women’s federal prisons.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees New York?

The Northeast Regional Office, in Philadelphia. All three New York institutions are in the Bureau’s Northeast Region, which a family meets one step above the warden: Program Statement 1330.18 provides at pp. 6–7 that an inmate dissatisfied with the warden’s answer “may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-10) to the appropriate Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response.” The step before it is our guide to filing a BP-9.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from New York?

Two offices, divided by judicial district. New York holds four federal judicial districts — Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western — under 28 U.S.C. § 112. The Bureau’s page for RRM New York prints the Southern and Eastern Districts; its page for RRM Pittsburgh, a Northeast Region office over the state line, prints Northern and Western New York. All four appear once, none twice and none left out.

Placement follows the release district, not the prison’s. Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden, where significant doubt exists about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” A man at Ray Brook going home to Buffalo is an RRM Pittsburgh matter. Timing is on our page about federal halfway houses.

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

Finding someone is one search across the whole Bureau, not a New York search. The inmate locator takes a register number, or a first and a last name together, and names the institution and what kind of facility it is. Once a release date is recorded, the screen prints that instead.

Letters need the exact block the institution publishes, and the three differ: mail for the Brooklyn jail goes to a post office box, not the building on the waterfront. Each facility page carries the block as published. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting is governed by each institution’s own supplement; there is no state-wide schedule. The Brooklyn jail limits a pretrial visiting list to documented immediate family. See visitation.

Money reaches an account through national channels: the lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that funds sent that way 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 New York are closing or have closed?

None of the three is closing. The Bureau’s July 1, 2026 closure announcement named six institutions, none of them here, and the September 18, 2026 roster snapshot carries no closure notice.

One has closed and keeps a historical page here: MCC New York, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The Justice Department’s Inspector General records at n.1 of its Capstone Review of the Bureau’s coronavirus response (Report 23-054, March 2023) that “In August 2021, the Department announced that it was closing MCC New York, at least temporarily, to assess steps to improve conditions at the facility.” The pattern is in our explainer on major federal prison closures.

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

Three, on the roster snapshot behind this page: two medium-security institutions for men, FCI Otisville and FCI Ray Brook, and one administrative-security detention center in Brooklyn holding men and women. Otisville also carries a satellite camp, which the Bureau counts inside that institution rather than separately.

What is the largest federal prison in New York by population?

MDC Brooklyn, at 1,266 people as of September 2026. It is a detention center, not a sentenced prison, and has no satellite camp, so that figure covers everyone the Bureau reports there. FCI Otisville is next at 845, its camp on a separate line.

Does New York have a high-security federal penitentiary?

No. The Bureau runs no United States Penitentiary in the state and rates none of the three institutions high security. Otisville and Ray Brook are medium. Brooklyn is administrative, the category used for a detention or medical mission rather than a rung on the security ladder.

Where are women held in federal custody in New York?

At MDC Brooklyn, and nowhere else in the state. The roster records that jail as holding men and women, and records FCI Otisville, its camp and FCI Ray Brook as male. New York has no federal institution for sentenced women.

Where are pretrial federal detainees held in New York?

MDC Brooklyn is the Bureau’s detention center here, and most people inside it have not been sentenced. The Bureau prints the Eastern District of New York as its judicial district and adds that the jail also serves the Southern District, so detainees from courts in Brooklyn and Manhattan share a building.

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

One of two, decided by the district a person is going home to. The Bureau’s page for RRM New York prints the Southern and Eastern Districts; its page for RRM Pittsburgh prints Northern New York and Western New York. The release district settles it, not the prison.

Can someone ask to be designated to a federal prison in New York?

A request can be made, and a sentencing judge can recommend one, but the Bureau decides. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau must place a prisoner, subject to bed availability and the other listed factors, “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 New York federal prison?

Three problems recur at New York’s institutions, each on the facility pages’ own record. Conditions: MDC Brooklyn has an Inspector General inspection report of its own, and the Bureau stood up a Brooklyn Urgent Action Team for that jail alone, described in its September 2024 fact sheet, so an argument about conditions there rests on a documented record and belongs among the problems we work on inside. Programs: neither Otisville nor Ray Brook runs the Residential Drug Abuse Program, so drug-treatment and First Step Act time credit questions turn into designation and transfer questions, which is early release work. Distance: a designation from the city to the Adirondacks becomes a visiting problem first.

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

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

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Audits and inspections

Court records and statutes

  • 28 U.S.C. § 112, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. The four New York districts.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 3621, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Designation at § 3621(b).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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

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