FCI Elkton Federal Prison: Visiting, Mail, Programs

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

FCI Elkton at a glance

FCI Elkton is a low-security federal prison for men in Columbiana County, Ohio, with a Federal Satellite Low beside it and no camp. It held 2,099 people as of September 2026: 1,626 at the main institution and 473 at the satellite low.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Elkton
BOP code	ELK
Security level	Low; men · adjacent Federal Satellite Low, also low security
Population	2,099 (as of September 2026) · FCI 1,626 · FSL 473
Visiting	Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · Friday evenings disputed · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · Unit · FCI Elkton · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 10 · Lisbon, OH 44432 FSL: Inmate Name & Register Number · Unit · FSL Elkton · Federal Satellite Low · P.O. Box 10 · Lisbon, OH 44432
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC)
Phone	330-420-6200 · Fax 330-420-6436
Street address	8730 Scroggs Road, Lisbon, OH 44432 · Elkrun Township, Columbiana County
Judicial district	Northern District of Ohio
BOP region	Northeast
Designated capacity	2,048
Housing	Multiple-occupancy cells and open-bay dormitories; no single-cell units
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 146 segregation cells
RDAP	Yes
Sex offender treatment	Yes · Sex Offender Management Program; non-residential treatment at the FSL
UNICOR	See UNICOR
Camp	No

Its mailing town is Lisbon, its township is Elkrun, and it is one of the federal prisons in Ohio, under the Bureau’s Northeast Region and the Northern District of Ohio. Elkton is also the one federal prison whose pandemic conditions produced a published circuit decision, two Supreme Court applications and a rule on habeas jurisdiction on which the circuits still divide.

Elkton has a satellite low, not a camp

There is no prison camp at FCI Elkton. The Bureau’s roster lists a satellite low and no camp, and the facility page describes the place in one line as “a low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent low security satellite prison.” Directory listings and local reporting that call the second facility a camp are mistaken, and the difference is not cosmetic.

A Federal Satellite Low is a low-security institution in its own right, with a perimeter, a compound, its own visiting room and its own staff. A camp is minimum security with no fence at all. The Inspector General listed the Bureau’s satellite lows in a 2018 contract audit and there were four: “The BOP has FSLs at FCI Danbury; FCI Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio; FCI La Tuna in Anthony, Texas; and FCI Jesup in Jesup, Georgia.” Today the Bureau’s own roster flags only two, Elkton and Jesup. The Sixth Circuit, deciding this prison’s best-known case, called the petitioners inmates “housed in the low-security Elkton Federal Correctional Institution and its satellite facility FSL Elkton,” and an Inspector General evaluation from January 2003 already tabulated “Elkton FCI” and “Elkton FSL” as separate rows.

So a designation to FSL Elkton is a designation to a low, not to a camp, and the security-point arithmetic that gets someone there is not the arithmetic that gets someone to a camp. A family told that a relative is going to “the camp at Elkton” should plan for a low-security institution; see the Bureau’s security designation rules.

What the FSL publishes, and what it does not

The satellite low publishes no documents of its own; the FCI’s documents cover it. The facility page’s own resources panel lists six documents and none of them is the satellite low’s. The visiting supplement says its procedures “apply to all inmates housed at FCI Elkton and FSL Elkton,” the handbook carries separate FSL schedules throughout, and the 2026 auditor recorded touring the whole facility “including the Federal Satellite Low (FSL).” Elkton does publish a Spanish visiting supplement and a Spanish handbook. It publishes no institution supplement on legal activities, which is ordinary rather than notable: of the Bureau’s 118 institution pages, 104 offer the national legal activities rules, Program Statement 1315.08, under that heading and only 14 a supplement of their own.

Elkton, Lisbon and a ZIP code that will misroute your GPS

The prison is named for the village of Elkton, sits in Elkrun Township, and takes its mail at Lisbon. Its own visiting supplement gives the address as “8730 Scroggs Rd., Elkton, Ohio, 44415” and its letterhead reads “ELKTON, OHIO 44415.” The Bureau’s roster, the 2026 PREA audit and the facility page all say Lisbon, OH 44432. Type 44415 into a navigation app and you will be routed to the village. Use 8730 Scroggs Road, Lisbon, OH 44432.

What is the security level at FCI Elkton?

FCI Elkton and its satellite low are both low-security institutions. The main institution and the satellite low carry the same designation; what differs is the compound, the housing and the programming, not the level. The 2026 PREA audit records the custody levels held here as minimum, low, in, out and community — the minimum-custody people are inside the FSL, because there is no camp for them to be in.

The audit also describes the physical plant. Twenty buildings. No single-cell housing units at all. Seventeen multiple-occupancy cell units, sixteen open-bay dormitory units, and 146 segregation cells. Those counts do not reconcile with the same form’s answer of nine inmate housing units, and both figures are printed on the same document. What is not in doubt is the mixture — Elkton houses people in cells and in open dormitories, and no one in a single cell.

Which side of the campus someone lands on turns on the security point score and on any Public Safety Factor, which sits on top of the points and is what keeps a low-scoring person behind the main fence rather than at the satellite low. See the intake process and preparing for prison. Elkton’s handbook adds a local detail: a complete physical examination is mandatory within fourteen days of arrival.

What happened at FCI Elkton during COVID-19?

FCI Elkton had one of the earliest and worst federal COVID-19 outbreaks, and the class litigation that followed produced a Sixth Circuit rule on habeas jurisdiction but no final ruling on conditions. On April 13, 2020 four men at FCI Elkton and FSL Elkton petitioned under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on behalf of everyone held there and of a medically vulnerable subclass, asking to be released because, they said, no set of conditions inside a dormitory prison could protect them. The case went to Judge James S. Gwin in the Northern District of Ohio, sitting at Youngstown, as No. 4:20-cv-00794.

What the district court ordered

On April 22, 2020 Judge Gwin granted a preliminary injunction, reported at 455 F. Supp. 3d 467. He gave the Bureau one day to identify every member of the medically vulnerable subclass and two weeks to evaluate each of them for transfer out of Elkton — by compassionate release, parole or community supervision, transfer or non-transfer furlough, or a move to a facility where distancing was possible. On May 19, 2020, finding that little had happened, he granted a motion to enforce and directed the Bureau to make full use of its home-confinement authority beyond what he called the paltry grants it had already issued. That order is at 2020 WL 2542131.

What the Sixth Circuit held

On June 9, 2020, four days after argument, the Sixth Circuit decided Wilson v. Williams, 961 F.3d 829 (No. 20-3447). Judge Julia Smith Gibbons wrote for the court, joined by Judge Cook and joined in part by Chief Judge Cole, who dissented in part. The decision has two holdings.

The petitioners won on jurisdiction. “To the extent petitioners argue the alleged unconstitutional conditions of their confinement can be remedied only by release, 28 U.S.C. § 2241 conferred upon the district court jurisdiction to consider the petition.” The rule, as the court put it: “where a petitioner claims that no set of conditions would be constitutionally sufficient[,] the claim should be construed as challenging the fact or extent, rather than the conditions, of the confinement.”

The Bureau won on the merits. The court held that the district court “erred in concluding that petitioners were likely to succeed on the merits of their Eighth Amendment claim,” making the injunction an abuse of discretion. The reasoning is narrow and tied to its date: petitioners were unlikely to succeed “because, as of April 22, the BOP responded reasonably to the known, serious risks posed by COVID-19 to petitioners at Elkton.” The case turned entirely on the subjective half of deliberate indifference: the Bureau had a six-phase plan, and under Farmer v. Brennan an official who responds reasonably is not deliberately indifferent even where the harm is ultimately not averted. The disposition is one sentence: “We accordingly vacate the district court’s April 22, 2020 preliminary injunction.” There was no remand in it, and no holding that conditions at Elkton were lawful at any date other than the one on the record.

The opinion is also the fullest account of what April 2020 looked like inside this prison. As of April 22, fifty-nine incarcerated men and forty-six staff had tested positive and six men had died. Elkton had been sent fifty-five testing swabs to cover the whole institution and had eighteen left on April 15, plus one rapid-testing machine with twenty-five cassettes. People were issued two disposable masks with no way to clean them, and a weekly four-ounce bottle of soap.

Chief Judge Cole would have affirmed. His separate opinion recorded that the subclass came to 837 medically vulnerable people, that “groups of roughly 150 inmates continue to be housed together in close quarters,” and the comparison quoted ever since: on the Bureau’s own figures at the time, seventy-eight people had died of the virus in federal custody, “meaning that nearly 8% of all inmate deaths over three months occurred at Elkton — a low-security facility that houses less than 2% of all federal inmates — within the first month of the pandemic.” That is a dissent, not a holding.

What the Supreme Court did, and did not do

The Supreme Court decided two stay applications in the case and ruled on the merits in neither; both were submitted to Justice Sotomayor as Circuit Justice for the Sixth Circuit.

The first, No. 19A1041, was filed on May 20, 2020 and denied by the Court on May 26, 2020 on procedural grounds alone: the government had sought a stay only of the April 22 injunction, the district court had since issued the May 19 enforcement order, and the government had not sought review of that order in the Sixth Circuit. “Particularly in light of that procedural posture, the Court declines to stay the District Court’s April 22 preliminary injunction without prejudice to the Government seeking a new stay if circumstances warrant.” Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch would have granted it. The second, No. 19A1047, was docketed on June 1 after the government appealed the enforcement order, and it succeeded: the order of June 4, 2020 stayed “the District Court’s April 22 and May 19 orders … pending disposition of the Government’s appeal,” and the application was withdrawn on October 26, 2020. No Justice wrote on whether conditions at Elkton violated the Eighth Amendment, because that question was never before the Court.

How the case ended, and what it means at Elkton today

The case ended with a stipulated dismissal in May 2021 and no final judgment on conditions. On September 17, 2020 the Sixth Circuit vacated the May 19 enforcement order too, on the government’s motion for summary vacatur, and remanded: Wilson v. Williams, No. 20-3547, 2020 WL 9813537. The end came on the district court’s own docket, in three steps: the last two petitioners, Craig Wilson and Maximino Nieves, filed a stipulated notice of dismissal under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) on May 10, 2021; Judge Gwin approved it by marginal order on May 12; and the docket records the case terminated on May 13, 2021. No court ever entered a final judgment on whether conditions at Elkton were unconstitutional. The injunction was vacated; the claim was never decided.

What survives is the jurisdictional rule, and it is live law. The Second Circuit reached the same rule in July 2025 in Diaz v. Kopp, a state prisoner’s petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, holding “that, at least where a petitioner alleges unconstitutional conditions that are irremediable but for the release of the petitioner, such conditions of confinement claims are cognizable under habeas,” and citing Wilson at 838 for it. The Fifth Circuit has refused to follow it: in Rice v. Gonzalez, 985 F.3d 1069 (5th Cir. 2021), the court noted that Wilson so held “[b]ut this circuit’s precedential, published case law is otherwise.” The Ninth Circuit criticized it in Pinson v. Carvajal, 69 F.4th 1059 (9th Cir. 2023), where the panel called characterizing a cause of action by the relief requested, “as the Sixth Circuit did in Wilson,” contrary to basic precepts of our legal regime. No court has overruled or abrogated Wilson.

A conditions complaint that can be fixed inside the prison belongs in a civil action; a claim that nothing short of release will do is cognizable under § 2241 here. Nothing in Wilson decides a medical-care claim, a compassionate-release motion or a sentence computation, and nothing in it makes Elkton’s present conditions lawful or unlawful. The Elkton record reached the Fourth Circuit differently in United States v. Kibble, 992 F.3d 326 (4th Cir. 2021), where the court affirmed the denial of a compassionate-release motion. The district court there had found that the man’s health conditions in a high-spread facility amounted to extraordinary and compelling circumstances, which the government did not contest on appeal, and Chief Judge Gregory’s concurrence counted the preliminary injunction Elkton was then under among the factors behind them.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Elkton?

The best-known person held at FCI Elkton is Larry Householder, the former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives; two men often listed as Elkton prisoners, Peter Gotti and Joseph Vas, have no Bureau record placing them there.

Name	Status (September 2026)	Case
Larry Householder	Currently held at FCI Elkton. Register number 79002-061; projected release July 13, 2039	Former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, convicted of racketeering conspiracy in the House Bill 6 nuclear-subsidy case and sentenced in June 2023 to twenty years
Matthew Borges	Not at Elkton. Bureau records place him at the Cincinnati residential reentry office, register number 79004-061, projected release November 12, 2026	Former Ohio Republican Party chairman, convicted in the same prosecution
Peter Gotti	Former — and not here. Bureau records show he died in custody on February 25, 2021 at FMC Butner, register number 99109-012	Gambino figure convicted of racketeering and extortion
Joseph Vas	Former — released February 24, 2017, from FCI Danbury, register number 30003-050	Former mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, convicted of corruption offenses

Peter Gotti, often listed as an Elkton prisoner “serving 25 years,” died in February 2021, and the Bureau’s record puts the death at FMC Butner — a different institution from FCI Butner Medium I, Medium II and Low on the same campus. Joseph Vas was released in February 2017 from FCI Danbury. No Bureau record places either man at Elkton.

A search tip: the Bureau carries Householder under his committed name, Larry; a locator search for “Lawrence Householder” returns nothing at all. The locator matches the name on the judgment, not the name in the newspaper.

How do I find someone at FCI Elkton?

To find someone at FCI Elkton, search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, which is free and open to anyone; our locator guide explains the search. A register number beats a name every time, and Householder’s record shows why: the locator matches the name on the judgment, not the name in the newspaper.

Read the answer carefully, because a location ending in “RRM” is a residential reentry office, not a prison: someone shown as “Located at: Cincinnati RRM” is on halfway-house or home-confinement status, which is where the locator now places Matthew Borges; see halfway houses and home confinement. An empty result usually means state custody, pretrial detention under the Marshals Service, or a judgment that spells the name differently. Our guide to how federal register numbers work sets out how the number is built.

How do I write to someone at FCI Elkton?

Mail for someone at FCI Elkton or FSL Elkton goes to P.O. Box 10, Lisbon, OH 44432, one box for both facilities. The handbook asks people to tell correspondents to put “the inmate’s registration number, unit and FCI Elkton, or FSL Elkton on the envelope to aid the prompt delivery of mail.”

For someone at the FCI	For someone at the FSL
Inmate Name & Register Number Unit FCI Elkton Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 10 Lisbon, OH 44432	Inmate Name & Register Number Unit FSL Elkton Federal Satellite Low P.O. Box 10 Lisbon, OH 44432

Incoming-mail rules stricter than the national ones

Elkton operates modified incoming-mail procedures that are not in any Bureau-wide correspondence policy, and mail that breaks them is rejected rather than delivered late.

• All incoming general correspondence envelopes and paper must be white.
• An envelope that is any other color, paper that is any other color, or anything containing glitter, stickers or lipstick, or that is stained or carries an oily substance, will be rejected.
• Postage stamps on incoming mail may be removed.
• Greeting cards must be commercially purchased and arrive in a white envelope. Homemade cards are not authorized — which means a card a child has drawn will not get in.
• None of this applies to properly marked legal or special mail.

Storage limits quietly cap how much you can send. A person at Elkton may keep five magazines, current newspapers, twenty-five letters, twenty-five photographs and five hardcover books, plus one picture frame bought from the commissary. Hardcover books and newspapers may only come from a publisher or a book club. Incoming packages need prior authorization and are ordinarily limited to release clothing.

Elkton’s white-paper rule has a sharp edge for lawyers. Properly marked legal mail is exempt and is opened in front of the client without being read — but the exemption depends on the sender being identified on the envelope and the face carrying the words “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate.” Drop the marking and the letter becomes general correspondence, which here means white paper in a white envelope or nothing. Our page on writing to someone in federal prison covers what gets rejected, and attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons covers the privilege. Never put money in a letter.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Elkton?

Money for someone at FCI Elkton goes to the Bureau’s central processing box in Des Moines or through Western Union, never to Scroggs Road. Elkton’s handbook sends deposits both ways, and both need the committed name and register number exactly as the Bureau has them.

Route	Where it goes	How fast it posts
Postal money order or other negotiable instrument	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	U.S. postal money orders post on receipt. Everything else carries a hold of at least fifteen days
Western Union Quick Collect	City code FBOP, state code DC. Agent locations 1-800-325-6000; by phone 1-800-634-3422, option 2; or online	Two to four hours, provided the transfer is sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern; the handbook says that window runs every day of the year, holidays included

Nothing but the money order goes in the envelope; the lockbox cannot forward a letter or a photograph. The handbook is blunt about a typo: “If an incorrect register number and/or name are used by the sender and accepted and posted to that inmate, funds may not be returned.” Two Elkton-specific points before wiring a large amount: the commissary ceiling caps what any of it buys in a month, and a withdrawal above $500 needs the Associate Warden for Programs or the Superintendent of Industries. Our page on sending money to a federal prisoner compares the costs.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Elkton?

Visiting at FCI Elkton runs on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; the 2018 visiting supplement also lists Friday evenings from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., which the 2022 handbook does not mention. Read both documents before you travel.

Document	Date	Visiting hours it gives
Institution Supplement ELK 5267.09, Visiting Regulations	August 30, 2018	Friday 5:00–9:00 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. — identical at the FCI and the FSL
FCI Elkton Inmate Information Handbook	2022	“Saturday, Sunday, and Federal Holidays, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.” No Friday evening visiting is mentioned

The handbook is four years newer and silent on Friday evenings; the supplement is the visiting policy the Bureau’s facility page links, and it has not been replaced. Call 330-420-6200 before you plan a Friday. Listings that add Monday and Thursday evenings are out of date; neither Bureau document mentions them.

Visitors are not processed after 2:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays, or after 8:00 p.m. on an evening visit, and a Special Housing Unit visit ends thirty minutes before regular visiting closes.

Who can visit, and how many

Elkton runs no visiting point system — the handbook says so in terms. It runs a register-number rotation instead.

• Weekend visits alternate by the fifth digit of the register number. The supplement’s worked example: “#12345-478 has a fifth digit of ‘5’ and would have visiting privileges on ‘odd’ weekends.” Zero counts as even. Friday evenings and holidays are open to everyone, which is what makes the Friday question matter.
• Up to twenty people may be on the visiting list, children included; changes are made quarterly through an Inmate Request to Staff.
• Six visitors at a time, children included. A seventh triggers a split visit: those not visiting must leave the grounds and may not wait in the parking lot, and only one interchange is allowed in a day.
• Anyone who is not immediate family needs a BP-A0629 mailed directly to the Counselor, an NCIC clearance, and proof of a relationship that predates the incarceration. Ask at least three weeks ahead.
• If the visiting room becomes crowded, local visits end first to make room for out-of-town visitors — and the supplement defines a local visitor as one who lives within a 75-mile radius of the institution, a radius that takes in both Youngstown and Pittsburgh.
• Anyone convicted of a sex offense involving a minor carries a flag in the visiting program, is escorted in, sits near the supervising officer and has a camera assigned by the control center. Given Elkton’s population, this affects a large share of visits.

What visitors can wear and bring

Nothing may be sexually suggestive or resemble inmate clothing. The supplement names the colors: gray sweatshirts or sweatpants, and khaki or orange matching the jumpsuits. Shorts and skirts above the knee, and form-fitting clothing, go to the duty officer before a visit is refused. Inmates themselves are issued a jumpsuit on entry to the FCI visiting room.

Everything else stays in the car, including watches of any type, large handbags, blankets, personal papers or legal documents, reading matter, chewing gum and pens; cell phones and pagers are not authorized anywhere on the grounds. You may carry a clear plastic container or bag no larger than a wallet, or a small clear change purse.

Two practical points. There is no cash in the visiting room: Elkton runs a debit-card system, a machine in the front lobby sells the cards, and money cannot be left with staff for an account. And nothing edible goes in except nitroglycerin tablets; inhalers and daily medications are held at the officer’s desk. Infant items are limited to a clear bag with wipes, a blanket, four diapers and two or three clear bottles, and children may not bring toys, books, dolls, crayons or games.

Identification and screening

Photo identification is required for everyone sixteen and over, and Elkton’s list is narrower than most people expect: a driver’s license, state identification card, INS card, military identification or passport, with foreign driver’s licenses expressly accepted. A credit card, store card, school identification, birth certificate, Social Security card or bank card will not do. Refusing any part of the metal-detector and property search means leaving the grounds, and coming back needs the Captain’s approval. See searches, shakedowns and contraband, the Bureau’s visiting regulations, and our guide to federal prison visitation.

Getting there

The institution sits on Scroggs Road in Elkrun Township, about twenty-five miles southwest of Youngstown and roughly fifty miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The Bureau’s own directions: from Interstate 80, take the exit for Route 11 south, take the Lisbon exit, turn left onto Route 154, then turn left onto Scroggs Road; the driveway is on the right.

The nearest airports are Pittsburgh International and Cleveland Hopkins International; the nearest bus station is the Greyhound station at 340 West Federal Street, Suite A, Youngstown. The handbook warns that from any of those points “additional transportation will be required as the institution is a distance from each of these arrival destinations,” and the supplement notes taxi services out of Lisbon, Salem and East Liverpool. There is no public transport to the gate. Budget for a car.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Elkton?

People at FCI Elkton can place calls but cannot receive them: Elkton runs the Inmate Telephone System on a nine-digit Personal Access Code with up to thirty approved numbers, funded by moving money across from the commissary account. The list can be changed once a month through TRULINCS, and the handbook records that both the code and the list travel with a person transferred to another Bureau institution.

Two local rules are stricter than the national ones: every call cuts off automatically at fifteen minutes, and a full hour must pass before the next one — double the thirty-minute national floor, which the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, permit an institution to lengthen; nationally, a single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes. That program statement, issued September 3, 2026, is also where the monthly allowance now lives: 510 minutes, 300 of them free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone may buy after using up the first 300. The extra holiday minutes older sources give for November and December belonged to the 2008 policy 5264.09 rescinded. Properly arranged unmonitored legal calls do not count against the cap. See our guide to federal inmate phone calls.

Messaging runs on TRULINCS, reached from outside through CorrLinks once the person inside adds the address. At Elkton it also carries the institution’s notices: the institution posts its own notices there rather than on paper, so laundry and clothing-exchange schedules, hygiene-issue rotations and flu-vaccine procedures all arrive on the electronic bulletin board. A message to a lawyer through that system is monitored and carries no privilege, which is why anything confidential still goes by marked special mail. See CorrLinks and TRULINCS.

What can people buy at the FCI Elkton commissary?

The FCI Elkton commissary has a monthly spending limit of $460, set nationally by the Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, the Trust Fund and Deposit Fund Manual, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360; during the November and December holiday period the limit rises by $50, for no more than one validation period. That figure controls.

Elkton’s own handbook (2022) still says “Inmates are currently permitted to spend up to $300.00 per month according to BOP Policy,” and listings that give $360 are also out of date. So is the handbook’s list of what escapes the limit: it names stamps, telephone credits, over-the-counter medications and items the Chaplain or the Supervisor of Education approves, while the 2026 manual excludes stamps, nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges, over-the-counter medications and vitamins, kosher and halal shelf-stable entrees for anyone on Inmate Financial Responsibility Program refusal status, copy cards and copy paper, footwear, mattresses and secured media devices — and not telephone credits.

The commissary order form the Bureau publishes for FCI Elkton is dated April – June 2020, and its prices confirm the vintage: 55-cent stamps and an $11.00 book of them, an MP3 player at $88.40 and a radio with earbuds at $52.00, and no tablet on the list at all. Treat every price on it as historical and the rules on it as the institution’s own.

Those rules are unusual, and getting them wrong costs a week. Shopping is once a week, on the day matching the fourth and fifth digits of the register number: Monday for 00–24, Tuesday for 25–49, Wednesday for 50–74, Thursday for 75–99. Once a list is submitted there are no additions or substitutions, no one may leave the commissary after a slip has gone in, all sales are final, and an illegible list will not be filled. Anyone who misses the call of their name and number waits until the same day the following week.

What the sheet stocks says something about who is here: prayer oils at $3.95, halal soup at 25 cents, a halal beef summer sausage at $2.35, an English/Spanish translator at $2.15, and one of the fuller Black hair-care sections on any Bureau commissary list. It sells a typewriter ribbon at $7.85 and a twelve-pitch print wheel at $29.25, which tells you how legal work is still done in the units. And it prices foaming hand sanitizer at $1.55 — on the sheet current in the quarter when the habeas petition alleged a total lack of soap and sanitizer dispensers and the Sixth Circuit recorded four ounces of soap a week. Sanitizer was something you bought. For the rules that apply everywhere, see the federal prison commissary.

What programs are available at FCI Elkton?

FCI Elkton offers residential drug treatment, non-residential sex offender treatment at the satellite low and Pell-funded college courses, the three programs for which the Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (2026) names it in its own narrative pages. Those three define this institution, and approved programs are how eligible people earn First Step Act time credits.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program runs at FCI Elkton, which appears in the RDAP location list printed inside the 2026 guide, a list that counts 57 programs at 50 locations. Listings that give 65 programs at 53 locations cite the Bureau’s older standalone RDAP list. Completion can mean up to a year off the sentence for people convicted of non-violent offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e); the Bureau’s treatment program rules and our page on RDAP and early release explain eligibility.

Elkton’s own handbook adds the local gate: “An inmate must be within 48 months of his projected release date in order to request evaluation for the Residential Drug Abuse Program.” Drug Abuse Education, the non-residential program and AA and NA also run. The drug-abuse open house is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the FCI and Mondays from noon to 1:00 p.m. at the FSL, so someone at the FSL should go to the FSL session.

The Sex Offender Management Program and the FSL

Elkton is a Sex Offender Management Program institution, and this is the fact that most shapes who is designated here. The handbook states it and then locates the program: “All SOMP institutions offer the SOTP-NR. The FSL at Elkton has the Non-residential SOTP.” The 2026 guide agrees and narrows it further — its location cell for that program names nine institutions in the entire Bureau, and Elkton is one of them. The residential program, for higher-risk cases, is at FMC Devens in Massachusetts; the national rules are in the Bureau’s sex offender program statement.

That explains several things at once: the unusually careful visiting protocol for people with offenses involving minors, the age profile the 2026 audit records at 19 to 85, and why the satellite low rather than the main institution is where much of the treatment programming sits. A SOMP designation is a Bureau classification decision, and it can be argued at designation and at redesignation like any other.

Education, college and vocational training

Elkton is one of sixteen federal institutions the 2026 guide names as offering Pell-funded post-secondary education: college-level classes “provided by credentialed instructors from the community who deliver coursework leading to either the associate or bachelor’s degree,” with prerequisites set by the school providing the service. That is a real degree path; ask the Supervisor of Education about it in the first weeks rather than the last. See prison education and vocational training for how the Bureau runs them everywhere else.

Alongside it the Education Department runs GED and English-as-a-second-language instruction, vocational training, Department of Labor apprenticeships, parenting and Adult Continuing Education classes. Everyone is expected to hold a job, and Elkton holds people to a minimum of ninety days in a first assignment and 180 in a later one.

UNICOR, and why the Bureau’s own guide disagrees with itself

Bureau records disagree on whether UNICOR operates at FCI Elkton. The 2026 guide contains two records of where Federal Prison Industries operates. Its narrative location cell lists 54 institutions by code and Elkton is not among them. The by-institution grid in the same document does mark Elkton. Where the two halves conflict the narrative cell controls, and the guide’s own change log records that the Federal Prison Industries locations were updated for this edition — which makes the omission look deliberate rather than accidental.

The Inspector General’s 2010 review of Federal Prison Industries’ electronic-waste recycling program recorded that its staff “visited FCI Elkton in December 2009 to examine the results of a remediation of UNICOR recycling areas that were previously contaminated with cadmium and lead.” Listings that describe a data-services factory doing proofreading and editing have no support in a current Bureau document. Ask the unit team, in writing, whether a UNICOR assignment exists before counting on the pay; pay rules are in the Bureau’s work and performance pay statement.

What is daily life like at FCI Elkton?

Daily life at FCI Elkton runs on the handbook’s fixed schedule of counts, controlled moves, meals and pill lines, which differs between the main institution and the satellite low.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Wake-up	6:00 a.m.
Official counts	12:00 a.m., 2:30 a.m., 4:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m., 9:30 p.m.	The same, plus a 10:00 a.m. count
Stand-up counts	4:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.	4:00 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.
Controlled movement	Ten-minute periods announced by the control room officer; first evening move at the end of the evening meal	Same, with the first move at the end of the morning meal
Sick-call sign-up	6:30–6:45 a.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday	—
Pill line, FCI	6:15 a.m. insulin; 7:15–7:30 a.m. regular; 5:00 p.m. insulin; 7:30–7:45 p.m. restricted	7:15–7:30 a.m. insulin only
Pill line, FSL	6:00 a.m. and 3:00–3:15 p.m., seven days a week

Two points stand out. The stand-up count happens twice a day here, at 4:00 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m., where many institutions stand up only once. And medication runs seven days a week at the satellite low but not at the main institution, where the weekend brings only the morning insulin line. If a relative at the FCI takes a medication on a schedule, that gap is the thing to raise with Health Services.

Which unit eats first is decided by the weekly sanitation inspection, and in food service the rules run on a scanner: one tray per meal, and a second scan of the identification card — or a failure to scan at all — is written up as a Code 219 incident report for stealing. Beyond the pill line, health services works from a triage form the person hands in themselves. See the Bureau’s patient care rules and medical care in federal prison.

In the Special Housing Unit, medical staff visit daily and the primary care clinician covers routine concerns on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. After every thirty continuous days in administrative detention or disciplinary segregation, mental health staff must examine and interview the person. An administrative detention order should arrive within twenty-four hours, except for holdover or classification placements, where none is issued. See solitary confinement and the SHU.

Religious practice is zoned more tightly here than at many institutions: group prayer only in the Religious Services Department, individual prayer only in the units, religious items worn having to match the preference recorded in the Bureau’s system, and fezzes and kurta shirts worn only inside Religious Services. See our guide to religious programs in prison and to recreation.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Elkton?

Outside inspectors have said little about FCI Elkton: the only published systematic examination is a Prison Rape Elimination Act audit, which by design examines one subject. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Nor has the District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council, the only other body that inspects federal prisons from outside and one that reaches an institution only where DC Code offenders are held there.

The Inspector General has named Elkton sixteen times in its published index. Those are criminal prosecutions of staff, Bureau-wide evaluations listing Elkton among many institutions, one audit tabulating a 2005 medical-services contract review, and a 2021 survey of staff perceptions of pandemic management that publishes response percentages for “Elkton FCI.” A survey of staff is not an inspection of conditions, and none of those products makes a finding about how this prison is run. Nor is Elkton named in the Inspector General’s ongoing work — as of September 2026 that list named FCI Berlin and FCI El Reno, each for an inspection, and FCI Estill, for a review of completed maintenance and repair projects.

The 2026 PREA audit

Ronell Prioleau of Corrections Consulting Services audited FCI Elkton on site from April 21–23, 2026 and issued his final report on June 5, 2026. The result was a pass with nothing exceeded: 45 standards met, none exceeded, none unmet. The auditor toured the whole site including the Federal Satellite Low, interviewed 24 randomly selected and 20 targeted people, and corresponded with COMPASS Family and Community Services in Youngstown.

Warden	Ian M. Healy
Designated capacity / population on the form	2,048 / 2,054, with the facility over capacity at some point in the previous twelve months
Average daily population, twelve months	1,992
Buildings	20
Single-cell housing units	0
Segregation cells	146
Admissions in twelve months	1,441, of whom 1,271 stayed 30 days or more
Staff who may have inmate contact	318, with 20 hired in the previous twelve months; 10 contractors and 88 volunteers
Limited English proficient / cognitive or functional disability	256 / 96 on the first day of the audit
Forensic examinations after a sexual assault	Performed off site, at a local hospital
Accreditation within three years	American Correctional Association only
Age range / average length of stay	19 to 85 / 630.8 days

No one at Elkton was in segregated housing for risk of sexual victimization or for having reported abuse, a zero in a facility with 146 segregation cells. The national rules are in the Bureau’s sexual abuse prevention statement.

What the audit found on allegations, and where it contradicts itself

In the twelve months before the audit the tables record five administrative sexual-abuse investigations — three unfounded and one unsubstantiated, all inmate-on-inmate, plus one staff-on-inmate investigation still open — and two administrative sexual-harassment investigations, one unsubstantiated and one still open. Nothing was substantiated, and there were no criminal investigations of either kind: “The facility reported no criminal investigations within the last 12 months.”

The audit’s narrative then says something its own tables do not: “there were five total reported allegations related to PREA; five involved inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse or sexual harassment … three cases were determined to be unfounded, two were found to be unsubstantiated, and one investigation remains ongoing.” That is six dispositions for five allegations, and it describes as inmate-on-inmate the one investigation the table records as staff-on-inmate. Anyone relying on the audit should read both halves.

A longer count comes from the Government Accountability Office, which in May 2026 published per-institution allegation figures for every Bureau facility. For FCI Elkton the incarcerated-perpetrator table records 7 allegations in 2020, 1 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 3 in 2023 and 4 in 2024, counted by the year the incident occurred — 17 in all. The staff-perpetrator table, counted by the year the allegation was reported and drawn from a different system with a different cut-off date, records 2, 0, 3, 3 and 3 — 11 in all. These are allegations, not findings; the two tables are built differently and must never be added together; most such allegations nationally from 2014 through 2022 ended unsubstantiated, which means there was not enough evidence either way rather than that they were false; and because the Accountability Office does not adjust for population, these counts cannot rank one prison against another.

Staffing

Thin staffing recurs throughout Elkton’s record. At Governor Mike DeWine’s request, more than forty Ohio National Guard medical personnel deployed here for twenty days beginning April 6, 2020, logged over 4,000 staff-hours and released their final patient on April 24; the Air National Guard’s published account of that mission states that FCI Elkton “was operating with half the required medical staff before the National Guard arrived.” Six years later the 2026 audit counts 318 staff who may have contact with people in custody, against an average daily population of 1,992.

In March 2025 the Morning Journal reported that the Bureau had eliminated or halved retention bonuses worth 10 to 25 percent of salary, and that AFGE Local 607 represents 333 employees here, with an entry-level correctional officer then earning $49,739. Separately, 146 current and former Elkton workers have been suing the United States since 2021 in the Court of Federal Claims over unpaid pre- and post-shift work. Thin staffing is what turns a scheduled callout into a canceled one and a two-hour drive into a shortened visit.

The Inspector General’s index also records contraband prosecutions of staff here from 2008 to 2023, listed under Court records below. Each ran through the referral route the 2026 audit describes: the institution’s special investigative staff notify the Warden, who contacts the FBI or the Inspector General.

FCI Elkton in the news

Recent news about FCI Elkton centers on its 2026 PREA audit and the 2025 cut in staff retention bonuses; older items concern staff contraband prosecutions in 2023, the 2020 COVID-19 deaths, litigation and National Guard deployment, and a 2010 Inspector General review. Newest first:

• June 2026 — the final report of the 2026 PREA audit is issued: 45 standards met, none exceeded, none unmet, on a site visit of April 21–23, 2026.
• March 2025 — retention bonuses cut, the Morning Journal reported. The Bureau eliminated or halved the incentives that had been keeping institutions staffed; AFGE Local 607 at Elkton represents 333 employees, and the institution confirmed its staff had received the federal “five things” accountability email.
• November 2023 — a former contract correctional officer who had worked at FCI Elkton and at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center was sentenced to three years’ probation for bribery and introduction of contraband.
• June 2023 — an FCI Elkton correctional officer was sentenced to three years’ probation with six months of home confinement for conspiracy, bribery and introduction of contraband.
• June and September 2020 — the Sixth Circuit vacated first the preliminary injunction in Wilson v. Williams and then the enforcement order, closing the appellate chapter of the Elkton habeas case; days before the June ruling the Supreme Court had stayed both district court orders pending that appeal.
• April and May 2020 — the Bureau posted nine news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FCI Elkton; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• April 2020 — more than forty Ohio National Guard medical personnel deployed here for twenty days at the Governor’s request.
• October 2010 — the Inspector General published its review of Federal Prison Industries’ electronic-waste recycling program, recording a December 2009 visit to examine the remediation of recycling areas contaminated with cadmium and lead.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Elkton

Problems at FCI Elkton: where we can help

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. can help with the problems that recur in FCI Elkton’s own record: a designation system that decides whether a person lands at the main institution or the satellite low; a Sex Offender Management Program designation that follows a person through classification, housing and visiting; a documented history of thin medical staffing; and pandemic-era litigation that settled a jurisdictional rule and settled nothing else.

• Designation and redesignation — whether someone is held at the FCI or the FSL, whether a Public Safety Factor or Management Variable is correctly applied, and whether a transfer closer to home is available. See the Bureau’s designation rules and our guide to federal prison transfers.
• Sex Offender Management Program classification and the assignments that follow it, including the Walsh Act annotation that changes how visits are supervised here. See sex offender treatment in federal prison.
• RDAP eligibility and the § 3621(e) year. The local rule is that a request for evaluation comes within 48 months of the projected release date, and the referral timing matters more than most people expect. See RDAP and early release.
• First Step Act time credits. Elkton’s narrow set of named programs makes it worth checking whether a particular assignment earns credit at all, and whether the credits are being applied. See First Step Act time credits.
• Medical care that is not happening. Elkton ran at half its required medical staffing in 2020, and the weekend medication line at the main institution is thinner than at the satellite low. The route is a written request, then the administrative remedy process — here a BP-229 filed within twenty calendar days — and then, where negligence has caused injury, a Federal Tort Claims Act claim under the Bureau’s tort claim rules.
• Discipline under the Bureau’s discipline program, and segregation that runs past its reason. Elkton has 146 segregation cells and a thirty-day mental health review cycle; both matter when a stay in the Special Housing Unit, including protective custody, stops being temporary.
• Halfway house and home confinement placement under the Bureau’s placement procedures; compassionate release under the reduction-in-sentence rules; and sentence computation errors under the Bureau’s sentence computation manual. See early release from federal prison.
• Conditions claims, where the Sixth Circuit’s Elkton decision controls the choice between a § 2241 petition and a civil action — and getting that choice wrong can cost a case before anyone reaches the merits.
• 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 Elkton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with addresses, contact details, resources panel and the FCI and FSL population split.
• FCI Elkton Inmate Information Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Elkton, 2022. Mail, property limits, telephone, commissary, counts, health services, the Special Housing Unit, religious services, programs, work and pay.
• FCI Elkton Commissary Sheet (April–June 2020), Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Elkton, 2020. Shopping rotation, submission rules, prices and stocked items.
• Institution Supplement ELK 5267.09, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Elkton, 2018. Visiting hours and rotation, visitor lists, split visits, dress, prohibited items, identification and directions; replaced Institution Supplement ELK 5267.08C (2015).
• Institution Supplement ELK 5267.09, Visiting Regulations (Spanish edition), Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Elkton, 2018.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the $460 monthly spending limit, the holiday increase and the items excluded from the limit.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The 510-minute monthly limit and the waiting period between calls; replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Pell sites, non-residential sex offender treatment, RDAP locations and Federal Prison Industries locations.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. Includes the nine April and May 2020 releases reporting deaths at FCI Elkton.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FCI Elkton, Corrections Consulting Services, LLC, 2026. On-site audit of April 21–23, 2026, by Ronell Prioleau; capacity, physical plant, staffing, accreditation and allegation data.
• Ongoing Work, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. The Inspector General’s list of engagements under way.
• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Report GAO-26-107343, with per-institution allegation counts for 2020–2024 and national investigation outcomes.
• Staff Perceptions of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Survey of BOP Staff, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Report 21-126.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to Sealaska Constructors, LLC, to Build Facilities at Federal Correctional Institution Danbury, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2018. Report 18-31, listing the Bureau’s Federal Satellite Lows.
• A Review of Federal Prison Industries’ Electronic-Waste Recycling Program, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Oversight and Review Division, 2010. Report E2006005, recording the December 2009 visit on cadmium and lead remediation.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Drug Interdiction Activities, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2003. Report I-2003-002, with separate rows for Elkton FCI and Elkton FSL.

Court records

• Baytos v. United States, No. 21-1085C, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, 2025. Fair Labor Standards Act claims by 146 correctional workers at FCI and FSL Elkton.
• Diaz v. Kopp, No. 22-1678, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2025.
• Former BOP and USMS Contract Correctional Officer Sentenced for Bribery of a Public Official and Introduction of Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. The sentence of a former contract officer who worked at FCI Elkton.
• BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Conspiracy, Bribery, and Introduction of Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. The sentence of an FCI Elkton correctional officer.
• Former BOP and USMS Contract Correctional Officer Charged with Bribery of a Public Official and Introduction of Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023.
• BOP Correctional Officer Indicted for Conspiracy, Bribery, and Introduction of Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• Correctional Officer Charged with Providing Contraband to Inmates, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• Pinson v. Carvajal, 69 F.4th 1059, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2023.
• United States v. Kibble, 992 F.3d 326, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2021.
• Rice v. Gonzalez, 985 F.3d 1069, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2021.
• Wilson v. Williams, No. 20-3547, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2020. Docket of the appeal from the May 19, 2020 enforcement order, vacated September 17, 2020.
• Wilson v. Williams, 961 F.3d 829, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2020. No. 20-3447.
• Williams v. Wilson, No. 19A1047, Supreme Court of the United States, 2020. Docket: the April 22 and May 19 orders stayed pending appeal; application withdrawn.
• Williams v. Wilson, No. 19A1041, Supreme Court of the United States, 2020. Docket: stay denied on procedural posture, without prejudice.
• Wilson v. Williams, No. 4:20-cv-00794, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2020. The preliminary injunction (455 F. Supp. 3d 467) and the enforcement order.
• Employee at Federal Correctional Institution Elkton in Ohio Charged with Attempting to Provide Cigarettes to Inmate, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2017.
• Correctional Officer and Inmate Arraigned on Conspiracy to Introduce Contraband, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2008.

News and other sources

• FCI Elkton and Other Federal Prisons Feeling Impact of DOGE, Morning Journal, 2025. By Stephanie Elverd; retention bonuses, AFGE Local 607 membership, entry-level pay and the reported 1997 opening.
• Ohio National Guard Provides Medical Aid at Federal Prison, Air National Guard, 2020. By Senior Master Sgt. Beth Holliker.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, 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. § 2254, State custody; remedies in Federal courts, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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