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Federal Prisons in Puerto Rico

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

Federal prisons in Puerto Rico at a glance

One federal prison stands in Puerto Rico: MDC Guaynabo, the Bureau of Prisons’ detention center beside the Fort Buchanan Army base, which held 1,043 people as of September 2026. It holds men and women, most of them before trial, and it answers to the Bureau’s Southeast Region in Atlanta.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
MDC GuaynaboMetropolitan Detention Center · AdministrativeMen and women1,043—GuaynaboDistrict of Puerto Rico
Total1 institution1,043—
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in Puerto Rico?

One, and it is a detention center rather than a prison of the kind most people picture. The Bureau’s roster carries a single Puerto Rico entry: MDC Guaynabo, a Metropolitan Detention Center graded administrative security, the classification used for buildings that hold people awaiting something rather than buildings graded by risk. There is no penitentiary on the island, no correctional institution, no prison camp and no satellite camp, and nothing here was named in the closure announcement of July 1, 2026. No former federal facility in Puerto Rico has a page on this site. The grades are explained in our guide to security levels, and the whole system is indexed in the Bureau of Prisons directory.

MDC Guaynabo sits on Carretera 28, and its own orientation booklet gives its mission as holding pretrial and holdover prisoners for the federal courts and the Marshals Service of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands; a sentenced work cadre lives there as well. Its independent sexual-abuse audit of 2025 describes a mainly Spanish-speaking population. See MDC Guaynabo.

Which federal prisons in Puerto Rico hold women?

MDC Guaynabo, because it is the only one. The roster records it as holding men and women, so a woman in federal custody on the island before trial is in the same building as the men. Puerto Rico has no federal prison for women and no women’s camp, so a woman sentenced here is ordinarily designated to the mainland. What the Bureau offers women, and how it chooses where to send them, is in our guide to women’s federal prisons.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees Puerto Rico?

The Southeast Regional Office, on McDonough Boulevard in Atlanta. The roster puts MDC Guaynabo in the Southeast Region, and the Bureau’s Offices page, read September 18, 2026, lists Puerto Rico under that region. A family meets the region when the Warden’s answer to a complaint does not settle it. Program Statement 1330.18 provides at pp. 6–7 that “An inmate who is not satisfied with the Warden’s response 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 Puerto Rico?

RRM Miami. Puerto Rico is one federal judicial district and not part of any other: 28 U.S.C. § 119 provides that “Puerto Rico constitutes one judicial district”, with court held at Mayaguez, Ponce and San Juan. The Bureau’s page for that office prints Puerto Rico among the districts it covers, with Southern Florida, Middle Florida and the United States Virgin Islands. No other reentry office prints any part of Puerto Rico, and none of it is unassigned; the one overlap on that list, Middle Florida, is a Florida question.

The office that acts is the one for the district a person is released into, not the one that sentenced him. Program Statement 7310.04 at p. 12 tells the Warden, where there is significant doubt about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district.” Someone serving a mainland sentence who will return to Caguas is therefore an RRM Miami case. How far ahead that referral is made is on our page about federal halfway houses.

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

The inmate locator is a federal search and covers federal custody only. It will not find anyone held by Puerto Rico’s own Departamento de Corrección y Rehabilitación, so searching the wrong system can make a person look as though he has vanished. Without a register number, both the first and the last name are needed.

Mail is addressed to the post office box the Bureau publishes for the institution, which is in Cataño rather than in Guaynabo, and it must carry the committed name and register number exactly as the Bureau prints them. The facility page carries the block. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on the institution’s own supplement, and the Bureau was publishing no current visiting schedule for MDC Guaynabo when this page was built, so telephone the institution before traveling and before anyone books a flight from the mainland. See visitation.

Nothing about sending money is local to the island. Deposits go to the Bureau’s national lockbox by mail, or through Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram, whose code city is FBOP, DC. Program Statement 4500.13 states at p. 79 that “Ordinarily, funds sent to an inmate via the Western Union Quick Collect/MoneyGram Program are posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST.” See sending money.

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

One. MDC Guaynabo is a Metropolitan Detention Center graded administrative security, holding men and women, and it is the only Bureau of Prisons institution anywhere in the territory. It has no satellite camp, and the roster carries no penitentiary, no correctional institution and no prison camp on the island.

What is the largest federal prison in Puerto Rico by population?

MDC Guaynabo, which is also the only one. It held 1,043 people as of September 2026, and because no camp or satellite row belongs to it, that figure is the whole federal population the Bureau reported for Puerto Rico that month. Nothing has to be added to it.

Is MDC Guaynabo a jail or a prison?

The Bureau calls it a Metropolitan Detention Center, and its work is mostly detention: holding people whose cases are pending for the federal courts and the Marshals Service of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. A sentenced work cadre also lives there, so some people inside are serving federal sentences.

Where are women held in federal custody in Puerto Rico?

At MDC Guaynabo, in the same building as the men; the Bureau’s roster records the facility as holding both. There is no federal women’s prison and no women’s camp in the territory, so a woman who is sentenced in the District of Puerto Rico is ordinarily designated to an institution on the mainland.

Where are pretrial federal detainees held in Puerto Rico?

At MDC Guaynabo. The Bureau’s national Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook names it among the ten facilities it lists as Pretrial Detention Facilities, and the handbook sets out how electronic discovery is stored and reviewed there. People held for immigration authorities are housed in the same building under different rules.

How do I look up someone arrested by federal agents in Puerto Rico?

Use the Bureau’s locator, remembering that it reaches federal custody only. Someone in Commonwealth custody under the Departamento de Corrección y Rehabilitación will not appear in it, and the Bureau warns that a person shown as not in its custody may still be held by another authority. Search by register number where possible.

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

RRM Miami, the Bureau’s Residential Reentry Management office in Florida. Its bop.gov page prints Puerto Rico among the districts it covers, alongside Southern Florida, Middle Florida and the United States Virgin Islands, and no other office prints any part of the island. The district a person returns to is what decides it.

Can someone ask to be designated to a federal prison in Puerto Rico?

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

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

Three problems recur here, each of them in the Bureau’s own record. Reaching counsel: the Justice Department’s advisory group reported on July 20, 2023, at 29 n.53, that “FDC Miami and MDC Guaynabo are the only pretrial facilities reviewed that did not provide direct phone line access to a local FDO.” Distance: a federal sentence is served off the island, and after Hurricane María the Marshals Service moved everyone from the detention center to the Southern District of Mississippi, as the District Court recorded in 2018. Transfers, medical care and visiting are the problems we work on inside, and First Step Act credit disputes are early release work.

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

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

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

Court records and statutes

  • 28 U.S.C. § 119, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Puerto Rico as one judicial district.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 3621, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Designation at § 3621(b).
  • United States v. Acevedo-Vázquez, 335 F. Supp. 3d 263 (D.P.R. Sept. 27, 2018). The Hurricane María transfer from MDC Guaynabo to the Southern District of Mississippi.

News and other sources

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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

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