MDC Guaynabo, Puerto Rico: Visiting, Mail and Legal Access

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

MDC Guaynabo at a glance

MDC Guaynabo is the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and the only institution on the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ roster anywhere in Puerto Rico. Its primary mission, in its own orientation booklet, is holding pretrial and holdover prisoners for the federal courts and the Marshals Service of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; a sentenced work cadre lives here too. As of September 2026 it held 1,043 people.

Official name	Metropolitan Detention Center, Guaynabo · also listed as “Guaynabo MDC”
BOP code	GUA
Security level	Administrative; men and women · pretrial, holdover and ICE detainees and a sentenced work cadre
Population	1,043 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	No current schedule published · call 787-749-4480 before every trip · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Inmate Name & Register Number · MDC Guaynabo · Metropolitan Detention Center · P.O. Box 2005 · Cataño, PR 00963
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	787-749-4480 · Fax 787-775-7824
Street address	652 Carretera 28, Guaynabo, PR 00965 · Municipality of Guaynabo
Judicial district	District of Puerto Rico
BOP region	Southeast
Designated capacity	1,276
Housing	Two buildings · 12 housing units, all multiple-occupancy cells · no dormitories
Special Housing Unit	Yes · 27 segregation cells
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	Not offered
Camp	None

The building stands at 652 Carretera 28 beside the Fort Buchanan Army base and answers to the Bureau’s Southeast Region. Language shapes almost everything here: the 2025 sexual-abuse audit describes a mainly Spanish-speaking population.

Is MDC Guaynabo the only federal jail in Puerto Rico?

MDC Guaynabo is the only Bureau of Prisons institution in Puerto Rico, but a person arrested on the island can be held in other systems, and a family that searches the wrong one can wrongly conclude that the person has disappeared.

• Commonwealth custody. Puerto Rico’s own prisons belong to the Departamento de Corrección y Rehabilitación (DCR). The Bureau’s Inmate Locator does not cover them, and it warns that a person it lists as released or not in Bureau custody “may still be in the custody of some other correctional/criminal justice system/law enforcement entity.”
• Immigration custody. A 2026 habeas case in the District of Puerto Rico describes a petitioner held at the “General Service Administration (‘GSA’) Guaynabo Immigration Center,” an ICE office, not the MDC. Search ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System and the Bureau’s locator, because the MDC also holds people for ICE.
• The name. It is a Metropolitan Detention Center; mailing blocks that say “Metropolitan Correctional Center” are wrong.
• Not a military site. The MDC sits beside Fort Buchanan on land that, according to testimony in a 1990s assault case, the Department of Defense transferred to the Bureau (United States v. Bello, 194 F.3d 18 (1st Cir. 1999)).

Who is held at MDC Guaynabo?

MDC Guaynabo holds mainly pretrial and holdover prisoners, by the Bureau’s own description, though no Bureau document gives the unsentenced share. The Bureau’s Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook counts MDC Guaynabo among its ten pretrial detention facilities, alongside FDC Houston, FDC Miami and seven others. The 2011 orientation booklet gives the MDC’s “primary mission” as housing pretrial and holdover prisoners “as a service to the U.S. District Courts and the U.S. Marshals Service for the Districts of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The July 2025 audit records women and men aged 18 to 77, held for the Marshals Service, ICE, a state or territorial correctional agency and a judicial-district facility. In the twelve months before that July 2025 audit the facility admitted 1,900 people, 1,245 of whom stayed at least 30 days, and the form gives average stays of 520.4 for the “Work Cadre Unit” and 314.7 for the “Jail” without naming the unit of time.

Some people here are serving sentences. The 2011 booklet says the MDC also houses designated prisoners “that will be departing to the halfway house or directly home,” the 2012 Spanish manual names “reclusos sentenciados” (sentenced prisoners) in the mission itself, and the 2018 visiting supplement treats Unit 1-A as the cadre unit. In February 2026 a federal judge in Puerto Rico described a petitioner as “currently serving his sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo.”

The Virgin Islands connection is old and deliberate. In 1997 the District Court of the Virgin Islands ordered that no federal detainees be lodged in the territory’s jails. The order recalls a 1994 directive that federal prisoners be held in federal facilities, given in part because the federal government “had gone to great expense to build a pretrial detention facility for Virgin Islands’ detainees at Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.” The Bureau’s facility page still gives the judicial district as “Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands,” although the island’s only federal district is the District of Puerto Rico (28 U.S.C. § 119). The Virgin Islands Federal Public Defender told the Justice Department’s 2023 review that it relies on video meetings with clients here because in-person visits “require a flight and often an overnight stay.”

Spanish is the working language of the population. On the first day of the July 2025 audit, 149 of the 1,089 people held were recorded as having limited English proficiency, and the auditor described the population as “consisting primarily of Spanish-speaking detainees.”

What is the security level at MDC Guaynabo?

MDC Guaynabo is an administrative-security institution, which is not a rung on the minimum-to-high ladder. The Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, define an administrative institution as one “with a special mission, where inmates are assigned based on factors other than security and/or staff supervision (for example, medical/mental health, pretrial and holdover),” designed “to house all security level inmates.” The 2025 audit records custody as “Administrative – (In/Out/Community).” Our guide to federal security levels explains the ordinary scale.

After sentencing, the Bureau’s Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, scores the person and picks a prison under PS 5100.08. Our page on federal prison designation explains where a judge’s recommendation fits.

A detainee keeps protections a sentenced prisoner lacks. The detention statute calls for confinement “separate, to the extent practicable, from persons awaiting or serving sentences” and a “reasonable opportunity for private consultation with counsel,” and allows temporary release when “necessary for preparation of the person’s defense or for another compelling reason” (18 U.S.C. § 3142(i)). The Bureau’s pretrial regulations add:

• No required work beyond housekeeping unless the detainee signs a waiver (28 C.F.R. § 551.106), on form BP-A0203 under the Bureau’s pretrial inmates policy, PS 7331.05.
• A unit-team status review within 21 calendar days of arrival and at least every 90 days after, on 48 hours’ notice (§ 551.107).
• No furloughs; in an emergency, staff must help the detainee reach the attorney of record, who can ask the court for release or an escorted trip (§ 551.109).
• Attorney visits seven days a week, and calls to counsel “as often as resources of the institution allow” (§ 551.117).

Behind all of this sits Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979), which holds that a detainee “may not be punished prior to an adjudication of guilt” and that a condition “reasonably related to a legitimate governmental objective” is not, without more, punishment.

Time spent here usually counts toward a later sentence. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), official detention before a sentence begins is credited if it has not been credited against another sentence, and United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), holds that the Bureau, not the sentencing judge, makes that calculation. First Step Act time credits work differently: 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii) bars credit for programs completed during official detention before the sentence commences. For sentenced people waiting here to be moved, a Bureau rule effective September 30, 2026 (91 Fed. Reg. 55740) deletes the regulation’s definition of that commencement as “the date the inmate arrives or voluntarily surrenders at the designated Bureau facility”; credits now begin “after the inmate’s term of imprisonment commences,” though the Bureau says not “automatically” at sentencing. See the Sentence Computation Manual and First Step Act time credits.

Who are the notable inmates at MDC Guaynabo?

The prisoners most closely tied to this building in the public record are the men behind the 2013 killing of one of its lieutenants.

Person	Connection to MDC Guaynabo	Bureau record
Oscar J. Martínez-Hernández (09486-069)	Serving life for his part in the February 26, 2013 murder of Lt. Osvaldo Albarati, which the Bureau says was carried out with help from prisoners held at the MDC; the First Circuit affirmed his conviction in 2024	USP Florence High, Colorado (record code FLP); release date shown as LIFE
Alberto Goachet (32735-069)	An aide to former Puerto Rico senator Jorge de Castro Font; sentenced in March 2009 for money-laundering conspiracy and ordered to surrender at MDC Guaynabo to serve three months	“Not in BOP Custody as of” August 24, 2009; his record carries the code GUA
José Figueroa-Agosto (35318-069)	Often listed as a Guaynabo prisoner; no Bureau or court record places him here	“Not in BOP Custody as of” March 27, 2020; his record carries the code THP, USP Terre Haute

The First Circuit describes a 2005–2010 cocaine conspiracy “headed by José Figueroa-Agosto, a/k/a ‘Junior Cápsula’” (United States v. Torres-Landrúa, 783 F.3d 58 (1st Cir. 2015)), but no record places him inside this building.

The Bureau’s memorial page for Lt. Albarati says nine people were indicted on January 28, 2015, among them Martínez-Hernández and two other prisoners the page names, Ángel D. Ramos-Cruz and Miguel Díaz-Rivera, and the other terms it lists run from 120 to 396 months.

How do I find someone at MDC Guaynabo?

To find someone at MDC Guaynabo, use the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, which covers people “incarcerated from 1982 to the present,” and search by register number whenever you have one; the defense lawyer can usually supply it.

Name searches are the usual failure point. Many names here carry two surnames joined by a hyphen; the locator’s name search can miss compound surnames and will not run on a last name alone. Search each surname separately with the first name, then try the full hyphenated form.

A result reading “Not in BOP Custody,” with a date and no facility, does not settle where the person is; the locator says another agency may hold them, so check the DCR and ICE. It also warns that projected release dates may lag First Step Act credit recalculations. Our explainer on how inmate number searches work covers more.

How do I write to someone at MDC Guaynabo?

Mail for someone at MDC Guaynabo goes to a post office box in Cataño, not to the street address in Guaynabo. These are the Bureau’s address blocks, copied as the Bureau prints them:

Personal and legal mail	Freight and non-USPS parcels (staff use)
INMATE NAME & REGISTER NUMBER MDC Guaynabo METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER P.O. BOX 2005 CATANO, RQ 00963	STAFF NAME MDC Guaynabo METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER ATTN: WAREHOUSE HWY 28 INTSECT OF ROAD 165 GUAYNABO, RQ 00922

The Bureau writes the territory as RQ, the 2011 booklet “Cataño, P.R. 00963-2005” and the 2025 audit PR; the ZIP code, 00963, never changes. P.O. Box 2008 in Cataño is the Bureau’s staff-mail box (the 2011 booklet also gives it for the chaplains), not the address for letters to a prisoner. And the booklet warns that mail without the prisoner’s full committed name and register number “may be returned to the sender.”

The 2011 booklet’s local rules: delivery Monday through Friday; nothing from FedEx, UPS or similar carriers; no stamps, stationery, plastic or musical cards, blank cards, or nude or Polaroid photographs. Ask the unit team whether each still applies, and see our guide to writing to someone in federal prison.

Lawyers have two routes. Mail sent as special mail should be marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate,” the wording in the Bureau’s correspondence rules, PS 5265.14. Papers a lawyer brings in person cannot be handed across the table during a legal visit; the 2018 supplement sends them to the legal mail box in the front lobby, in an envelope showing the sender’s full name and address, the prisoner’s name and register number, and “SPECIAL MAIL — OPEN IN THE PRESENCE OF THE INMATE.” The lobby accepts only envelopes and packages that fit through the box’s slot, so a thick binder needs another plan.

How do I send money to someone at MDC Guaynabo?

Money for someone at MDC Guaynabo goes through the Bureau’s national system, never to the MDC. The Bureau’s Send Money page offers three routes and tells senders to wait until the person has physically arrived at a Bureau facility:

Method	What to enter	When it posts
MoneyGram ExpressPayment	Account number: the eight-digit register number followed at once by the last name, with no spaces (12345678DOE). Company: Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC. Receive code: 7932. Online transfers up to $300.	Processed seven days a week, holidays included. Sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern: posted within 2–4 hours. Sent later: posted at 7:00 a.m. Eastern the next morning.
Western Union Quick Collect	The same account number; attention line: the full committed name; code city: FBOP, DC. Also by phone at 1-800-634-3422, option 2, or through the Send2Corrections app.	The same schedule as MoneyGram.
U.S. Postal Service to the lockbox	A money order, U.S. government check, cashier’s or certified check, or bank draft (no cash or personal checks), mailed to Federal Bureau of Prisons, [committed name], [register number], Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001, with your return address.	Non-postal money orders and non-government checks: 15-day hold. Foreign instruments payable in U.S. dollars: 45 days.

Anything else in the envelope is disposed of, and questions about a deposit go to 202-307-2712, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Guaynabo’s 2011 booklet said Western Union money arrived “between 3 or 4 hours” later; the Bureau’s current page controls. Every Bureau prison uses these routes; see our guide to sending money to federal inmates.

What are the visiting hours at MDC Guaynabo?

MDC Guaynabo has no current published visiting schedule: the Bureau’s facility page shows no visiting hours, and the visiting supplement it links, GUA 5267.09 B, dated October 16, 2018, says the schedule is its Attachment 6 and that housing units get “a new rotation period every 2 weeks.” Attachment 6 prints only its title, “Inmate Visiting Schedule,” under a page header marked “DRAFT”; it contains no schedule.

Call 787-749-4480 before every trip and ask which days the person’s housing unit visits in the current rotation.

The supplement’s only general social-visiting hours are in Attachment 1: “Visiting hours are from 7:00 AM to 8:00 P.M., Wednesday through Sunday, including Federal holidays.” With units rotating, treat that as the visiting room’s outer limit, not a promise about any unit’s day. The supplement cannot settle the length of a visit either: Attachment 1 allows “one (1) hour of visiting each visiting day,” while the body promises “a complete two (2) hour of visiting.”

Listings that give 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and noon to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, plus 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Saturday, are out of date: those hours are the sample June–August 2011 rotation from the 2011 orientation booklet, in which both evening sessions belonged to Unit 1C and visiting weeks were set by whether the fifth digit of the register number was odd or even. The 2012 Spanish manual prints a 2009 sample. Neither is current.

Who can visit, and how many

The 2018 supplement contradicts itself on list size. Section B allows pretrial, immigration and material-witness prisoners immediate family plus “no more than three (3) other relatives, friends and associates”; Section E, on the same page, allows pretrial and holdover prisoners immediate family plus “two (2) additional visitors.” Cadre prisoners may list immediate family and up to ten others aged 16 or older. A holdover who arrives without a visiting list is limited to immediate family, with approval ordinarily within two weeks.

Immediate family is defined twice, once to include grandparents and grandchildren, and one friend slot may go to the other parent of the prisoner’s child. Families document the relationship with marriage or birth certificates. Anyone else completes the Visitor Information Form (BP-A0629) and an NCIC criminal-records check, and a visitor with a record needs the Warden’s prior approval.

Frequency is a third contradiction. The body allows “an unlimited number of visits throughout the month” within the schedule, while Attachment 2 allows “two visits per month” to everyone outside the Unit 1-A cadre, except that Units 1-C and 3-C “may visit as often as the schedule permits.” Ask the unit team which rule it applies. Two adults may visit at a time; anyone over 16 counts as an adult, lap-held children do not count, and visitors under 16 need an approved adult aged 18 or older.

The room holds 260 occupants. When it fills, the duty officer asks visitors who live within 50 miles to volunteer to leave first, and “distance traveled and frequency of visits may be considered,” so a nearby family that visits often is likely to be cut short on a crowded day.

Families off the island have a route of their own: the Associate Warden of Programs may approve a special visit when “immediate family members live outside of Puerto Rico,” as well as for an emergency, release planning or a hospitalized prisoner. Requests go to the unit manager. Prisoners in the Special Housing Unit visit on the first Wednesday of the month for an hour; family members both held at the MDC may visit each other on the third Wednesday morning; and children may visit two jailed parents once a quarter.

What visitors can wear and bring

The 2018 dress code bars transparent or sleeveless tops, blouses above the waistline, shorts, skirts more than two inches above the knee (the 2011 limit was three), spandex, open-toed shoes, jackets, watches and jewelry, khaki that resembles prisoner clothing, anything like an officer’s uniform, and clothing with enough metal to trip the detector. Wigs, hats and scarves come off for inspection.

Bring almost nothing. Phones and handbags stay locked in the car, though a car key or fob may come in, and a one-gallon clear bag may hold a debit card and two sanitary products. No food or drink may be brought in, and anything bought in the room is eaten there. A parent may bring two diapers, two sealed jars of baby food, two half-full clear bottles and a blanket, but no stroller, carrier, diaper bag or toy. Medication is limited to what preserves life, such as an asthma inhaler.

Contact is limited to a handshake, embrace and kiss at the start and end, “non-contact visiting areas are not available at this facility,” and nothing may be passed to the prisoner. The Bureau-wide rules behind these limits are in the Bureau’s visiting regulations and our guide to federal prison visiting.

Identification and screening

Visitors 16 and older need a valid government-issued photo ID showing the holder’s full name and signature; Attachment 2 names a driver’s license or a government photo identification card as the only acceptable forms. Visitors pass a metal detector, sign the log and complete the Notification to Visitor form (BP-A0224), which is kept for a year. Prisoners are strip-searched after the visit, and one convicted of a sex offense involving a minor sits as close to the officer as possible. Giving a prisoner a cell phone is a federal crime punishable by up to a year (18 U.S.C. § 1791); see searches and contraband.

Getting there

The MDC sits where Road 165 meets Highway 28, next to Fort Buchanan; visitors are processed at the front gate and park only in the designated area. From Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the 2011 booklet’s route takes A-26 west, A-18 south and A-22 west, and every route it gives ends the same way: the C-165 exit onto Expreso El Caño, a left onto Avenida Francisco J. de Goya (PR-28), and the MDC on the left after 422 feet. The Bureau’s documents disagree on distance: the 2018 supplement puts the airport “approximately fifteen miles” away, and the 2012 Spanish manual 9.51 miles (14 minutes).

How do phone calls and email work at MDC Guaynabo?

Calls from MDC Guaynabo are capped, as across the Bureau, at 510 minutes a calendar month under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026. Prisoners eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives get 300 of those minutes free, and anyone who uses up 300 minutes may buy 210 more “regardless of FSA eligibility.” Unmonitored legal calls do not count against the 510. The 2011 booklet’s allowance of 300 minutes, 120 of them collect, came from the superseded PS 5264.08 and no longer applies.

Several provisions speak directly to a detention center. The statement lists “inmates confined at Metropolitan Correctional Centers, Metropolitan Detention Centers, or Federal Detention Centers” and “pretrial inmates” among the examples of good cause for allowing collect calls. It says its telephone-hours restrictions “should not be imposed in pretrial/holdover institutions or units where inmates are not required to work and generally have more need for telephone access during the day to prepare for trial.” And the Serious Telephone Abuse public safety factor “does not apply to pretrial inmates.”

Ordinary calls are recorded, and the statement requires a notice “in both Spanish and English” at monitored telephones. Recordings get used: in a 1997 Virgin Islands prosecution the government relied on calls detained defendants made from MDC Guaynabo, and the court noted a superseding indictment filed “based at least in part on the content of these tape recordings” (United States v. Rohlsen, 174 F.R.D. 52 (D.V.I. 1997)). The pretrial handbook warns that a call to a lawyer on the ordinary phones can be shared with the prosecutor.

Email runs through TRULINCS. The 2011 booklet priced messaging at five cents a minute, capped messages at 13,000 characters and opened the terminals from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (6:00 a.m. for the cadre); no current Guaynabo document gives today’s terms. The warning has not changed: the booklet said messages to a lawyer “will not be treated as privileged communications,” and the 2024 pretrial handbook says TRULINCS emails are not confidential. See our guides to federal inmate phone calls and TRULINCS email.

How does a lawyer reach a client at MDC Guaynabo?

A lawyer reaches a client at MDC Guaynabo by visit, phone, mail and the discovery computers, and each route has a local wrinkle. Institutions holding pretrial detainees must allow scheduled and unscheduled attorney visits during designated hours (28 C.F.R. § 543.13(c)) and let detainees call counsel “as often as resources of the institution allow” (§ 551.117(c)). Practice on the ground is documented mainly in the Justice Department’s July 20, 2023 review of access to counsel at the Bureau’s pretrial facilities, which cautions that its efforts to address complaints should not be read as confirming or rejecting them.

Legal visits

Three Bureau documents give three sets of hours. The 2018 supplement allows attorneys from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily, with Mondays and Tuesdays “set aside exclusively for attorneys.” The 2011 booklet instead limits attorneys on Mondays and Tuesdays to before 11 a.m. or after 5 p.m. The 2012 Spanish manual moves that restriction to Wednesday, “todos los días excepto los miércoles,” and reserves Mondays for legal visits with designated prisoners. The 2018 supplement is the newest; confirm with the legal department before flying in.

Processing stops 45 minutes before an official count. Attorneys show a state bar card, plus a photo ID if the card has none, and the lobby keeps a Colegio de Abogados directory to check Puerto Rico admission. Meeting several co-defendants together takes a written request 24 hours ahead with the indictment’s first page attached, and interpreters, paralegals and investigators need approval as legal assistants.

The 2023 review adds what the documents omit. Guaynabo said attorneys could ask to schedule visits, but “defense counsel with clients at FDC Houston and MDC Guaynabo reported that scheduling was never an option.” Lawyers said staff often called the private attorney rooms unavailable or reserved for e-discovery, so meetings happened in the social area, “a big, open space with tables about eight to 10 feet apart,” even though the legal department confirmed the rooms were available. The Federal Public Defender for the District of Puerto Rico reported legal visits “regularly canceled due to staffing shortages,” though counsel said the MDC gave timely notice of unexpected cancellations, and lawyers found SHU visits more confidential than ordinary ones.

Laptops

The laptop rule has changed twice. The 2018 supplement bars “electronic equipment (computer, laptop, kindle, i-pad, television, tape player, DVR, etc.)” without approval from the Warden and Computer Services. By 2023, Guaynabo let attorneys bring laptops by “submitting a form 24 hours in advance of every visit.” Since May 7, 2026, the Bureau’s legal activities rules, PS 1315.08, have provided that attorneys and approved legal assistants “may bring a laptop to a legal visit at Bureau pretrial facilities for the sole purpose of facilitating the attorney-client relationship,” and a Warden who wants to refuse must document good cause and confer with Regional Counsel first. Local procedures still apply, so ask what the legal department now requires. Cell phones, smart watches and smart glasses stay outside.

Legal calls

The national handbook says the pretrial units have a phone for “brief, direct, unmonitored” calls to “pre-programmed and verified” defense numbers, and that longer unmonitored calls are requested on form BP-A0148 and decided case by case. The 2023 review recorded a Guaynabo exception: “FDC Miami and MDC Guaynabo are the only pretrial facilities reviewed that did not provide direct phone line access to a local FDO,” meaning the Federal Defender. The July 2024 handbook describes the unit phone for all ten pretrial facilities without naming the numbers programmed at Guaynabo, so ask whether the Federal Defender’s number is on it. The SHU has no unmonitored phone booths.

Electronic discovery

At Guaynabo, discovery lives in the visiting room. The Bureau’s handbook says that once the Legal Department approves, “all electronic discovery will be stored in a cabinet in the Visiting Room,” reviewed by appointment with the unit team or unit officer on “four (4) Bureau discovery computers” in “a secured room within the Visiting Room.” The Spanish edition says the same: “MDC Guaynabo tiene cuatro (4) computadoras de descubrimiento de pruebas de la Oficina.” The 2023 review found these were Guaynabo’s only discovery computers, and defense counsel told it that clients faced “considerable obstacles” getting time on them.

PS 1315.08 expects more: pretrial facilities “will maintain discovery computers,” which “should be placed in each housing unit, the SHU, and other locations as determined by the Warden.” It adds an authorization form, BP-A1155, and accepts discovery on a hard drive or USB drive, not on CDs or DVDs. No Guaynabo document says whether unit computers are in place. Counsel also told the 2023 reviewers that clients’ legal papers are often lost in transit, so keep copies.

Records, reports and the paperwork gap

Getting medical records can “depend entirely on the staff processing the request,” Guaynabo counsel said in 2023, and “a court order is often necessary.” A detainee may keep the presentence report until sentencing but not after, and notaries are generally not provided. The paperwork lags too: the pretrial handbook, created in July 2024, still cites PS 1315.07 and PS 5264.08; the “Inmate Legal Activities” link on the Bureau’s Guaynabo page opens the national statement, not a local supplement; and the three Guaynabo supplements the 2023 review lists as “not available online” are still not linked. See attorney-client communication and the electronic law library.

What can people buy at the MDC Guaynabo commissary?

People at MDC Guaynabo can spend up to $460 a month at the commissary, the national limit set by the Bureau’s trust fund rules, PS 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360. The limit rises by $50 during the November–December holiday period, for no more than one validation period, and a short list of purchases does not count against it: stamps, nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges, over-the-counter medicines and vitamins, copy cards and paper, footwear, mattresses, a secured media device, and shelf-stable kosher or halal entrées for prisoners in refusal status under the financial responsibility program.

Guaynabo’s own documents are older. The 2011 booklet and the 2012 Spanish manual both set a $200 monthly limit, with each prisoner’s validation date computed from the register number (its fifth digit multiplied by three); that figure is obsolete. The commissary form (2012), approved by Warden Jerry C. Martinez, prints no limit at all. It is bilingual, warns that the store closes the last week of March and of September for inventory, and caps stamps at 20, soda at one six-pack and soups at five of each kind.

The 2012 list shows where the building is. Beside ramen and hygiene items it carried Malta Polar ($3.45), plantain chips ($2.05), Maduritos ($1.45), Adobo Goya ($1.90), Tronky ($2.20), Maria cookies and palmeritas. It also sold typing ribbon ($8.45), correction ribbon ($1.65) and typing paper ($5.15). Every price on it is fourteen years old. See what federal commissaries sell.

What programs are available at MDC Guaynabo?

MDC Guaynabo documents few programs, and most of the record dates from 2011. No location entry in the Bureau’s August 2026 First Step Act guide names this facility. Its by-institution grid marks MDC Guaynabo for 40 programs. For 39 of them the guide’s location entry says only that the program may be offered at all Bureau institutions, or, for seven, at all institutions with designated women, which is permission, not proof a class is running; the fortieth is discussed below.

Drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program is not available here. The 2011 booklet says the MDC “does not offer the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP),” and the Bureau’s current list, “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations, Updated 6/4/2026,” does not include the facility. Staff do screen people for the program: the booklet tells prisoners to ask about 36 months before their projected release date, and candidates ordinarily need at least 24 months left to serve.

The 2011 booklet also describes Drug Education, two hours once a week, and a non-residential program of 90 to 120 minutes a week for 12 to 24 weeks with an incentive award of up to $30, and says each was “offered in English.” For a mainly Spanish-speaking population that matters. On the June 2026 list, the one RDAP marked as a Spanish-language program is at FCI Miami, and one of the five Female Integrated Treatment programs, each of which includes an RDAP component, carries the same mark, at FMC Carswell in Texas. The list also marks RDAPs at four women’s facilities: FPC Alderson, FCI Waseca, FPC Bryan and FMC Carswell. Counsel can raise those locations at sentencing, when the judge may recommend a designation. See our RDAP guide.

Education, work and recreation

The 2011 booklet describes GED classes, English as a Second Language for prisoners with limited English “who will not be deported,” adult continuing education in small business, College Board preparation and advanced math, and mock job fairs twice a year, with recreation including hobby crafts, a “Walking for Fitness” course and a sewing program for women. No current Guaynabo document confirms any of it, so ask the education department. See education in federal prison and prison recreation.

Unsentenced people cannot be required to do more than housekeeping without a waiver, while sentenced cadre prisoners hold paid assignments such as the Suicide Watch Inmate Companion Observer program the 2011 booklet describes. On prison industries the Bureau’s guide disagrees with itself: its by-institution matrix marks MDC Guaynabo for Federal Prison Industries, but the guide’s own list of FPI institutions omits it, the factory map on the Bureau’s UNICOR page lists no factory here, and none of Guaynabo’s documents mention UNICOR. Get the unit team’s answer in writing. More on UNICOR.

Faith, family and immigration

The 2011 booklet offers religious diets to all faith groups, and two of its sections are specific to the island. One explains ASUME, Puerto Rico’s child-support agency, under a heading referring to an “MDC GUAYNABO & ASUME MOU,” and warns that a support order can be changed only from the day a formal request is filed, so a parent with an order should write early. The other describes an officer from ICE’s San Juan enforcement and removal office stationed at the MDC on weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to answer detainees’ questions, serve documents and help recover property. See religious programs in federal prison.

What is daily life like at MDC Guaynabo?

Daily life at MDC Guaynabo is lived in cells. The July 2025 audit counted two buildings, 12 housing units made up entirely of multiple-occupancy cells, no dormitories, no single-cell units and 27 segregation cells. No Bureau document says how many people share a cell.

The only Bureau timetable for Guaynabo is in the 2011 booklet, so treat it as the shape of the day rather than current times; our page on what federal prisoners eat covers meals more generally.

Item	Monday–Friday (2011)	Weekends and holidays (2011)
Official counts	12:01 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., with everyone secured in the units; the 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. counts are stand-up counts	The same five, plus a 10:00 a.m. stand-up count
Morning meal	Breakfast, 6:00–7:00 a.m.	Coffee hour, 7:00–8:00 a.m.
Midday meal	Lunch, 11:00 a.m.–noon	Brunch, 10:30 a.m.–noon
Evening meal	Dinner after the 4:00 p.m. count clears	Dinner after the 4:00 p.m. count clears

The Bureau’s 2024 care-level charts list the MDC at Care Level 2 for both medical and mental-health care; the mental-health chart is undated. In 2011, providers were on site four days a week, urgent care was always available, health services had up to two weeks to see a sick-call patient, and a visit the prisoner requested generally carried a $2 fee, waived for the indigent. Routine dental care, the booklet said, went only to “the sentenced, holdover or inmates housed at MDC Guaynabo over a year pending sentence.” The 2025 audit records medical and mental-health services on site and forensic examinations at the Centro Médico emergency room. Care levels are explained in medical care in federal prison and medical care levels.

What do inspectors say about conditions at MDC Guaynabo?

The main independent inspection of MDC Guaynabo on record is a July 2025 Prison Rape Elimination Act audit, which found that the facility met or exceeded all 45 standards reviewed.

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility.

The Inspector General mentions Guaynabo only in passing: its 2016 contraband review recounts the February 2013 shooting of an MDC officer “in what authorities believe was inmate-involved retaliation related to his investigations into cell phone smuggling,” and a November 2013 audit reports that at Guaynabo “an MDI-subcontracted hospital refused to take BOP patients” because the Bureau’s medical contractor, Medical Development International, had not paid it.

The 2025 PREA audit

Auditor Cassandra McGilbra of Corrections Consulting Services inspected the MDC on-site from July 22 to 24, 2025, and issued her final report on August 25, 2025. She found that the facility met 42 standards, exceeded three and failed none.

Designated capacity was 1,276 and the average daily population 1,103, and on the first day of the July 2025 visit the MDC held 1,089 people, 149 of them with limited English. The facility had received seven sexual-abuse and eight sexual-harassment allegations in the prior year, one of each against staff, and all fifteen were investigated administratively and closed as unsubstantiated.

The auditor described the population as “consisting primarily of Spanish-speaking detainees” and relied on an interpreter for most interviews. The Rape Victims Help Center (CAVV) “was unable to assist,” so psychologists act as victim advocates, though CAVV said it serves prisoners examined by a sexual assault nurse at a local hospital. And the Warden’s team said “staffing has been challenging, but all shifts are adequately covered with overtime.”

The narrative for one of the three standards it marks as exceeded reads “The MDC Los Angeles is a prison. This provision does not apply.” That text belongs to a different facility. The report also gives the street address as “652 Buchanan St.” instead of 652 Carretera 28.

Sexual-abuse allegations in the GAO data

GAO’s report GAO-26-107343, issued May 5, 2026, lists 23 sexual-abuse allegations at MDC Guaynabo against incarcerated people from 2020 through 2024 (1, 3, 3, 6 and 10 by year of the incident, Table 7) and 14 against Bureau employees (0, 0, 4, 4 and 6 by year of the report, Table 8). The tables use different systems and counting bases, so they are never added together, and they record allegations, not findings: nationally, from 2014 to 2022, 5 percent of allegations against incarcerated people and 9 percent against staff were substantiated, and “unsubstantiated” does not mean false. GAO does not adjust for population, so the counts rank nothing.

Staffing, discipline and the courts

Staffing is a long-running theme. The Bureau’s 2007 human-resources manual authorizes a $10,000 relocation bonus for supervisors and managers who move to “the Metropolitan Detention Center, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico or other Bureau locations the Director deems appropriate,” naming no other institution, and staffing problems appear in both the 2023 review and the 2025 audit.

Four Guaynabo employees have pleaded guilty in cases the Inspector General announced:

• Adalberto Martinez, an officer, struck a pretrial detainee in the head with a closed fist on September 23, 2016 and wrote a false memo; he pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights and was sentenced in October 2022 to 24 months’ probation.
• Eric Lugo, a correctional systems officer, wrote a false memo about the same incident; he pleaded guilty to falsifying a record in a federal investigation and was sentenced in March 2023 to two years’ probation.
• Emilio Rodríguez-Arroyo, an officer, struck a handcuffed prisoner in the face on November 8, 2021, shortly after deploying pepper spray; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August 2023 to 24 months’ probation.
• Arcadia Zorrilla, an officer arrested in March 2021 on an indictment charging her with providing or trying to provide a prisoner a cell phone and Suboxone and with lying to agents, pleaded guilty in February 2023 to one count of making a false statement.

The courts add detail. In United States v. Santana-Avilés, 120 F.4th 7 (1st Cir. 2024), a technician testified that MDC Guaynabo “had updated its security camera recording system in the summer of 2020,” bringing about a year of problems, crashes among them, and no video was recorded of the August 2020 assault on an officer at issue. In Figueroa-Carreras v. Rivera, No. 3:25-cv-01114 (D.P.R. May 11, 2025), the court granted the respondent’s motion to dismiss and denied a sentenced man’s habeas petition without prejudice because requests sent through TRULINCS, without a BP-9, did not exhaust the Administrative Remedy Program. In Sánchez-González v. Warden MDC Guaynabo, No. 3:25-cv-01035 (D.P.R. Feb. 2, 2026), the court refused to dismiss a challenge to the cancellation of 365 days of First Step Act credits over a removal order, quoting Rodriguez-Garcia v. Warden, FCI-Herlong, No. 2:23-cv-00849 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 10, 2025), for the reading that the statutory phrase “seemingly refers to an order of removal that can presently be executed”; that ruling let the case proceed without deciding it. See the administrative remedy program.

After Hurricane María struck on September 20, 2017, the Marshals Service relocated prisoners housed at the MDC to the Southern District of Mississippi under the Federal Judiciary Emergency Special Sessions Act of 2005, and trials in the District of Puerto Rico were suspended until November 6, 2017 (United States v. Acevedo-Vázquez, 335 F. Supp. 3d 263 (D.P.R. 2018)).

MDC Guaynabo in the news

Recent news about MDC Guaynabo centers on the Albarati Act and a 2026 challenge to canceled First Step Act credits; older items concern the Albarati murder prosecution, the cases against four employees, a 2022 death in custody and the facility’s history.

• June 15, 2026: The Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act (S. 736), passed by the Senate by voice vote on June 10, was held at the desk in the House. It would raise the penalty for giving a prisoner a cell phone, now up to a year under 18 U.S.C. § 1791, and is not law.
• February 2, 2026: A federal judge in Puerto Rico denied the warden’s motion to dismiss Sánchez-González v. Warden MDC Guaynabo, a challenge to canceled First Step Act credits.
• October 10, 2024: The Inspector General welcomed the Senate’s September 25 approval of that year’s version of the Albarati Act, repeating that “a cell phone in a prison is a deadly weapon.”
• September 24, 2024: The First Circuit affirmed Oscar Martínez-Hernández’s conviction in the Albarati case and the denial of his motion for a new trial, 118 F.4th 72.
• August 29, 2023: Former officer Emilio Rodríguez-Arroyo was sentenced to 24 months’ probation.
• March 21, 2023: Correctional systems officer Eric Lugo was sentenced to two years’ probation.
• February 13, 2023: Officer Arcadia Zorrilla pleaded guilty to making a false statement.
• October 31, 2022: Former officer Adalberto Martinez was sentenced to 24 months’ probation for the 2016 assault on a detainee.
• August 2022: The Bureau posted one news release reporting the death of a person held at MDC Guaynabo; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• October 8, 2019: Martínez-Hernández was sentenced to life.
• January 28, 2015: Nine people were indicted in the Albarati murder.
• February 26, 2013: Lt. Osvaldo Albarati, MDC Guaynabo’s 2011 Correctional Officer of the Year, was shot and killed on the José De Diego Expressway after his shift.
• March 2009: Alberto Goachet was ordered to surrender at the MDC to serve a three-month sentence.
• April 2, 1997: The District Court of the Virgin Islands barred lodging federal detainees in the territory’s jails, citing the Guaynabo facility built for them.
• 1993: The MDC was activated, according to the Bureau’s 2011 orientation booklet.

Frequently asked questions about MDC Guaynabo

Problems at MDC Guaynabo: where we can help

The record for this building points to a particular set of problems, and they are not the problems of an ordinary prison:

• Getting discovery in front of a client. Review is by appointment in the visiting room. A written request citing PS 1315.08’s call for unit and SHU computers, a completed BP-A1155 and discovery on a drive rather than a disc all help, and the court can be asked when time runs short.
• Reaching a client from off the island. Virgin Islands counsel depend on video meetings, and visiting lawyers on laptop approval and a programmed legal line. Ask early and in writing, and keep copies, because legal papers go missing in transit.
• Medical records and medical care. Guaynabo counsel report that a court order is often needed to get records. Problems with care go through the administrative remedy process and, where negligence caused harm, may support a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
• Sentence computation and First Step Act credits. Sentenced people held here have taken the Bureau to court, one of them over credits canceled because of an immigration order. The remedy clock starts fast: a BP-9 is due within 20 calendar days of the event under 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a), and a federal court in Puerto Rico found that TRULINCS messages do not take its place. See challenging a BOP sentence computation.
• Designation after sentencing. RDAP is not offered here, and the June 2026 list marks only FCI Miami’s RDAP and FMC Carswell’s women’s program as Spanish-language, so the designation request deserves attention before the case leaves the courtroom. See sentence mitigation and federal prison transfers.
• Discipline and the Special Housing Unit. SHU placement cuts social visits to one Wednesday a month. See disciplinary proceedings.
• Relief after sentencing. Compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules, a § 2255 motion, a direct appeal and other routes to early release from federal prison each follow their own rules and deadlines.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal criminal defense, appeals and post-conviction matters nationwide, and advises families on Bureau of Prisons problems at institutions across the system, detention centers included. 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

• MDC Guaynabo, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Addresses, telephone and fax numbers, the judicial district and the documents posted for the facility.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement GUA 5267.09B, Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC Guaynabo, 2018. Visiting rotation, visitor lists, dress, screening and legal visits.
• Manual de Admisión y Orientación, Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC Guaynabo, 2012. The Spanish orientation manual.
• MDC Guaynabo Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC Guaynabo, 2012.
• Unit Admission and Orientation Booklet, Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC Guaynabo, 2011. Mission, mail, telephone, commissary, programs, meals and medical care as of 2011.
• Human Resource Management Manual, Program Statement 3000.03, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2007. The relocation bonus that names Guaynabo.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Laptops and discovery computers at pretrial facilities.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The monthly commissary spending limit and its exclusions.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006. Defines an administrative institution.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Monthly minute allowance and the pretrial provisions; replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Correspondence, Program Statement 5265.14, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011.
• Pretrial Inmates, Program Statement 7331.05, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023. Amended in 2025.
• Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. Legal calls, visits and electronic discovery at the ten pretrial facilities.
• Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook (Spanish edition), Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Programs by institution and the RDAP locations list.
• 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. Its Send Money section gives the deposit routes, posting times and holds.
• UNICOR, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Factory locations.
• Population Statistics, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Fallen Hero: Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Includes the August 2022 release reporting a death at the MDC.

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Allegation counts by institution, 2020–2024.
• PREA Audit Report: MDC Guaynabo, Corrections Consulting Services, 2025. Final report of the July 2025 audit by Cassandra McGilbra.
• Report and Recommendations Concerning Access to Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Pretrial Facilities, U.S. Department of Justice, Advisory Group of Department of Justice Components, 2023.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contraband Interdiction Efforts (Report 16-05), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2016.
• Follow-up Audit of Medical Development International’s Performance Under the Federal Correctional Complex Butner Medical Services Contract, Butner, North Carolina (Report 14-02), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2013. Reports the Guaynabo hospital that refused Bureau patients.

Court records

• Frias v. Ripa, No. 3:26-cv-01374 (D.P.R. June 17, 2026), U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 2026. The immigration detention at the GSA Guaynabo Immigration Center.
• Sánchez-González v. Warden MDC Guaynabo, No. 3:25-cv-01035 (D.P.R. Feb. 2, 2026), U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 2026.
• Figueroa-Carreras v. Rivera, No. 3:25-cv-01114 (D.P.R. May 11, 2025), U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 2025.
• Rodriguez-Garcia v. Warden, FCI-Herlong, No. 2:23-cv-00849 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 10, 2025), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, 2025.
• United States v. Santana-Avilés, 120 F.4th 7 (1st Cir. 2024), U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 2024.
• United States v. Martínez-Hernández, 118 F.4th 72 (1st Cir. 2024), U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 2024.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Emilio Rodríguez-Arroyo’s sentence.
• BOP Correctional Systems Officer Sentenced for Obstruction of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Eric Lugo’s sentence.
• BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Arcadia Zorrilla’s plea.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. Adalberto Martinez’s sentence.
• BOP Correctional Officer Pleaded Guilty to Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. Adalberto Martinez’s plea and false memorandum.
• BOP Correctional Officer Indicted and Arrested for Introduction of Contraband and False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Arcadia Zorrilla’s arrest and indictment.
• United States v. Acevedo-Vázquez, 335 F. Supp. 3d 263 (D.P.R. 2018), U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 2018.
• United States v. Torres-Landrúa, 783 F.3d 58 (1st Cir. 2015), U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 2015.
• Puerto Rico Political Consultant Sentenced to Three Months in Prison and Three Months of Home Detention, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, 2009. Alberto Goachet’s sentence.
• United States v. Bello, 194 F.3d 18 (1st Cir. 1999), U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1999.
• United States v. Rohlsen, 174 F.R.D. 52 (D.V.I. 1997), U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, 1997.
• In re Federal Detainees Housed or Lodged in Facilities of the V.I. Bureau of Corrections, 36 V.I. 268 (D.V.I. 1997), U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, 1997.
• United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), Supreme Court of the United States, 1992.
• Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979), Supreme Court of the United States, 1979.

News and other sources

• Statement by DOJ IG Michael E. Horowitz on the Senate Passing the “Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act”, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• Statement by DOJ IG Michael E. Horowitz on the “Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act”, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• Departamento de Corrección y Rehabilitación (DCR), Government of Puerto Rico, 2026. Agency directory entry.
• First Step Act Time Credits—Revisions, Federal Bureau of Prisons (Federal Register), 2026. Interim final rule, 91 Federal Register 55740.
• S. 736, Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act, 119th Congress (Congress.gov).
• 18 U.S.C. § 1791, Providing or possessing contraband in prison, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3142(i), Release or detention of a defendant pending trial, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), Calculation of a term of imprisonment, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii), Development of risk and needs assessment system, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 119, Puerto Rico, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a), Initial filing, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 543.13(c), Visits by attorneys, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. §§ 551.106–.109, 551.117, Pretrial Inmates, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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