Bureau of Prisons Central Office at a glance
The Central Office is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, at 320 First Street NW in Washington, D.C. Nobody is imprisoned there. It writes national policy, supervises the six regional offices that oversee the prisons, decides the last administrative appeal (the BP-11), and reviews every compassionate release request a warden supports before the Director rules on it.
| Official name | Central Office HQ (as the Bureau’s roster prints it); the Bureau’s headquarters |
|---|---|
| BOP code | BOP |
| Street address | 320 FIRST STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20534 |
| Staff mail | 320 FIRST STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20534 (addressed to a named staff member) |
| Phone | 202-307-3198 |
| Fax | 202-514-6620 |
| General e-mail | [email protected] |
| Houses prisoners | No |
| Regions supervised | Six — Mid-Atlantic · North Central · Northeast · South Central · Southeast · Western |
| Also under it | Grand Prairie Office Complex, Grand Prairie, Texas |
| Final remedy level | BP-11 appeal to the General Counsel |
On this page
What does the Central Office do?
The regulation that defines the Bureau puts this office first. 28 C.F.R. § 503.1: “The Bureau of Prisons consists of a Central Office, located at 320 First Street, NW., Washington, DC 20534, a Staff Training Center, and six Regional Offices (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, North Central, South Central, and Western).”
The Bureau’s own description of the chain is short: “Each facility reports to a regional office, who provides close oversight and support to that site. At our headquarters, national programs are developed and functional support is provided to the entire agency by each ‘Division.’” Wardens answer to a regional director, and regional directors answer here.
The Bureau’s Offices page builds the name of the person who manages the agency dynamically, and that field did not load in the copy we read on September 18, 2026. The Bureau’s news feed records the swearing-in of William K. Marshall III as Director in an item posted April 28, 2025, and Program Statement 5160.06, dated September 3, 2026, is approved over his signature as Director.
How is the Central Office organized?
Into ten components, which the Offices page lists in this order. The descriptions are the Bureau’s, from each component’s own page, read September 18, 2026. We name no assistant directors.
- Administration Division: “responsible for the Bureau’s financial and facility management.”
- Correctional Programs Division: “responsible for the appropriate classification of federally incarcerated individuals; sentence computations; designations and transportation,” the work done at Grand Prairie.
- Health Services Division: medical, dental and mental health care, “including healthcare delivery, infectious disease management, and medical designations.”
- Human Resource Management Division: “coordinates the Bureau of Prisons’ personnel matters.”
- Federal Prison Industries: a government corporation operating “under the trade name UNICOR”; see UNICOR.
- Information, Policy, & Public Affairs Division: technology, “public affairs, legislative affairs, policy development, records management, research, communications and archives.”
- National Institute of Corrections: training and technical assistance “to Federal, state, and local corrections agencies.”
- Office of General Counsel: represents the Bureau “on a broad range of legal, policy, and management issues”; it decides the BP-11 and runs FOIA.
- Program Review Division: internal audit, and the Bureau’s “primary liaison with external oversight entities, including the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.”
- Reentry Services Division: six branches, one of them Residential Reentry Management, which runs the RRM field offices.
The side menu on those division pages lists “Information Technology and Data” and “Ofc Congressional & Public Affairs” where the Offices page shows one Information, Policy, & Public Affairs Division. The list above is the Offices page’s, as printed.
How do I file a BP-11 appeal with the Central Office?
The BP-11 is the last step of the Administrative Remedy Program, after a BP-9 to the warden and a BP-10 to the region. Program Statement 1330.18 (Jan. 6, 2014) at p. 7: an inmate not satisfied with the Regional Director’s response “may submit an Appeal on the appropriate form (BP-11) to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the response.” The form is the “Central Office Administrative Remedy Appeal, Form BP-11 (BP-231)” (at p. 5). Our BP-9 guide covers the first step.
It is not mailed to the Director. PS 1330.18 at p. 7 directs the inmate to “mail it to the appropriate Regional Director, if a Regional Appeal, or to the National Inmate Appeals Administrator, Office of General Counsel, if a Central Office Appeal,” at the address in the table above. The same page requires copies of the institution and regional filings and their responses, and “three additional copies with an Appeal to the Central Office” of any continuation page and exhibits. Nothing new can be added: “An inmate may not raise in an Appeal issues not raised in the lower level filings.”
Thirty days is counted to arrival in Washington: “These deadlines specify the date of the Appeal’s receipt in the regional office or the Central Office” (at p. 7). A BP-11 rejected for a fixable defect can be resubmitted; PS 1330.18 at p. 8 treats “15 calendar days at the Central Office” as ordinarily reasonable for that.
Two sets of numbers sit two sentences apart on PS 1330.18 at p. 9, and they answer different questions. The response deadline is “by the General Counsel within 40 calendar days” of filing. The extension the Bureau may take, once and in writing, is “20 days at the Central Office level.” So the longest wait is 40 days plus one 20-day extension, after which the inmate “may consider the absence of a response to be a denial at that level.”
The BP-11 closes the internal process: “Appeal to the General Counsel is the final administrative appeal” (at p. 7), and the statement adds that “In many cases, courts require a proper Appeal to the General Counsel before an inmate may pursue the complaint in court.” For lawsuits over prison conditions, federal law goes further.
Under 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), “No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.” The Supreme Court has held that “Proper exhaustion demands compliance with an agency’s deadlines and other critical procedural rules.” Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 90 (2006). Our page on the § 2241 petition covers one of the court routes that follow.
What does the Central Office decide on compassionate release?
The warden looks first, but a request the warden supports is decided in Washington. Program Statement 5050.51 (Sept. 3, 2026) at p. 10: the Bureau files a motion “only after review of the request by the Warden, the General Counsel, and either the Medical Director for medical referrals or the Assistant Director, Correctional Programs Division for non-medical referrals, and with the approval of the Director, Bureau of Prisons.”
At p. 11: “If the General Counsel determines that the request warrants approval, the General Counsel shall solicit the opinion of either the Medical Director or the Assistant Director, Correctional Programs Division depending upon the nature of the basis of the request.” The General Counsel also seeks the view of the U.S. Attorney in the sentencing district and then “shall forward the entire matter to the Director, Bureau of Prisons, for final decision.” Until the Director rules, the same page bars staff at any level from contacting the sentencing judge.
A refusal here is treated differently from a warden’s, which can be taken through the remedy process (at p. 12). A denial by the General Counsel “constitutes a final administrative decision,” and the Director must give written reasons “within 20 workdays after receipt of the referral from the Office of General Counsel” (at p. 12). At p. 13, because those denials are final, “an inmate may not appeal the denial through the Administrative Remedy Procedure.”
The same page lists when a request can go to the sentencing court instead: after a BP-11 response, after a denial by the General Counsel or Director, or after “the lapse of 30 days from the receipt of the RIS request by the Warden of the inmate’s facility, whichever is earlier.” See our compassionate release policy page, the request to the warden and our compassionate release practice.
How do FOIA and Privacy Act requests reach the Central Office?
The Bureau’s FOIA page, read September 18, 2026: “BOP has a decentralized FOIA program. After the Central Office receives your request, we will assign it to either the Central Office or a Regional Office for processing based primarily on which office is in the best position to obtain responsive records.” It prints the office as FOIA/PA Section, Office of General Counsel, Room 924, at the headquarters address, with the mailbox [email protected].
“Inmates can get their central or medical files at their institution,” without FOIA. And an attorney who sends the client’s signed consent with a request for medical records is told that “the request will ordinarily be processed within three business days of receipt.” The consent must be notarized or sworn, and Form DOJ-361 serves. That form carries its own limit: requests from people who are neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents are processed under FOIA rather than the Privacy Act. See our release of information page.
How do the Central Office, the regions and Grand Prairie fit together?
Below the Central Office sit six regional offices, listed with their states on our regional offices index. A region decides the BP-10 and oversees its prisons; it does not decide a BP-11 or make the final call on compassionate release. The Bureau of Prisons hub links every state and institution below them.
Grand Prairie, Texas, is the other half of headquarters. The Offices page says the complex “was created to better serve employees and consolidate various processes to achieve more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective Bureau-wide operations,” and names three components: the Human Resource Services Center, the Designations and Sentence Computation Center, and the Field Acquisition Office. The roster files it under the Central Office, not a region. Our Grand Prairie page explains designation and sentence computation.
One address causes confusion. The Bureau’s physical records put the Grand Prairie complex and the South Central Regional Office at the same place, the U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Complex at 346 Marine Forces Drive; the region’s staff-mail record prints 344. They are separate offices with separate telephone numbers.
Nothing for a person in custody goes to Washington. See our guides to writing to someone in federal prison and sending money. What belongs at 320 First Street is a BP-11, a FOIA request or official correspondence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I mail a BP-11 appeal?
To the National Inmate Appeals Administrator, Office of General Counsel, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 320 First Street NW, Washington, DC 20534. Program Statement 1330.18 at p. 7 names that office for a Central Office appeal. The appeal must arrive within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the BP-10 response.
How long does the General Counsel have to answer?
Forty calendar days from filing, under the response schedule in Program Statement 1330.18 at p. 9. The same page, two sentences later, lets the Central Office extend that once by 20 days with written notice. If no answer arrives in that time, the absence of a response may be treated as a denial.
Who decides compassionate release at the Bureau level?
The Director. Under Program Statement 5050.51 at pp. 10–11, a request the warden supports goes to the General Counsel, who gathers the view of the Medical Director or the Correctional Programs Division and of the U.S. Attorney, then forwards the whole file to the Director for the final decision.
Can a denial by the General Counsel be appealed?
Not inside the Bureau. Program Statement 5050.51 at p. 13 says a denial by the General Counsel or the Director is a final administrative decision and cannot go through the remedy process. The same page lists when the request may be taken to the sentencing court instead, including 30 days after the warden received it.
Is the Central Office a prison?
No. It is the Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and it holds nobody. The Bureau’s roster lists it as an office, with no security level. The people it supervises are held in institutions across the country, each of which reports to one of the six regional offices.
Can I send mail or money to someone through the Central Office?
No. Letters go to the institution where the person is held, under that institution’s rules, and funds go through the Bureau’s national systems. Mail sent to headquarters for a prisoner does not reach them. The headquarters address is for BP-11 appeals, FOIA requests and official correspondence.
What is the difference between Grand Prairie and the Central Office?
Grand Prairie is a Bureau office complex in Texas that the roster files under the Central Office. Its Designation and Sentence Computation Center decides where people serve their sentences and computes release dates. Washington sets policy and decides BP-11 appeals and compassionate release; neither location holds prisoners.
Where we can help
The problems that reach this office are the ones that ran out of road below it: a remedy that has to be carried to the General Counsel correctly and on time, and a compassionate release request stalled between the warden and the Director.
Discuss a Compassionate Release Motion. You leave with an assessment of whether the facts meet the standard, and what a motion would have to show. A court can act only after the warden has had the request 30 days, or administrative rights are exhausted — whichever is earlier. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A).
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.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of particular places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.
Sources and currency
Bureau of Prisons documents
- Offices, Federal Bureau of Prisons, read Sept. 18, 2026.
- Organization, Federal Bureau of Prisons, read Sept. 18, 2026, with the division pages linked above.
- Central Office, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and its location record for code BOP, retrieved Sept. 18, 2026.
- Administrative Remedy Program, Program Statement 1330.18, Jan. 6, 2014, at pp. 5, 7, 8 and 9.
- Compassionate Release/Reduction in Sentence Procedures, Program Statement 5050.51, Sept. 3, 2026, at pp. 10–13.
- Designation of State Institutions for Service of Federal Sentence, Program Statement 5160.06, Sept. 3, 2026, at p. 1.
- Freedom of Information Act, Federal Bureau of Prisons, read Sept. 18, 2026; Form DOJ-361.
- Deputy AG Blanche Swears in William K. Marshall III, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Apr. 28, 2025.
Statutes, regulations and cases
- 28 C.F.R. § 503.1
- 28 C.F.R. § 542.15
- 28 C.F.R. § 542.18
- 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)
- 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)
- Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 90 (2006).
Sources reviewed September 2026. Confirm anything you will rely on with the Bureau before acting on it.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026