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Federal Prisons in South Dakota

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

Federal prisons in South Dakota at a glance

The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs one institution in South Dakota, FPC Yankton, a minimum-security prison camp for men holding 524 people as of September 2026. It has no satellite camp of its own, and it sits in the Bureau’s North Central Region.

InstitutionType and securityHoldsPopulationCamp or satelliteCityJudicial district
FPC YanktonFederal Prison Camp · MinimumMen524—YanktonDistrict of South Dakota
Total1 institution524—
Federal Bureau of Prisons facility roster and population statistics, September 2026.

How many federal prisons are in South Dakota?

One, and it is the smallest kind the Bureau operates. The roster carries a single South Dakota entry, FPC Yankton, a Federal Prison Camp rated minimum security, standing on its own rather than as a satellite outside a larger prison’s fence. There is no penitentiary, correctional institution, detention center or medical center in the state. What minimum security means is in our guide to security levels, and the Bureau of Prisons directory shows how few states hold only a camp.

Who is held there follows from the rating rather than from anything local. A camp designation needs two things at once: a security point total in the camp range, which stops at eleven, and no Public Safety Factor, which overrides the score outright. Most men arrive by car, because where the judgment allows voluntary surrender the Designation and Sentence Computation Center sets the institution and the date and the person reports unescorted. Program Statement 5100.08 subtracts three points for that, defining it at p. 38 as meaning the inmate “was not escorted by a law enforcement officer to either the U.S. Marshals Office or the place of confinement.” On that scale, three points is often the whole argument.

It is also unlike any other federal prison to look at, because it was not built as one: the Bureau bought the closed Yankton College campus in the late 1980s, so men sleep in converted dormitories and families visit in what was the student union. Two further points for anyone looking for a list: the roster records Yankton as holding men, so no federal prison in South Dakota holds women — our guide to women’s federal prisons explains where they go — and nothing in the state appears in the Bureau’s closure announcement of July 1, 2026, so this page carries no closures section.

Which Bureau of Prisons regional office oversees South Dakota?

The North Central Regional Office, which the Bureau runs from Kansas City, Kansas. The same region takes in prisons from Colorado across to Michigan, and Yankton is among the smallest of them, so a complaint from this camp is reviewed several states away.

That review is the second stage of the administrative remedy process, and the deadline is the part people miss. 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.” Our page on filing a BP-9 covers the request the Warden answers first.

Which RRM office handles halfway-house placement from South Dakota?

RRM Minneapolis, in Minnesota. South Dakota is a single federal judicial district under 28 U.S.C. § 122, divided into four divisions, with the camp’s own county in the Southern Division and its court at Sioux Falls. The Bureau’s page for RRM Minneapolis prints three districts, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, so the whole state belongs to that office, and no other reentry office lists any part of it — neither an overlap to explain nor a district left without an office.

The office that takes a case is fixed by the district a person is releasing to, and at a camp that is very often not this one. Program Statement 7310.04 tells the Warden, where there is significant doubt about a referral, to consider “contacting the Chief USPO in the release district” (at p. 12). The preparation runs on a longer clock than most families expect — Program Statement 5325.09 provides at p. 8 that “Inmates will be enrolled in the RPP between 18 and 24 months prior to their institution departure date to the community” — and our page on federal halfway houses covers the rest.

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

The inmate locator covers every federal institution, so it will find a South Dakota resident designated a thousand miles away as easily as a man at Yankton. Use a register number where you have one; a name search needs a first and a last name.

Mail takes the address block the camp itself publishes, and a camp block is not the block of a prison with a camp attached — a point that catches people who have written to a relative elsewhere in the system. Take it from the facility page and include the register number. See writing to someone inside.

Visiting runs on Yankton’s own institution supplement. A camp’s visiting room is usually less restricted than a secure institution’s, but the approval process is the same and the list has to be built before anyone travels. Our page on visitation covers it.

Money goes in through the national channels rather than anything local: the lockbox by mail, Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram. 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,” while the Bureau’s own guidance on sending money gives two to four hours for the same window. See sending money.

How many federal prisons does the Bureau of Prisons run in South Dakota?

One. FPC Yankton, a minimum-security Federal Prison Camp for men, is the only institution on the Bureau’s roster in the state. It is a camp in its own right rather than a satellite of a larger prison. South Dakota has no penitentiary, correctional institution or detention center.

What is the largest federal prison in South Dakota by population?

FPC Yankton, because it is the only one. The Bureau counted 524 people there as of September 2026, and the camp has no satellite row, so that figure covers everyone held. The state has a single federal prison rather than a ranking of institutions.

Is FPC Yankton a federal prison camp, and is there a penitentiary in South Dakota?

It is a camp, minimum security, and it is the whole of the federal estate in the state. There is no United States Penitentiary in South Dakota, no correctional institution and no medical center. Anyone whose score or Public Safety Factors rule out a camp is designated elsewhere.

Who goes to FPC Yankton?

Men whose security point total falls in the camp range and to whom no Public Safety Factor applies; a Public Safety Factor overrides the score. Most arrive by voluntary surrender on a date the Designation and Sentence Computation Center sets, which Program Statement 5100.08 rewards with a three-point reduction.

How do I look up someone held in a South Dakota federal prison?

Use the Bureau’s inmate locator, which searches the whole federal system, and search on a register number wherever one is known. A name query needs both a first and a last name. Anyone sentenced in a South Dakota state court is held by the state and will not appear in the federal locator at all.

Which regional office covers South Dakota’s federal prison?

The North Central Regional Office, which the Bureau runs from Kansas City, Kansas, and which also takes in institutions from Colorado across to Michigan. To a family it matters as the second stage of the remedy process: an appeal from a Warden’s answer goes on a BP-10 form to the Regional Director.

Which reentry office handles halfway-house placement for someone releasing to South Dakota?

RRM Minneapolis, in Minnesota. Its Bureau page prints three judicial districts — Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota — so the whole state belongs to that office and no other reentry office lists any part of it. Placement follows the district a person is releasing to.

Can someone ask to be designated to FPC Yankton?

A judge can recommend it and a defendant can ask, but the camp range and the Public Safety Factors decide first. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) the Bureau designates the place of imprisonment and, subject to bed availability and security designation, places the person “in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence.”

How can a federal defense firm help a family with someone in a South Dakota federal prison?

The problems that recur at a camp are not the ones that recur at a penitentiary, and Yankton’s own records show where they cluster. Getting designated here and staying here: minimum security turns on the point total and on Public Safety Factors, and the voluntary-surrender credit is argued at sentencing rather than afterwards — among the problems we work on inside. Discipline: at a camp an incident report can end community custody and the camp designation with it, which is a far larger consequence than the same report would carry behind a fence. And First Step Act time credits, furloughs and halfway-house placement all turn on paperwork that can be checked, which is 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 South Dakota 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

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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