FCI Big Spring: Closure Status, Visiting, Mail and Money

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

FCI Big Spring at a glance

FCI Big Spring is a low-security federal prison for men, with a minimum-security satellite camp beside it, at 1900 Simler Avenue in Big Spring, Texas. It is one of six institutions the Bureau said on July 1, 2026 that it “will close,” with no date attached. It held 506 men as of September 2026.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring
BOP code	BIG
Security level	Low; men · with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp
Status	Closing (announced July 1, 2026; no date given)
Population	506 — 413 in the FCI, 93 at the camp (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · arrive before 2:00 p.m.
Inmate mail	Committed Name & Register Number · Federal Correctional Institution Big Spring · 1900 Simler Ave · Big Spring, TX 79720
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	432-466-2300 · Fax 432-466-2576
Street address	1900 Simler Avenue, Big Spring, TX 79720 · Howard County
Judicial district	Northern District of Texas, Abilene Division
BOP region	South Central
Designated capacity	883 (FCI)
Housing	Dormitories, not cells · see daily life
Special Housing Unit	48 segregation cells
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	None
UNICOR	Not listed
Camp	Yes — minimum-security satellite camp

The institution sits on the west side of town, in the Bureau of Prisons’ South Central Region: 413 men in the FCI and 93 at the camp on the count dated September 10, 2026. That is under half the 1,041 counted in March 2024, and most of the fall came during 2024, long before the closure was announced. The town also had a second federal prison, a privately owned contract facility now standing idle, which is routinely confused with this one. Our guide to federal prisons in Texas covers the rest of the state.

Is FCI Big Spring closing?

Yes. The Bureau of Prisons announced on July 1, 2026 that it will close FCI Big Spring and its satellite camp, and it has not said when. As of September 2026 the institution was still on the Bureau’s roster, its bop.gov page said nothing about the decision, and the report dated September 10, 2026 counted 506 men there.

What the Bureau announced on July 1, 2026

The one-page press release lists six institutions the Bureau “will close,” the second being “Big Spring FCI and Satellite Camp,” and cites “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges” and a maintenance backlog “exceeding $4 billion.” For employees it is blunt: “A reduction-in-force will take effect at Big Spring FCI and Satellite Camp and La Tuna FCI, FSL, and Satellite Camp,” so FCI La Tuna is the only other institution facing one, while staff at FCI Beaumont Low, the FMC Lexington camp and FCI Petersburg Low “will be transferred to other units onsite or nearby.” About the men held at Big Spring the release says nothing: no closing date, no transfer schedule and no receiving institutions.

The March 31, 2027 date does not come from the Bureau

The widely repeated deadline of March 31, 2027 appears in no Bureau publication. It comes from KOSA (CBS7) on July 2, 2026, which added that the reduction in force “can happen at any time, triggering a 90-day notice”; from the Big Spring Herald on July 7, 2026; and from SaveBigSpring.com, the campaign that Local 3809 of the Council of Prison Locals, the prison employees’ union, launched on July 24, 2026 against the loss of 238 federal jobs. Patch reported on July 7, 2026 that the mother of Derek Chauvin, who is held at Big Spring, had been told the building would be vacated before March 2027.

What the Bureau’s own numbers show

The total had already halved before the announcement, from 1,202 in December 2022 to 601 in June 2026. The table uses the Bureau’s published counts, each dated by its own report; figures before September 2026 come from copies of the Bureau’s data kept by the Internet Archive.

Report date	FCI	Camp	Total
December 29, 2022	1,064	138	1,202
March 7, 2024	928	113	1,041
September 5, 2024	712	109	821
January 2, 2025	497	110	607
June 4, 2026	491	110	601
August 13, 2026	447	97	544
September 10, 2026	413	93	506

The steep fall came between March 2024 and January 2025, when the FCI went from 928 men to 497. The Bureau has published no explanation for it; the 2024 audit discussed below does record four housing units on a form where the 2021 audit recorded twelve. The total then held near 600 for a year and a half before falling again after the announcement: between June 4 and September 10, 2026 the FCI lost 78 men and the camp 17.

What a family can do before a transfer

Where each man goes is the Bureau’s call. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) it weighs bed space, security, programs, medical and mental-health needs and the sentencing court’s recommendation, and places a prisoner “as close as practicable” to his primary residence and, where practicable, within 500 driving miles of it; the subsection adds that a designation “is not reviewable by any court.” What counts, then, is the record in front of the Bureau. Send the unit team the release address, medical needs, program history and any family reason for a nearby placement, in writing, before transfer lists are drawn up; our guides to designation and transfers explain how. Meanwhile, run the locator by register number before every letter, deposit or trip, and collect certificates and medical records while they are easy to get.

Is FCI Big Spring the same as Big Spring Correctional Center?

No. FCI Big Spring is run by the Bureau of Prisons. Big Spring Correctional Center, also called Big Spring Correctional Facility or CI Big Spring, was a company-owned contract prison run by the GEO Group, which has reported it idle since 2021. The two are confused constantly, and an Inspector General report confuses them as well.

The contract prison held federal prisoners under the Bureau’s Criminal Alien Requirement contracts. An Inspector General audit of another contract prison, Report 15-15 (April 2015), lists it among fourteen such facilities as of February 19, 2015, as a low-security GEO prison holding 3,392 people, the most in that table. GEO’s annual reports say the Bureau told the company on August 18, 2021 that it would not renew the contracts for its 1,732-bed Big Spring and 1,800-bed Flightline facilities, dating their end to November 30, 2021 in one passage and November 30, 2022 in another. GEO’s reports for 2025 and for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 list Big Spring Correctional Facility, with 924 design beds, among facilities idled in 2021. See our page on Big Spring Correctional Center.

An Inspector General report blurs the line. Report 21-123 (September 2021) says in a text box that immigration officials ran a fiscal-year 2018 case surge at “FCI Big Spring (Flight Line Unit, Airpark Unit, and Cedar Hill Unit),” but its own appendix lists the hearing-program site as “Big Spring Correctional Center (Cedar Hill and Flightline).” None of those unit names appears in any FCI Big Spring document.

Several criminal cases often credited to the FCI belong to the contract prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s releases: the 2014 sentencing of an officer who took a $1,700 bribe to smuggle cell phones, the 2014 sentencings of officers who admitted false count records after a 2012 suicide in the Flight Line unit’s segregation wing, and two 2015 contraband cases.

As for the FCI’s own history, the 2021 PREA audit describes it as “Activated in 1979” on 98 acres of the former Webb Air Force Base, and the Bureau’s Federal Prisons Journal in summer 1989 described “the Federal Prison Camp, Big Spring, Texas,” on “an abandoned air base,” where walkaways and escapes had averaged 20 a year in 1985 and 1986 from a population of more than 700. KOSA reported in July 2026 that it became a low-security institution in 1990. Listings that give 1972 as the opening year rest on no published record.

What is the security level at FCI Big Spring?

FCI Big Spring is low security, for men, and its camp is minimum security. The 2024 PREA audit records the custody mix as “Low security- In, minimum security-out,” and the December 2023 handbook says designation here rests partly on a man’s “anticipated ability to function appropriately in a low security facility.” The Bureau’s September 2026 roster lists 13 institutions in Texas, eight with a camp; our guide to federal prisons in Texas covers them.

Placement follows Program Statement 5100.08 (2026): a score drawn from the pre-sentence report and criminal history sets the security level, Public Safety Factors and Management Variables can change where a man may be held, and the Bureau’s designation center in Grand Prairie, Texas, picks the institution. A closure moves men; it does not change their scores.

For health care, Big Spring is care level 2 for medical needs on a Bureau chart dated February 13, 2024, and level 2 for mental health on an undated Bureau chart released with it under the Freedom of Information Act; both charts are now more than two years old. Our page on medical designations and care levels explains the levels.

Capacity figures have shifted as often as the population. The 1999 State of the Bureau gave the FCI a capacity of 468 and the camp 144, against 1,023 and 163 prisoners that year; the 2021 and 2024 PREA audits give the main institution a designated capacity of 883, and the 2021 audit gives the camp 144. The FCI’s count of 413 in the report dated September 10, 2026 is under half that 883.

Big Spring is in Howard County, which federal law places in the Abilene Division of the Northern District of Texas (28 U.S.C. § 124(a)(3)), and a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 about how a sentence is being carried out is ordinarily filed where the prisoner is held.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Big Spring?

Two nationally known men were at Big Spring as of September 2026, and both will move if the closure goes ahead. The register number is the search term that settles it.

Person	Register number	Status, as of September 2026	Background and source
Derek Chauvin	47849-509	At FCI Big Spring (code BIG); projected release November 18, 2037	Former Minneapolis police officer; transferred here on August 20, 2024, the Bureau told Reuters; serving a 21-year federal civil-rights sentence imposed in July 2022
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis	81710-053	At FCI Big Spring (code BIG); projected release June 20, 2038	Sentenced on August 9, 2013 to 30 years for trying to detonate what he believed was a working 1,000-pound bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan (U.S. Attorney, E.D.N.Y.)
Dwaine Caraway	57553-177	Released February 7, 2022; the record ends with the code of the Bureau’s Dallas reentry office (CDA)	Former Dallas mayor pro tem; surrendered at Big Spring on May 7, 2019 to serve 56 months for wire fraud conspiracy and tax evasion (NBC 5)
Anthony Pellicano	21568-112	Released March 22, 2019	Former Hollywood private investigator; San Angelo Live reported in June 2018 that he had been held at Big Spring before moving to FCI Terminal Island

Patch reported on July 7, 2026 that Chauvin’s mother did not yet know where he would be sent. Online lists of “Big Spring” prisoners mix this institution with the contract prison; only a current locator search shows where a man is.

How do I find someone at FCI Big Spring?

Search the Bureau’s free Inmate Locator by the eight-digit register number, or by first and last name; a man held here appears as “Big Spring FCI.” Do not confuse it with “Big Sandy USP,” which is USP Big Sandy in Kentucky. Our guide to the locator explains the other fields.

A record the Bureau marks “IN TRANSIT” (moved out of a Bureau facility, and may or may not be returned) names no facility, and the screen shows “NOT IN BOP CUSTODY” instead. Someone who has gone on to a halfway house or home confinement can show a residential reentry office, which is why Dwaine Caraway’s record ends with the Dallas office’s code, CDA. Once Big Spring empties, every record will change to a new code. The locator does not show the housing unit, which the handbook asks senders to add, so ask the man for it.

How do I write to someone at FCI Big Spring?

Write to the committed name and register number at 1900 Simler Ave, Big Spring, TX 79720 — the street address, not a post office box. The Bureau publishes one inmate-mail address for the whole institution and none for the camp, so the same block serves both. The December 2023 handbook uses this form:

Committed name and register number (add the housing unit)
Federal Correctional Institution Big Spring
1900 Simler Ave
Big Spring, TX 79720

Mail is delivered Monday through Friday and held 30 days before it is returned, the handbook says. Listings that print a separate camp address are wrong. See our guide to writing to a federal prisoner and the Bureau’s correspondence regulations.

Letters leaving a low- or minimum-security institution may be sealed and go out uninspected, while incoming general mail is opened and inspected. Legal mail is opened only in the prisoner’s presence when the sender is identified and the envelope is marked “Special Mail – Open only in the presence of the inmate.” At a low-security prison softcover books may come from anyone, but hardcovers and newspapers only from a publisher, book club or bookstore, and Polaroids and nude or sexually suggestive photographs are barred. Packages need prior written approval, and the Bureau’s page lists 1900 Simler Ave – Warehouse, Big Spring, TX 79720 for freight and non-USPS parcels.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Big Spring?

Money goes to the Bureau’s national system, not to the prison. Once the locator shows Big Spring FCI, use one of the three methods on the Bureau’s funds page:

• Western Union Quick Collect, in person, at 1-800-634-3422 (option 2), online or in the Send2Corrections app. The account is the eight-digit register number followed by the last name, with no spaces; the attention line is the committed name; and the code city is always FBOP, DC.
• MoneyGram ExpressPayment, with Federal Bureau of Prisons as the company, Washington, DC as the city and state, the same account format and receive code 7932. Online transfers are capped at $300.
• Mail: a money order, U.S. government check, cashier’s or certified check, or bank draft, with the committed name and register number on it and on the envelope, sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, the name and number, Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001. No cash, personal checks or enclosures.

Western Union and MoneyGram funds post within two to four hours when sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, and otherwise at 7:00 a.m. Eastern the next day. Mailed non-postal money orders and non-government checks are held for 15 days, and foreign instruments for 45. Deposit questions go to Bureau staff at 202-307-2712, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Visitors cannot leave money at the prison. Our guide to sending money has more.

Spending is capped at $460 a month under Program Statement 4500.13 (see the commissary section), or at $25, stamps aside, for a man refusing the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program, and the December 2023 handbook requires an associate warden’s approval for any withdrawal over $500.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Big Spring?

Visiting at the FCI and the camp runs from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, under institution supplement BIG 5267.09D of December 21, 2022, also issued in Spanish under the same number and date. Visitors may not arrive before 8:00 a.m., are turned away after 2:00 p.m., and should allow for processing that can exceed 30 minutes when a crowd is waiting. Each visitor gets one visit a day, with no leaving and coming back. Our visiting guide and the Bureau’s visiting regulations cover the national rules.

Both 2023 handbooks add a rule the supplement lacks: each visit costs one point, and after six points in a month there are no more visits that month, holidays excepted. The English supplement says nothing about points, and the Spanish one prints the heading “Sistema de puntos” but describes no points. The handbooks are newer, so plan on six visits a month and ask the unit team whether the cap is enforced.

The visiting room’s capacity is 250. When it fills, staff ask for volunteers to leave and then end visits for groups who live within 50 miles and come often, at least five groups at a time, so families who drive a long way are cut last.

Who can visit, and how many

Immediate family (a spouse, children, parents, siblings, stepparents and foster parents) can be submitted during admission and orientation; everyone else is vetted by the unit team through a questionnaire the prisoner mails out, form BP-629 in the supplement and BP-IS-139 in the handbook. Friends must have known him before his incarceration unless the warden makes an exception, most likely for a man with no other visitors, and people with criminal records are considered one at a time.

No more than five visitors, infants included, may be with one prisoner at once, though the unit team can approve more in unusual cases if asked early. Children under 16 need a parent or legal guardian with them, and 16- and 17-year-olds without one need the custodial parent’s written approval and a photo ID. Prisoners may not enter the children’s area.

Lawyers need an appointment with the unit team at least 24 hours ahead, a valid state driver’s license and a state bar card; the visit is not listened to, and recording equipment needs the warden’s written approval. Consular officers follow the same steps, and clergy and other one-time visitors need the warden’s approval in advance. See our page on attorney-client communications.

A man in administrative detention or disciplinary segregation ordinarily gets two-hour visits by video monitor from the law library inside the Special Housing Unit. A man in an outside hospital ordinarily gets none, apart from immediate family or next of kin of a man who is seriously or critically ill or facing a long stay, with approvals up to the warden. Visits for men with a sex offense against a minor are flagged and “closely monitored.”

What visitors can wear and bring

The dress code is strict, and the operations lieutenant or duty officer decides whether an improperly dressed visitor is turned away. The supplement and its handout bar revealing, sleeveless, tight or see-through clothing; slit, mini and wrap skirts; shorts or skirts two inches or more above the knee; hats and scarves; long or hooded coats and jackets; gang symbols and offensive printing; athletic wear, swimwear and open-toed shoes; and anything khaki or camouflage, which the handout applies from age 10. Shirts must be tucked in or belted from age 4, and underwire bras, piercings and metal trim that will not clear the detector are not allowed.

Each adult may bring up to $20 in coins and $1 and $5 bills for the vending machines, in one small, clear, half-gallon bag that staff search. Phones, cosmetics, photographs, pens, sunglasses, umbrellas, toys, food and reading material, the Bible included, stay out. For a baby under a year, a parent may bring three sealed bottles of formula or milk, three sealed baby-food containers (no glass), six diapers, wet wipes, a change of clothes and two blankets, while strollers, carriers and opaque diaper bags stay outside. Lobby lockers are a last resort, and anything left in one after hours is treated as contraband.

Prisoners come in institution khakis and shoes, hand over their commissary card and may bring only a comb, a handkerchief, a wedding ring, a religious medallion and approved religious headwear. Contact is a brief kiss and embrace at the start and end. On holding hands the handbooks conflict: the December 2023 edition says it “is not permitted,” while the earlier 2023 handbook says it “will be the only physical contact permitted.” Nothing, money and photographs included, leaves the room with the prisoner.

Identification, screening and the buzzer system

Visitors 16 and older need a valid government-issued photo ID, and each adult completes the Bureau’s Notification to Visitor form. FCI visitors walk through a metal detector while their belongings go through an X-ray machine, and staff may add an ION spectrometry drug-detection device, a pat search or a vehicle search; refusing means no visit. Bring medical documentation for a pacemaker or prosthesis. See our page on searches and contraband.

Big Spring runs its line on buzzers: after the paperwork, each prisoner’s group hands over its IDs, takes a buzzer and waits inside the car until it sounds. FCI visitors are then stamped with ultraviolet ink on the back of a hand, checked under the light going in and out, and escorted no more than ten at a time; camp visitors skip the stamp and the metal detector.

Two rules catch families by surprise. Anyone refused entry, or who only drove the visitors, may not wait in the parking lot or anywhere on Bureau property. And giving a prisoner anything without the warden’s knowledge is a federal crime, which the handout says carries up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine under 18 U.S.C. § 1791.

Getting there

The prison is at 1900 Simler Avenue, inside the city limits on the west side of town. The supplement says: heading east on Interstate 20, take Exit 174, turn left onto Highway 80/Business 20 and, after a mile, right onto Airbase Road, which becomes Simler; heading west, stay on Highway 80/Business 20 to the same turn. The December 2023 handbook instead has a right turn onto Airbase Road from Exit 174, and routes drivers from the east off at Exit 177, south on Highway 87, right on 3rd Street and left on Airbase Road. Follow the posted signs from Airbase Road.

FCI visitors park on the north side of the lot. Camp visitors park behind Building 300, the camp visiting room, and use its rear entrance.

The 2005 State of the Bureau said the area was served by the Midland/Odessa airport, and the 2021 PREA audit puts the prison about 42 miles east of Midland.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Big Spring?

Calls go out, never in, and they are capped at 510 minutes a month. Each man gets a nine-digit access code, records his voice and calls approved numbers, paying from his account in whole-dollar transfers. The Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, set the ceiling: men eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives get the first 300 free, and anyone who uses up the first 300 may buy 210 more. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, with at least 30 minutes between calls.

Both 2023 handbooks still describe the rescinded 2008 policy of 300 minutes a month plus 100 extra in November and December. That holiday bonus no longer exists, and the 510-minute rule controls.

Under the December 2023 handbook, phones run from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with weekday access restricted from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. until the 4:00 p.m. count clears. National policy allows calls until 11:30 p.m. but leaves access to the warden. Calls are recorded, except properly arranged attorney calls, which are not monitored and do not count against the 510 minutes. A person who does not want a prisoner’s calls can block them at the voice prompt; unblocking takes a written request with a phone bill and ID. See federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs through TRULINCS: a contact must accept a CorrLinks invitation before messages flow, and a refusal blocks that address. Messages are text only, up to 13,000 characters, and charged by the minute. TRULINCS also carries requests to staff and a Justice Department mailbox for reporting sexual abuse to the Inspector General. See our CorrLinks guide.

What can people buy at the FCI Big Spring commissary?

A man at Big Spring can spend up to $460 a month, the national ceiling in Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360 and adds $50 during the November–December holiday period, for no more than one validation period. Big Spring’s documents lag behind: the December 2023 handbook calls $320 “the National Spending Limit,” the other 2023 handbook says $360. Both figures are obsolete.

The program statement’s complete list of purchases that do not count is postage stamps; nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges; over-the-counter medicines, medical products and vitamins; kosher or halal shelf-stable entrées for men in financial-responsibility refusal status; copy cards and paper; footwear, sneakers included; mattresses; and a secured media device. Phone credit is not on it. Big Spring’s order forms mark stamps, copy cards and medicines as exempt but not shoes, because the forms predate the change.

Neither the FCI form nor the camp form carries a date, so the prices on them will have moved. They mark soda for use at the institution only and rotate it quarterly, flag kosher and halal items, and print a per-visit cap over the drinks, “LIMIT 2 / 12 PKS PR VISIT” on the FCI form and “LIMIT 4 / 12 PKS PR VISIT” on the camp form.

Both still sell typewriter and correction ribbons. The FCI form lists an MP3 player at $88.40 and a Casio G-Shock at $92.95; the camp form adds boots at $98.95, “prayer oils” named for designer colognes, and holiday cards, with Spanish ones for Father’s Day and Christmas. Purchases need the prisoner’s ID card or fingerprint, balances can be checked on TRULINCS or by dialing 118 with the access code, and leftover money goes onto a debit card at release. Our commissary guide lists typical stock.

What programs are available at FCI Big Spring?

Big Spring offers the usual low-security core of literacy and GED classes, English as a second language, drug education, non-residential drug treatment, adult continuing education, psychology groups and chaplaincy programs, but no Residential Drug Abuse Program. The Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, August 2026 edition, does not name Big Spring in the location cell of any program that lists specific institutions. Its by-institution grid, the weaker half of the guide, marks 42 programs here, and a mark there shows approval, not a class that is running, so ask the unit team in writing before counting on one.

RDAP and drug treatment

Big Spring has no RDAP. The December 2023 handbook says so twice, and the RDAP list inside the August 2026 guide, headed “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations” and marked “Updated 6/4/2026,” does not include it. Its Texas entries for men are FCI Bastrop, FMC Fort Worth, FCI La Tuna, FCI Seagoville and the satellite camp at FCI Texarkana, and La Tuna is itself slated to close; the other two, FPC Bryan and FMC Carswell, hold women. The handbook’s count of 76 RDAP institutions is out of date.

A man who wants the residential program must transfer for it. Ask Psychology Services in writing for screening: the handbook says staff check the pre-sentence report for a documented pattern of drug abuse in the year before arrest, then refer qualifying men for an interview, ordinarily 42 to 24 months before release. For a nonviolent offense, the Bureau may reduce time in custody by up to a year after completion under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B). See our RDAP guide, the Bureau’s psychology treatment programs rules and our page on RDAP and early release.

The non-residential program serves men with lesser problems, men too close to release for the residential program and men awaiting a residential bed, with a $30 completion award. The Drug Abuse Education Course is required when the pre-sentence report or the court points to a drug or alcohol problem, and the handbook says a man who skips it loses eligibility for pay above the maintenance level, for Federal Prison Industries work and for First Step Act time credits.

Education, work and vocational training

A man without a diploma or GED must attend literacy classes for at least 240 hours or until he earns one, and cannot rise above pay grade 4 without a diploma, a GED or an exemption. The December 2023 handbook promises $50, a ceremony and a photograph for a GED earned at Big Spring; the other 2023 handbook says $25. Men below an eighth-grade level in English go into English as a second language, and adult continuing education, such as typing and computer literacy, usually meets on evenings and weekends. See our education guide.

College is harder to pin down. The 2021 PREA audit described “a valuable partnership with Howard College” offering business administration, math, general studies and electrical engineering, but no later Bureau document confirms it, and Big Spring is not among the sixteen institutions the August 2026 guide names for Pell-funded college programs. Paper-and-pencil correspondence courses are allowed at the student’s expense.

The guide’s grid marks Big Spring for occupational education, vocational training, apprenticeship and certification courses, while none of the guide’s program cells names Big Spring and the handbook describes these programs only in general terms. Listings that name eleven advanced occupational programs here, from HVAC to wind energy, rest on no current published record. Ask the education department what is enrolling.

Every medically cleared man works, starting on the admission and orientation detail and then under the Bureau’s performance-pay system; job changes normally take effect on the first of the month, after at least 90 days in a job. Neither half of the guide lists Big Spring among its Federal Prison Industries sites, Big Spring’s 2023 handbooks mention UNICOR and prison industries only in their rules on fines and drug education, and listings that put an electronics-and-plastics factory here rest on no published record.

Legal research is done on the Electronic Law Library, and a copier in the education department serves legal work, free for a man without funds who shows a need. Program Statement 1315.08 (2026) no longer requires a physical law library, yet the “Inmate Legal Activities” link on Big Spring’s page still opens the 1999 statement it replaced. See our law library guide.

Faith, psychology and reentry

Chaplains lead worship and counseling, run the religious diet program and approve religious property bought through special-purpose orders, and medallions stay under clothing outside the chapel. The handbook calls Threshold and Life Connections the Bureau’s faith-based reentry priorities, but the August 2026 guide confines residential Life Connections to five other institutions, so it would take a transfer; the guide’s grid marks Threshold here. See our page on religious programs.

Psychology Services is at the north end of the Sunset Unit’s first floor, with open house on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:00 to 3:45 p.m., and the handbook warns that confidentiality in prison has limits. On trauma treatment the records conflict: the handbook calls the Resolve Program one for “female institutions only” and says Big Spring has none, while the August 2026 guide’s location cell for Resolve names 31 institutions, several of them men’s prisons, but not Big Spring. The guide also says its Trauma Education workshop, which it calls the Resolve Workshop too, may be offered at any Bureau institution, and its grid marks Big Spring for that workshop. Ask what is currently offered.

Release planning starts at the first team meeting. The handbook urges men to gather two forms of identification, including a Social Security card, and to use the Career Resource Center, and non-citizens learn at classification whether a prisoner-transfer treaty covers them. Halfway-house and home-confinement placement is arranged for the district where a man will live; the Bureau’s two Texas reentry management offices are its Dallas office, based in Grand Prairie, and its San Antonio office.

What is daily life like at FCI Big Spring?

Big Spring houses men in dormitories rather than cells, and the weekday runs on counts, controlled moves and pill lines. The table below is drawn from the December 2023 handbook; weekends and holidays add a 10:00 a.m. count.

Time	What happens
6:00 a.m.	General wake-up; telephones come on
6:15 a.m.	FCI pill line; FCI sick call at Health Services on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, with latecomers not seen after 6:45 a.m.
6:30–7:30 a.m.	Dental sick call for the FCI, same four days
7:30 a.m.	Weekday phone restriction begins while men are at work; phones reopen at 10:30 a.m.
12:30 p.m.	Phones restricted again until the afternoon count clears
After 3:30 p.m.	Next day’s call-outs posted on the unit bulletin boards
4:00 p.m.	Stand-up count, followed later by the FCI evening pill line from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m.
10:00 p.m.	Telephones shut off
10:15 p.m.	Stand-up count

On weekends and holidays the first move follows breakfast, the compound is secured at 9:30 a.m. for the 10:00 a.m. count, and brunch is served. Men move between buildings in ten-minute controlled moves just before the hour, and the unit with the best weekly sanitation rating is ordinarily called to eat first; see our page on prison food.

Big Spring houses men in dormitories, not cells. The 2021 PREA audit counted twelve open-bay or dormitory units, no cell units and 48 segregation cells on a site of 50 buildings; the 2024 audit form records four housing units, and its auditor interviewed men “in the housing dormitories.” Listings that describe two-person cells here are not supported by either audit. Each man has a locker and a chair, and can be charged for damage to his area.

Khakis are worn to work, programs and meals. Commissary clothing comes only in gray or white, blue, black, red and camouflage items are banned, the December 2023 handbook limits athletic shoes to one pair worth up to $100 (Program Statement 4500.13 lets commissaries sell them for up to $150), and laundry is centralized, twice a week. Recreation covers sports, fitness, table games, music, intramurals, movies and a hobby-craft program in leather, painting, drawing and crochet, within the limits of the 1996 Zimmer Amendment; see our recreation guide.

Clinical staff are on site from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekends, with community emergency services at other times. A physician, advanced-practice providers, nurses and a dental team work on site. A visit a man requests costs $2 unless he is indigent, meaning he has not had a $6.00 balance in the past 30 days, and chronic-care, preventive, emergency and mental-health visits are free. Outside consultations need the clinical director’s approval, and the camp holds sick call only on Wednesday mornings. See our page on medical care.

On July 16, 2024, 477 of the 831 men held had limited English proficiency, and their ages ran from 19 to 86; the auditor found notices posted in several languages, announcements made in English and Spanish, and a contract interpreter line.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Big Spring?

The fullest recent outside look at Big Spring is its Prison Rape Elimination Act audit of July 2024, which found every standard assessed at the facility met and none exceeded. Other oversight is narrower: an Inspector General contract audit that brought auditors to the prison, GAO allegation counts, two lawsuits and a string of employee prosecutions.

The Inspector General

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its auditors did go there, for Report 24-009 (November 2023), an audit of the Bureau’s contract with the American Correctional Association that names FCI Big Spring among six institutions where the Inspector General did fieldwork.

That report records something unusual. At Big Spring’s January 2022 reaccreditation hearing, the association’s panel extended its accreditation only on probation and required a monitoring visit, although the visiting committee had found the prison 100 percent compliant with mandatory standards; Bureau and association officials said it was the first time they knew of a Bureau facility not being reaccredited immediately at a panel hearing, and an association official could not explain the panel’s decision. The committee’s report had noted deficiencies from earlier Bureau reviews of health services and psychology, and the Bureau received the monitoring report less than two weeks before Big Spring’s August 2022 hearing.

Otherwise Big Spring appears in Inspector General work only in passing, including a 2021 staff survey on the pandemic and the mislabeled immigration report described above. On the Inspector General’s own count in May 2026 (Report 26-055), its unannounced inspections had reached 14 Bureau institutions since 2023, and Big Spring was not one of them.

Prison Rape Elimination Act audits

Lynni O’Haver, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, audited FCI Big Spring on site July 16–18, 2024 and filed her final report on August 31, 2024; the Bureau posted it on September 23, 2024. She found 41 standards met, none exceeded and none unmet, with four more handled at the agency level. The report gives a designed capacity of 883, an average daily population of 1,005 for the prior year, a period of overcrowding, and 831 men and 199 staff on July 16, 2024, but elsewhere lists a current population of 1,056.

In the prior 12 months the facility reported four sexual-abuse allegations, three against prisoners and one against staff, and no harassment allegations; all four were investigated administratively, two were found unfounded and two unsubstantiated, and none was investigated criminally. A victim needing a forensic examination goes to a local hospital with certified examiners, and while Big Spring sought an agreement with a rape crisis center, advocacy came from its psychologists. The auditor also noted cameras added after a 2023 national camera audit.

The Bureau still serves the prior audit at the institution’s PREA address, although the Big Spring page no longer links it. Marc Coudriet, working through the same company, conducted that audit on site September 28–30, 2021 and reported 45 standards met on November 9, 2021, with two findings: a blind spot in the kitchen warehouse, fixed with a mirror on September 29, 2021, and missing or unsigned records of prisoners’ PREA training, which opened a corrective period of up to 120 days; the auditor found the training records compliant on October 18, 2021. He added that the facility “should have additional staffing and surveillance cameras in the interior of the housing areas.”

Reported sexual-abuse allegations

GAO’s May 2026 report, GAO-26-107343, publishes Bureau allegation counts by institution. For Big Spring, Table 7 lists five naming another prisoner as the abuser, by year of incident (two in 2020, two in 2021, one in 2022 and none since), and Table 8 lists twelve naming a Bureau employee, by year reported (none in 2020, one in 2021, two in 2022, two in 2023 and seven in 2024).

These are allegations, not findings: GAO reports that most allegations Bureau-wide from 2014 to 2022 ended unsubstantiated, meaning the evidence could not show whether abuse happened, which is not a finding that it did not. The two tables come from different systems and count different years, so they are never added together, and GAO does not adjust for size, so they cannot rank prisons. The audit’s one staff allegation, for roughly the year before July 2024, and GAO’s seven for 2024 come from different records and different periods, and nothing published reconciles them.

Lawsuits over conditions and medical care

In Lott v. Edenfield, 542 F. App’x 311 (5th Cir. 2013) (per curiam) (unpublished), 23 current and former Big Spring prisoners sued the warden, the Bureau’s director and the Attorney General. Their complaints, filed in 2009 and 2010, alleged that a prison with a rated capacity of 891 held 1,420 men, with sewage backing up into bathrooms, no purified drinking water when men were confined to their rooms, understaffed medical care, mold and a commissary short of soap and toothpaste. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the claims against the three officials personally, holding that the complaint did not plead facts showing the officials were deliberately indifferent to any clearly established right, so they had qualified immunity; it expressly did not decide whether the conditions violated the Eighth Amendment.

In Vaughn v. Bassett, No. 1:19-CV-00129-C (N.D. Tex. Sept. 19, 2022), a prisoner whose cheekbone was “visibly caved in” in a softball collision alleged that he was not taken to a hospital until the next morning and that his CT images never reached the surgeon. The court dismissed the case with prejudice, holding that the claims were not authorized under Bivens. Negligent care can still be raised through the administrative remedy program and, for an injury, a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which has its own form and deadlines.

Staff prosecutions, a lockdown and deaths

Four former employees, a garage foreman, a maintenance supervisor, an electrical supervisor and a recycling technician, were sentenced in 2020 and 2021 in the Northern District of Texas for taking government property in 2018 and 2019, including John Deere utility vehicles, tires and recyclables, and each received probation and a restitution order, according to Inspector General releases. A former correctional officer pleaded guilty in March 2026 to lying to an Inspector General agent and was sentenced on August 6, 2026 to 24 months in prison.

In June 2018 the prison was locked down after what officials called an “inmate work-strike,” according to Big 2/Fox 24, which quoted a union officer as saying the lockdown had lasted 11 days. She also described a May 30 assault on an officer who was taking a phone from a cell, and linked a growing contraband problem to a Bureau hiring freeze, staffing cuts and “increased augmentation.”

The Bureau announced three COVID-19 deaths of Big Spring prisoners in the fall of 2020, each man having tested positive and been placed on a ventilator before he was “pronounced deceased by hospital staff”: a 52-year-old on October 9, a 60-year-old on October 23 and a 48-year-old on November 1, 2020. Its releases of October 13, October 23 and November 2, 2020 gave the population as 945, 923 and 920; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page. Local stations reported two later deaths from Bureau statements: a 41-year-old in July 2021, after an assault at the prison, and a 39-year-old found unresponsive on February 27, 2023.

FCI Big Spring in the news

Recent news about FCI Big Spring is the closure and the town’s response to it; older items concern a staff prosecution, two notable arrivals, the accreditation probation of 2022 and the overcrowding suit decided in 2013. Bribery and contraband headlines about “Big Spring” from 2013 to 2015 concern the contract prison described above. Newest first:

• September 16, 2026: still on the Bureau’s roster, with 506 men counted in the report dated September 10, 2026 and no closure notice on its page.
• August 6, 2026: a former officer was sentenced to 24 months in prison for lying to an Inspector General agent.
• July 24, 2026: Local 3809 announced SaveBigSpring.com, its campaign site against the closure.
• July 13, 2026: Mayor Robert H. Moore formed the Big Spring Transition Task Group (KOSA).
• July 7, 2026: the Big Spring Herald reported local estimates of the closure’s cost, including 238 jobs and about 1,500 people with ties to the prison.
• July 2, 2026: KOSA reported a closure deadline of March 31, 2027, a date the Bureau’s release does not contain.
• July 1, 2026: the Bureau announced that it will close the FCI and its satellite camp.
• August 20, 2024: the Bureau confirmed Derek Chauvin’s transfer to Big Spring (Reuters).
• January 2022: the American Correctional Association put Big Spring’s accreditation on probation (Inspector General Report 24-009).
• May 7, 2019: former Dallas mayor pro tem Dwaine Caraway surrendered at Big Spring (NBC 5).
• October 2013: the Fifth Circuit upheld qualified immunity for three officials in the overcrowding suit Lott v. Edenfield.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Big Spring

Problems at FCI Big Spring: where we can help

The closure and Big Spring’s own record point to the problems families here are most likely to face:

• Where a man goes when Big Spring closes. The choice is the Bureau’s and no court reviews it, so the case for a placement near family, or with the care or programs a man needs, has to be made in writing before the move. See our guides to transfers and designation.
• Reaching RDAP, which Big Spring lacks. A closure transfer is a moment to ask for a prison that has it and to time the eligibility interview; see RDAP and early release.
• First Step Act credits and release dates, which depend on program records that transfers disrupt; see First Step Act time credits and challenging a sentence computation.
• Delays in medical care, which should be raised early through the administrative remedy program, since Vaughn shows how hard a damages suit against staff has become; where negligence causes an injury, a tort claim may also be available.
• Compassionate release requests to the warden under Program Statement 5050.51 of September 3, 2026, which changed the categories the Bureau will consider; see the Bureau’s policy, compassionate release, compassionate release in Texas and the request to the warden.
• Halfway-house and home-confinement timing, which is handled in the district where a man will live and runs on the Bureau’s placement rules.
• Disciplinary proceedings and segregation, which can cost credits, programs and visits.
• 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 Big Spring, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s page for the institution, with its address, contacts and posted documents.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Names Big Spring FCI and Satellite Camp among six institutions it will close.
• Institution Supplement BIG 5267.09D, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring, 2022.
• Institution Supplement BIG 5267.09D, Visiting Regulations (Spanish), Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring, 2022.
• Inmate Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring, 2023. The December 18, 2023 edition, signed by Warden C. Humphrey, which the Bureau serves at USP Big Sandy’s handbook address.
• Inmate Information Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring, 2023. The earlier 2023 edition, signed by Warden C. Stearns and linked from the institution’s own page.
• Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring. Undated.
• Satellite Camp Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Big Spring. Undated.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 1315.07 (1999).
• Legal Activities, Inmate, Program Statement 1315.07, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1999. Rescinded, and still the document behind the institution page’s legal-activities link.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the commissary spending limit.
• Compassionate Release/Reduction in Sentence, Program Statement 5050.51, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Visiting Regulations, Program Statement 5267.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2023.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026), Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Includes the RDAP location list and the programs-by-institution grid.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes and posting times.
• Find an Inmate, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• Inmate Death at FCI Big Spring, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. The death of October 9, 2020.
• Inmate Death at FCI Big Spring, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. The death of October 23, 2020.
• Inmate Death at FCI Big Spring, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2020. The death of November 1, 2020.
• State of the Bureau, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1999. Capacity and population figures for the institution and its camp.
• State of the Bureau, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2005.
• Federal Prisons Journal, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1989. Describes the camp on the former Webb Air Force Base.
• 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.

Audits and inspections

• Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (GAO-26-107343), U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Tables 7 and 8 give the per-institution allegation counts.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to the American Correctional Association (Report 24-009), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Records the January 2022 accreditation probation.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: FCI Big Spring, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. On site July 16–18, 2024.
• PREA Audit Report: FCI Big Spring, PREA Auditors of America, 2021. Superseded, and still the file the Bureau serves at the institution’s PREA address.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract with a Private Contractor (Report 15-15), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015. Lists the Big Spring contract prison among fourteen Criminal Alien Requirement facilities.
• Review of the Institutional Hearing and Removal Program Expansion for Federal Inmates (Report 21-123), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Its text box and its appendix name different Big Spring prisons.
• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ U.S. Penitentiary Canaan (Report 26-055), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. Counts the unannounced inspections conducted since 2023.

Court records

• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Making False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Arrested and Pleaded Guilty to Making False Statements, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026.
• Vaughn v. Bassett, No. 1:19-CV-00129-C, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 2022. Dismissed as unauthorized under Bivens.
• Former BOP Garage Foreman Sentenced for Theft of Public Money, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Former BOP Maintenance Worker Supervisor Sentenced for Theft of Public Money, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Former BOP Electrical Worker Supervisor Sentenced for Theft of Public Money, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Former BOP Recycling Technician Sentenced for Theft of Public Money, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021.
• Former BOP General Automotive Foreman Pleaded Guilty to Theft of Public Money, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• Former BOP Maintenance Worker Supervisor Pleaded Guilty to Theft of Public Property, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• Former BOP Electrical Worker Supervisor Pleaded Guilty to Theft of Public Property, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2020.
• Lott v. Edenfield, 542 F. App’x 311, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2013. Qualified immunity for three officials in the overcrowding suit.

News and other sources

• George Floyd Killer Derek Chauvin Transferred to Texas Prison, Reuters, 2024.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Closure of Big Spring FCI, KOSA/CBS7, 2026. The source of the March 31, 2027 date.
• Big Spring Mayor Forms Task Group After Federal Prison Closure Announcement, KOSA/CBS7, 2026.
• Howard County Braces for Impacts as FCI Big Spring Faces Closure, Big Spring Herald, 2026.
• Save FCI Big Spring, Local 3809, Council of Prison Locals, 2026.
• FCI Big Spring Severely Short-Staffed, Big 2/Fox 24, 2018. The June 2018 lockdown.
• Inmate Dies in Big Spring Federal Prison Facility, Big 2/Fox 24, 2023.
• Why Is the Federal Prison in Big Spring on Lockdown?, San Angelo Live, 2018.
• Press releases, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas, 2014–2015. The bribery, false-count and contraband prosecutions out of the contract prison.
• Press release, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, 2013. The sentencing of Quazi Mohammad Nafis.
• Patch, 2026. Reported that Derek Chauvin’s mother had been told the building would be vacated before March 2027.
• NBC 5 Dallas–Fort Worth, 2019. Dwaine Caraway’s surrender at Big Spring.
• KOSA/CBS7, 2021. A death at the prison reported from a Bureau statement.
• Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, The GEO Group, Inc., 2026. Lists Big Spring Correctional Facility among facilities idled in 2021.
• 18 U.S.C. § 1791, Providing or possessing contraband in prison, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), (e)(2)(B), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 124(a)(3), Texas, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Power to grant writ, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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