FCI Hazelton Federal Prison: Visiting, Mail and Programs

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

FCI Hazelton at a glance

FCI Hazelton is a medium-security federal prison for men in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, and the Bureau’s only Secure Female Facility shares its facility code and its BOP record. As of September 2026 the two held 1,701 people: 1,187 men at the FCI and 514 women at the Secure Female Facility.

Official name	Federal Correctional Institution, Hazelton
BOP code	HAF · complex HAX
Security level	Medium; men at the FCI, women at the Secure Female Facility
Population	1,701 (as of September 2026) · 1,187 at the FCI, 514 at the Secure Female Facility
Visiting	FCI: Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; no visitor processed after 2:00 p.m. · Secure Female Facility: Friday, same hours
Inmate mail	FCI: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Hazelton · Federal Correctional Institution · P.O. Box 5000 · Bruceton Mills, WV 26525 Secure Female Facility: Inmate Name & Register Number · FCI Hazelton · Federal Correctional Institution · Secure Female Facility · P.O. Box 3000 · Bruceton Mills, WV 26525
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	304-379-1500 · Fax 304-379-1531
Street address	1640 Sky View Drive, Bruceton Mills, WV 26525 · Preston County
Judicial district	Northern District of West Virginia
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Special Housing Unit	Yes · non-contact visits
Medical care level	Care Level 2
Mental health care level	Care Level 2 · see the September 2025 inspection
RDAP	No · see RDAP and drug treatment
UNICOR	Yes · waiting list
Camp	None · the complex camp belongs to USP Hazelton

It sits in Preston County, on a ridge off Interstate 68 about twenty miles east of Morgantown, in the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region, and it is the newest of the four prisons at Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton, activated in 2014 as the Bureau’s 120th facility and the first built to LEED Gold standard. For the state’s other institutions, see federal prisons in West Virginia.

Four federal prisons share one address at Hazelton

Four separate prisons share one address, 1640 Sky View Drive: FCI Hazelton, its Secure Female Facility, USP Hazelton and the penitentiary’s satellite camp. They have different security levels, visiting days, mailing addresses and, in two cases, phone numbers.

Prison	Code	Holds	Mail to	Visiting days
FCI Hazelton (this page)	HAF	1,187 men, medium security	P.O. Box 5000	Saturday, Sunday
SFF Hazelton	reports under HAF	514 women	P.O. Box 3000	Friday
USP Hazelton	HAZ	1,100 men, high security	P.O. Box 2000	Saturday, Sunday
SPC Hazelton (the camp)	reports under HAZ	153 men, minimum security	P.O. Box 2000	Saturday, Sunday

Populations are as of September 2026, and visiting days come from complex supplement HAX 5267.09I (2026). The camp belongs to the penitentiary and the women’s facility to the FCI.

Three consequences follow.

• The Inmate Locator shows women at the Secure Female Facility as being at “Hazelton FCI,” because the Secure Female Facility has no code of its own and reports under HAF. If the locator says Hazelton FCI and the person you are looking for is a woman, she is at the Secure Female Facility: a different building, a different mailbox and a different visiting day.
• The Bureau’s own facility page prints the Secure Female Facility’s address under a heading that reads “For inmates at the Camp.” That block reads “FCI Hazelton / Federal Correctional Institution / Satellite Camp / Secure Female Facility / PO Box 3000.” There is no camp at the FCI. The camp is the penitentiary’s, and its mail goes to P.O. Box 2000.
• The switchboard for FCI Hazelton is 304-379-1500. The number printed on the visiting supplement itself, 304-379-5000, is the complex and penitentiary line.

The Secure Female Facility is the only one of its kind in the Bureau, and it predates the FCI: its inmate handbook is headed “USP Hazelton — Secure Female Facility” and dated 2011, three years before the FCI activated, when the women’s unit was administered by the penitentiary rather than by the institution that now carries its record.

Whitey Bulger was killed at the penitentiary, not here

James “Whitey” Bulger was murdered at USP Hazelton, the high-security penitentiary, on October 30, 2018. He was not at FCI Hazelton, and the two are not the same prison. The Justice Department’s Inspector General found he had been housed at the penitentiary for “less than 12 hours” when he died, and its December 2022 report identified “serious job performance and management failures at multiple levels” while stating that investigators “did not find that any BOP employees acted with a malicious intent or an improper purpose.” Fotios Geas was sentenced to twenty-five years for the killing in September 2024.

A high-security penitentiary and a medium-security institution run on different staffing ratios, different movement rules and different populations, so reading one prison’s record onto the other, in either direction, gives a false picture of both.

What is the security level at FCI Hazelton?

FCI Hazelton is a medium-security institution. The Bureau’s roster records its security level as Medium, and there is no camp attached to it — the minimum-security camp at this address belongs to the penitentiary.

The physical layout has been consistent across a decade of inspections: “three housing units with four pods in each housing unit, for a total of twelve pods,” as the Council put it in September 2025, matching April 2016. The general-population pod it inspected held 110 to 120 men against a capacity of 128, with twelve showers and six telephones. The Bureau’s 2014 activation release counts the housing differently, as six units holding 1,152 rated beds; no published document reconciles the two.

Designation to a medium rather than a low or a camp turns on the security point score and on whether any Public Safety Factor applies; a Public Safety Factor overrides the point total. At Hazelton the practical question is which of two institutions a man goes to: a man scored into the medium range is designated to the FCI, and a man whose score or a Public Safety Factor pushes him higher goes over the hill to the penitentiary. See the Bureau’s security designation rules and our guides to the intake process and to federal prison transfers.

Crowding has shaped daily life here more than the security level has. Published population figures against rated capacity:

Date	Population	Against rated capacity	Source
April 14, 2016	1,424	86% of 1,654	DC CIC inspection report
August 2019	1,450	115% of 1,261	DC CIC inspection report
February 22, 2023	1,598	139% of 1,152	DC CIC follow-up report
September 16–18, 2025	1,451	126% of 1,152	DC CIC inspection report
September 2026	1,187	103% of 1,152	Population: Bureau of Prisons. Capacity: BOP activation release, June 18, 2014. Percentage: calculated from the two

The rated-capacity figures published by the Council in 2016 and 2019 differ from the 1,152 the Bureau announced at activation and the Council itself used in 2023, and no published document explains the change. The 2026 figure is for the FCI alone, where the earlier Council figures may or may not have included the Secure Female Facility. The direction is clear: the institution ran well above its rated capacity for years and is now close to it.

Who are the notable inmates at FCI Hazelton?

The best-known people recorded under FCI Hazelton’s code are women held at the Secure Female Facility, among them Heather Mack and Natalie Cochran; several names often linked to the prison are held elsewhere or have been released.

Name	Register number	Status
Heather Mack	72776-509	Recorded at code HAF. Female, so held at the Secure Female Facility rather than the men’s institution. Projected release March 20, 2044. Convicted in connection with the 2014 killing of her mother in Bali
Natalie Cochran	15406-088	Recorded at code HAF. Female, so held at the Secure Female Facility. Projected release November 27, 2029. West Virginia fraud and homicide case
Rachel Powell	28873-509	Former — released from code HAF on January 21, 2025. January 6 Capitol case
Juan Orlando Hernández	91441-054	Former — held at USP Hazelton, not the FCI, and released December 1, 2025. The former president of Honduras, convicted in the Southern District of New York on drug and weapons charges and later pardoned
James Alex Fields Jr.	22239-084	Not here. USP Allenwood, serving life
Stella Nickell	17371-086	Not here. FCI Waseca, projected release 2043
Stewart Parnell	96284-020	Not here. FCI Butner Low, projected release 2038
Joaquín Valencia-Trujillo	02440-748	Not here. FCI Oakdale II, projected release 2036
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem	44126-408	Not here. FCI Atlanta, projected release 2041
Christian Dedmon	71503-510	Not here. FCI Fairton, projected release 2057
Nancy Salzman	25533-052	Released March 19, 2024
Riley Williams	26023-509	Released November 4, 2024
Michael Nunn	11772-030	Released August 22, 2019

Juan Orlando Hernández was held at the penitentiary, not the FCI. The facility code in his locator record (91441-054) is HAZ, USP Hazelton, with an actual release date of December 1, 2025, and Honduran outlets reported the penitentiary at the time.

Nicolás Maduro has never been held at Hazelton. A March 2026 CBS News report places him at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn under special administrative measures, and he does not appear in the Inmate Locator.

Heather Mack and Natalie Cochran are recorded under the FCI’s code because the Secure Female Facility has no code of its own, not because they are held with the men. The locator does not name the sub-facility, so confirm with the institution before relying on it.

How do I find someone at FCI Hazelton?

To find someone at FCI Hazelton, use the Bureau’s free public Inmate Locator. Search by the eight-digit register number if you have it — the number is the reliable key, because the locator matches the committed name on the judgment, not a nickname. The locator covers everyone in federal custody since 1982: for someone still held it gives the facility and a projected release date, and for someone released it shows “Not in BOP Custody as of” and a date, with no facility.

Read the answer carefully. A result of “Hazelton FCI” for a woman means the Secure Female Facility. A result of “Hazelton USP” means the penitentiary or its satellite camp, which the locator also files under the penitentiary’s code. If you write to the wrong box, the mail comes back.

If the locator shows nothing, the usual reasons are that the person is in state rather than federal custody, that they are in pretrial detention under the U.S. Marshals Service rather than in a Bureau institution, or that the committed name is spelled differently from the name they use. Our guide to how register numbers work explains how the number is assigned and what its parts mean.

How do I write to someone at FCI Hazelton?

Write to a man at FCI Hazelton at P.O. Box 5000 and to a woman at the Secure Female Facility at P.O. Box 3000, both in Bruceton Mills, WV 26525, with the committed name and the eight-digit register number on the first line. Mail without a register number is returned, and mail sent to the wrong box does not get forwarded across the complex.

For a man at the FCI	For a woman at the Secure Female Facility
Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Hazelton Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 5000 Bruceton Mills, WV 26525	Inmate Name & Register Number FCI Hazelton Federal Correctional Institution Secure Female Facility P.O. Box 3000 Bruceton Mills, WV 26525

The Bureau prints the second address on its own website under a heading that reads “For inmates at the Camp,” with the words “Satellite Camp” and “Secure Female Facility” run together on consecutive lines. There is no camp at this institution; P.O. Box 3000 is the right box for a woman despite the heading.

Because this is a medium-security institution, outgoing mail is treated differently from the way it is treated at a camp or a low. The facility’s handbook states the rule: outgoing mail from a sentenced person at a minimum or low institution may be sealed and goes out unopened, but outgoing mail from a medium or high institution “may not be sealed by the inmate and may be read and inspected by staff.” Special mail is the exception.

Legal mail is opened only in the presence of the person it is addressed to, and it is not read — but only if the sender is clearly identified and the front is marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate.” Without that marking an attorney’s letter is handled as ordinary correspondence. In November 2019 the Council recorded that more than 71 percent of the thirty-eight DC residents it surveyed here said legal mail had been opened before they received it; the finding is old, but insist on the marking. See the Bureau’s correspondence rules and our guides to attorney-client communication and writing to someone in federal prison.

Never put money in a letter. Funds enclosed in correspondence are rejected, and anything else in the envelope with a deposit is disposed of.

How do I send money to someone at FCI Hazelton?

Money for someone at FCI Hazelton never goes to the prison’s address. It goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or through Western Union or MoneyGram, and all three routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number, entered exactly. See the Bureau’s Send Money page.

Route	Where it goes	How fast it posts
Postal money order	Federal Bureau of Prisons Committed Name Eight-Digit Register Number Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001	Money orders only. Non-postal money orders and non-government checks carry an automatic 15-day hold. Personal checks and cash are not accepted
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC, with the register number entered with no spaces or dashes, immediately followed by the last name	Two to four hours if sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern; otherwise by 7:00 a.m. the next day
MoneyGram Express Payment	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC. Up to $300 online	Same as Western Union

The sender’s name and return address must be in the upper left corner of the lockbox envelope; without them, funds that cannot be posted do not come back. If a money order has not arrived, the tracer has to be started by you with whoever sold it — the Bureau will not chase it. Our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner compares every route and its cost.

Visitors may not hand money to staff or leave it in the lobby for deposit, and no one inside may handle cash at any time. The last spending ceiling this institution published was $205 every two weeks, on an October 2025 form, seven months before the national limit rose; the commissary section below explains whether it still applies.

What are the visiting hours at FCI Hazelton?

Visiting at FCI Hazelton runs 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and no visitor is processed after 2:00 p.m.; arrive at 2:15 and you will not get in, even though the room is open for another forty-five minutes. The schedule comes from complex institution supplement HAX 5267.09I, dated June 30, 2026, which rescinded the February 2026 version.

The Secure Female Facility visits on Friday, not on weekends, on the same hours with the same 2:00 p.m. cut-off, and currently offers video visitation seven days a week.

Visiting runs on points: seven a month, two for a weekend or federal holiday visit and one for a weekday. There is no minimum — “Entering the Visiting Room is sufficient to deduct points” — and visitors arriving at different times on the same day count as separate visits, charged separately. The Warden may waive deductions for some holiday visiting.

The facility’s 2022 Admission & Orientation handbook says the opposite — that there are twelve points a month and that “FCI Hazelton will not be utilizing the point system.” The June 2026 supplement is the newer document and controls; it applies the point system to the FCI.

Special Housing Unit visits at the FCI are non-contact, limited to two visitors, last no more than one hour, and finish half an hour before general-population visiting ends.

Who can visit, and how many

• Six visitors at one time, including children, and no more than four adults. Anyone sixteen or over counts as an adult.
• Immediate family may visit for thirty days while the background investigation runs. Everyone else waits for the check to clear.
• A visitor who is not immediate family must submit a new Visitor Information Form (BP-A0629) if the one on file is more than a year old. Until the new form is in and the check is updated, they are not considered.
• The visiting list may be amended once every ninety days, by Inmate Request to Staff to the Unit Team.
• Visitors with prior convictions need the Warden’s specific approval, and written authorization from the probation or parole officer if they are under supervision.
• A minister of record may visit twice a month, and those visits are not charged against the regular allowance. One minister of record at a time.
• Children under sixteen must be accompanied and supervised by a responsible adult, and a parent or guardian must sign the visitor form for anyone under eighteen.
• Attorneys visit during regular hours, must show a bar card or other professional identification, and are scheduled through the Unit Team. Briefcases and papers are X-rayed at the front lobby. There is an attorney room inside the visiting room; if it is occupied the institution offers to reschedule rather than proceed without privacy.

Two more rules apply. Visitors may not wait on institution grounds — not in the parking lot, not in the front lobby. And if the room becomes crowded the Operations Lieutenant may shorten visits, with “the visits of local and/or frequent visitors” terminated first. If you have driven from out of state, say so at the desk.

What visitors can wear and bring

The prohibited list is long and enforced at the door: hats, watches, transparent or sheer clothing, bib overalls, open-toed shoes or sandals, spiked heels, halter and tank tops, sleeveless tops or dresses, shorts, miniskirts, culottes, Capri pants and spandex; nothing skin-tight, suggestive, low-cut or midriff-baring; dresses no shorter than the top of the knee with no slit above it; no derogatory, suggestive or gang-related logos. All visitors wear underclothing and female visitors must wear a bra.

Two prohibitions here are easy to trip over. Jogging suits, sweat suits, sweatshirts and sweatpants are barred because they resemble what people inside wear, and so is anything khaki-colored or camouflage. Children under twelve may wear shorts at the Operations Lieutenant’s discretion; no one else may. No bare feet except babies, and no chewing gum in the visiting room for any reason.

The authorized-items list is exact: one wallet or transparent change purse no larger than five by eight by four inches; four diapers; an inch of wipes in a clear bag of the same size; two unopened packs of baby food; three clear baby bottles, half full; one baby blanket; sanitary protection; and heart and epilepsy medication only. No car seats, strollers, handbags, packages, photographs, papers, gifts or written messages, and personal keys and electronic devices — car remotes included — stay in a locker or the car.

For the vending machines you may bring $20.00 in change, quarters only, plus a credit or debit card shown to the Front Lobby Officer before entry. The person you are visiting may not go to the machines with you. Food comes out of its wrapper onto a paper plate and drinks have their labels removed before anyone returns to the seats.

There is a lactation room in the FCI visiting room. There is no children’s area on the men’s side — the supplement states that at the USP and FCI people are not allowed in a children’s area, and that provision exists only at the Secure Female Facility. Service animals are permitted with certification; no other animals come onto the grounds.

The person you are visiting is issued a one-piece jumpsuit for the visit, worn fully zipped, with an approved shower-type sandal, and is visually searched before entering the room and again on the way out. Attachment A to the same supplement tells visitors that inmates wear “the full institutional uniform, to include a belt.” Both are printed in the same document, which does not say which controls.

Identification, screening and the ION scan

Photo identification is required for everyone sixteen and over — a valid driver’s license, state ID card, passport or other official government-issued photo ID with a signature. Birth certificates are not accepted, and a visitor without photo ID is not admitted and must leave the grounds.

Everyone passes through a walk-through metal detector and every jacket goes through the lobby X-ray machine. If the officer cannot identify what is setting off the detector, entry is denied. Visitors with metal implants or non-removable medical metal must contact the Unit Team beforehand with supporting documentation. Avoid clothing with metal content — western shirts with metal buttons, underwire — because there is no discretion at the machine.

All visitors are subject to random or reasonable-suspicion testing with an ION spectrometry device, and the consequences of a confirmed positive escalate:

Confirmed positive ION result	Consequence under the June 2026 supplement
First	Pat and/or vehicle search at the Warden’s discretion. If the search is clear, the visit may proceed in a controlled or non-contact area. Refusing the search means the visit is denied. Re-entry may be sought after 48 hours
Second	Visiting privileges suspended 30 days
Third	Suspended 90 days
Fourth and after	Suspended 180 days

The supplement adds that another institution may use a confirmed positive from one prison as the basis for escalating the consequence at a different prison. A positive at Hazelton follows a visitor across the system.

Inside, contact is limited to one embrace and one kiss on arrival and one on departure, inside a taped rectangle the supplement calls the Red Embrace Box. Out-processing at the FCI begins about 2:30 p.m. when fifteen or more people are in the room and at 3:00 p.m. otherwise, in groups of no more than six, with photo ID and an ultraviolet hand stamp re-checked at the sallyport. See searches, shakedowns and contraband, our guide to federal prison visitation and the Bureau’s visiting regulations.

On August 10, 2026, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia charged a visitor and a man held at FCI Hazelton over an alleged attempt to deliver methamphetamine during a visit; an indictment is an allegation. The supplement cites 18 U.S.C. § 1791 for up to twenty years, a fine, or both for giving an inmate anything at all without the Warden’s knowledge and consent. Under the statute itself, twenty years is the maximum only for a narcotic drug, methamphetamine, LSD or PCP; other contraband carries lower maximums, from ten years for a firearm down to six months.

Getting there

The complex is off Interstate 68 at Exit 29, Hazelton Road, east of Morgantown and west of Cumberland, Maryland. From the west, turn left at the end of the ramp, go about half a mile and turn right onto Casteel Road; the institution is roughly half a mile further on the left. From the east, turn right at the end of the ramp, then right onto Casteel Road after about a hundred yards. From Pittsburgh, take I-279 south to I-79 south, then I-68 east to Exit 29.

Once you are on the institution road the signs matter, because all four prisons are up the same hill. Turn left at the sign for the Federal Correctional Institution. The Secure Female Facility sign is on the right; the Satellite Prison Camp is a left further along; the penitentiary is at the top.

There is no public transport to the institution and no pay phone at FCC Hazelton. The supplement names two nearby places to stay, the Microtel Inn and Suites on Casteel Road and the Maple Leaf Motel in Bruceton Mills. Morgantown, about twenty miles away, is the nearest town with taxi and air service.

How do phone calls and email work at FCI Hazelton?

Phone calls at FCI Hazelton are placed only by the person inside, to numbers on an approved list; you cannot call in. Each person is issued a nine-digit Phone Access Code and must complete voice verification. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, the monthly allowance is 510 minutes: 300 free to anyone eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and 210 more that anyone may buy after using up those 300. A single call should generally not exceed fifteen minutes. The extra 100 minutes in November and December belonged to the 2008 policy and did not survive its rescission, and properly arranged unmonitored legal calls do not count against the allowance.

At Hazelton the phones run from 6:00 a.m. until no later than 11:30 p.m., with access normally restricted on weekdays between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. until after the 4:00 p.m. count clears — the hours people are expected to be at work — though one phone per unit may stay available for people on days off. Every call except a properly placed legal call is recorded. See our guide to federal inmate phone calls.

Email runs on TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks: text only, charged by the minute, and nothing passes until the person inside enters your address and you accept the invitation. The general-population unit inspected in September 2025 had six TRULINCS terminals for 110 to 120 men, one reserved for law library work.

TRULINCS also carries Request to Staff, and the department list includes a standard Justice Department sexual-abuse mailbox that goes directly to the Office of the Inspector General rather than to the prison. Email with a lawyer is not privileged; privileged writing goes by marked special mail. See CorrLinks and TRULINCS.

What can people buy at the FCI Hazelton commissary?

FCI Hazelton’s own commissary order form sets the spending limit: “Spending limit is $205 bi-weekly.” The form is headed “FCI Hazelton General Population List” and carries an October 2025 update line and a warden-approval stamp.

The Bureau’s trust fund rules, Program Statement 4500.13, issued May 7, 2026, raised the Bureau-wide limit from $360 to $460 a month, with an extra $50 during the November–December holiday period for no more than one validation period, and expressly permit bi-weekly validation. The Hazelton form predates that change by seven months, and two validations at $205 come to $410, below the current ceiling. No document published since May 2026 says whether the institution has raised its figure, so call 304-379-1500 and ask.

Listings that give $360 are out of date, including the facility’s 2022 handbook and the Council’s 2016 report; that national limit was superseded in May 2026.

The Bureau publishes FCI Hazelton’s commissary list on the penitentiary’s web page, not the FCI’s, and the FCI’s page carries no commissary section at all.

Only a short national list of items is excluded from the spending limit, among them stamps, over-the-counter medicines, copy cards and footwear; everything else counts.

The form is the most detailed description of daily material life here that exists in public, and quantity caps run through every category: ten each on snacks and nuts, five each on meats and cheese, four bags of chips, one cereal, two coffees, two crackers in total, one of each condiment and over-the-counter medicine, and one religious item in total. No one may hold more than sixty first-class stamps.

Prices run from $0.78 for a single stamp to $11.20 for a typewriter ribbon and $137.30 for a tablet. Typewriter ribbons and correction tape are stocked for legal work in a prison where six computer terminals serve a unit of 120 men. The religious-items section is unusually wide for a medium, running from an Allah pendant and a white kufi through three forms of Star of David to runes, a Hammer of Thor and a Rasta crown.

During the lockdowns of late 2019, more than 64 percent of the thirty-eight DC residents the Council surveyed here said the commissary limit had been cut to $25 a week, and more than 88 percent said they had been unable to buy anything at all since August. Our page on the federal prison commissary covers the national rules.

What programs are available at FCI Hazelton?

FCI Hazelton offers vocational training, UNICOR work, GED classes, Adult Continuing Education, Life Connections and non-residential drug treatment, but not the Residential Drug Abuse Program, and waiting lists limit who can reach them. The most recent independent account of programming here is the Corrections Information Council’s inspection of September 16–18, 2025, published in February 2026, and it is the source for most of what follows.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program is not offered at FCI Hazelton, and on the Bureau’s current list it is not offered anywhere at this complex. The institution’s 2022 handbook says the first part in terms: “The Secure Female Facility (SFF) is the only institution at this complex that offers RDAP at FCC Hazelton. You may be eligible for transfer to another institution to participate in RDAP.” The Bureau’s position has moved twice since. Its standalone list, Residential Drug Abuse Programs and Locations, marks the entry “SFF Hazelton (WV)” (SUSPENDED); and the newer RDAP list inside its August 2026 First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, recording 57 programs at 50 locations, names twelve Mid-Atlantic sites and no Hazelton institution at all. See the Bureau’s drug treatment program rules.

For anyone whose sentencing strategy assumed the § 3621(e) year, that means a transfer: a man designated here who needs RDAP has to be transferred to get it, early enough to leave the roughly twenty months the program and its community component require. Raise it by cop-out to Psychology Services so the Drug Abuse Program Coordinator can screen the central file.

In the September 2025 survey, seven of the ninety-three DC Code respondents at the FCI said they were participating in RDAP, and the FCI employs two drug treatment specialists. Anyone who needs the § 3621(e) year should still assume a transfer is required, ask the Drug Abuse Program Coordinator in writing, and keep the answer.

Drug Abuse Education and the twelve-to-fourteen-week non-residential program are available here, as at every institution. Failing to take the education course when required costs performance pay above maintenance level, bonus and vacation pay, and UNICOR eligibility.

Education and vocational training

The education department has three GED instructors, one librarian clerk and one testing proctor, and no dedicated special education specialist. The Bureau’s literacy program rules apply: 240 mandatory instructional hours, or until a GED credential is earned.

In fiscal year 2024, 120 people were enrolled in GED programming at FCI Hazelton, and over the same year 214 enrollments ended involuntarily because the person was transferred.

Track	What is offered
Vocational training	Culinary arts, drywall, carpentry, core foundation, barista (DC CIC, September 2025)
Post-secondary credit	Horticulture credits through Potomac State University
College courses	None offered by the facility. Correspondence courses are permitted; as of September 2025 nobody was enrolled
Adult Continuing Education	Over 80 ACE classes, taught by 15 incarcerated instructors
Listed in the 2022 handbook	Building Trades VT (carpentry, drywall, electrical, HVAC, masonry, plumbing, welding), Culinary Arts VT, Graphic Arts VT, Microsoft Office VT

The Council found the vocational programs well regarded and well run, and the constraint to be access rather than quality: “there is limited opportunity to participate due to years-long waitlists and regular lockdowns.” Sixty-three of the seventy-three men who answered the question were not enrolled in any vocational programming; fifty-four of seventy-nine were not in any educational program.

The Bureau’s written answer sets out the gate: a GED or diploma is required, qualifying requests go on a waiting list, and a person needs between one and five years remaining to complete the drywall and carpentry programs. Carpentry runs a morning and an afternoon class of twelve each, which the Bureau says is what the equipment supports. That is twenty-four seats a term for a population of more than a thousand.

UNICOR also operates: the Council recorded in September 2025 that the housing unit it inspected “mainly houses residents working in UNICOR or on the waiting list to participate in UNICOR.” See our guides to prison education, vocational training and the electronic law library.

One point is specific to the large District of Columbia population here: people serving DC Code sentences earn DC Educational Good Time for participating in — not completing — GED, ESL and marketable-level occupational training. At the Council’s opening meeting in September 2025, executive staff confirmed that the Bureau had finalized First Step Act guidance for DC Code offenders and that FCI Hazelton would apply the credits consistently; check any sentence computation issued before that date against it. See DC educational good time and First Step Act time credits.

Faith-based, recreation and reentry programming

FCI Hazelton employs five chaplains, who round weekly in the Special Housing Unit, answer written requests for religious items and accommodations, and administer the certified religious diet program. Life Connections, a twenty-four-month First Step Act program requiring a year of clear conduct to enter, is offered quarterly. See religious programs in prison.

Recreation is the one department the Council found fully staffed: ceramics, crochet, drawing, a band room, a leather shop, hydroponics whose vegetables feed the culinary arts program, and an airplane-model class, in cohorts of twenty to twenty-five over four to six weeks, alongside seasonal leagues and resident-led yoga and training. Walk with Ease and Healthier Me carry First Step Act credit. The Zimmer Amendment restrictions apply throughout. See recreation in federal prison.

Under the Bureau’s Release Preparation Program, Program Statement 5325.09 (2026), enrollment comes 18 to 24 months before departure; the Council found the Reentry Officer posting daily on TRULINCS. District of Columbia resources — the DC Navigator, the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs and the DC READY Center — are kept in the education department’s Community Resource Centers.

The Bureau’s approved-programs guide lists what each institution may offer under the First Step Act, not what is running this month; ask the unit team, and at this institution the Council found the answer turning on whether the unit was locked down that week.

What is daily life like at FCI Hazelton?

Daily life at FCI Hazelton starts at 6:00 a.m. on weekdays and 7:00 a.m. on weekends and runs on controlled movement and at least five counts a day, following the facility’s 2022 Admission & Orientation handbook; movement here is frequently modified.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Wake-up	6:00 a.m.	7:00 a.m.
Uniform required	Khaki shirt and pants, 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.	—
Movement	Controlled movement, normally ten minutes at a time, announced by staff	First movement after the morning meal; compound secured 9:30 a.m. for the 10:00 a.m. count
Official counts	At least five in every 24 hours; standing count at 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.	Additional 10:00 a.m. count; standing at 10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Telephones	6:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m., restricted 7:30–10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. until after the 4:00 p.m. count	6:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Laundry	Centralized. Clothing issue or exchange once a week, 6:15–7:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.; the first full week of each month is hygiene and linen only	—
Call-outs	Posted on TRULINCS and in the unit the day before the appointment	—

Arrivals are issued seven sets of underclothing, five sets of khakis, bedding, towels, boots, a jacket, a hat, a webbed belt and three laundry bags; two days before release or transfer most of it goes back, and funds are frozen for anyone who does not return it. Nobody may possess blue, black, red or camouflage clothing, religious headgear excepted, and athletic shoes are capped at $100. An identification card must be carried whenever a person is out of their cell, and a replacement costs $5.00.

The Council heard two complaints about daily life in September 2025 that the Bureau did not contest: that clean bed linen was not issued weekly or every two weeks, contrary to policy, and that hot meals arrived cold and undercooked. The Bureau answered that food is held at a minimum of 135 degrees and checked by certified handlers before service, and that Trust Fund had received additional fiscal-year 2026 funding for uniforms, sheets, blankets, towels, soap and detergent complex-wide, with a bi-weekly linen exchange to begin once resupplies arrive. Both are undertakings rather than accomplished facts; ask what has changed.

The Special Housing Unit shapes life in the general population here, for the reason explained in the inspection section below. People held in it are in their cells about twenty-three hours a day with one hour of individual recreation; the Bureau says recreation runs Monday to Friday, medical and psychology staff round daily, and law library access is by written request onto a waiting list. See the Bureau’s special housing unit rules, solitary confinement and special housing units and protective custody.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FCI Hazelton?

Inspectors describe chronic understaffing, frequent unit lockdowns and slow medical, dental and grievance responses at FCI Hazelton. The District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council has inspected it four times — 2016, 2019, 2023 and 2025 — because a large number of DC Code offenders are held here, and the Bureau has answered each report in writing. The Council’s percentages are of self-selected volunteers from the DC Code population, and conditions belong to the visit date rather than the publication date.

The September 2025 inspection

The Council visited on September 16, 17 and 18, 2025, and published on February 18, 2026. The FCI then held 1,451 men, 135 of them DC Code offenders, and 93 of those 135 were surveyed. The first key finding is one sentence long: “FCI Hazelton operates with insufficient staffing.”

Lockdowns dominate the report. “Pending SHU,” the report explains, “refers to the status of inmates who are designated for transfer to the SHU, but are temporarily held elsewhere due to capacity issues. Inmates pending placement within the SHU will remain in their current housing unit under lockdown conditions, which affects the entire unit.” Every DC Code offender who spoke to the Council raised the effect on programming, and residents described being confined for weeks and months.

At this prison an entire housing unit can be locked down not because anything happened in that unit, but because the segregation unit is full.

• Medical: five vacancies — one doctor and four physician assistants. Of the 93 respondents, 37 said the department does not answer sick call within 48 hours and 44 were unsatisfied with medical services, citing understaffing, limited access to physicians and delays in treatment.
• Mental health: “The Deputy Program Coordinator oversees psychology services at FCI Hazelton and there is no chief psychologist or staff psychologists available.” Thirty-three respondents reported a mental-health diagnosis, 51 knew how to request services, and 18 said they were not receiving their medication.
• Dental: a national waiting list the Council recorded as five years long, with vacancies for a chief dentist, a staff dentist and a dental assistant. Emergencies are prioritized; Mondays are reserved for Special Housing Unit requests.
• Grievances: 22 of the 93 had used the process and 15 of those 22 got no response — against the Bureau’s own facility-wide records showing average timely responses of 19 days at the institution, 37 at the region and 28 at central office.
• Staff conduct: “Multiple residents reported that staff at FCI Hazelton occasionally used racist and unprofessional language when addressing them and displayed bias against DC residents,” at a frequency ranging from occasionally to weekly. The Council relayed the accounts to institution personnel.
• Fifty-six of the 93 said they knew how to report sexual abuse under PREA.

Care levels: the Bureau’s care-level charts released in 2024 list FCI Hazelton at level 2 for medical and for mental health care, and the Council’s report also records medical care level 2 while describing mental-health care levels one, two “and occasionally three.” See the Bureau’s medical designation rules.

The Bureau’s response, signed on July 24, 2026, by an Assistant Director of the Correctional Programs Division, is the most current official account of staffing here: “FCC Hazelton complex is currently understaffed in Correctional Services, Psychology and Health Services”; “Health Services is currently staffed at less than 60%”; and “FCC Hazelton has two (2) psychologists,” with tele-health from other institutions. On lockdowns it reports a change: “the entire facility is not locked down due to pending SHU inmates; only the specific unit is secured until space is available.”

The February 2023 follow-up

The Council returned on February 22 and 23, 2023, and reported that July. The FCI then held 1,598 men against a rated capacity of 1,152 — “grossly overpopulated,” in the Council’s words — with 102 staff vacancies at the complex. Of the 91 DC Code offenders it surveyed, 48 said staff make racist comments, 71 did not feel comfortable reporting violence to staff, and of the 79 who had been held at other federal prisons, 70 said staff behavior at Hazelton was worse.

On grievances, 68 of 91 had never used the process, 38 said they could not get the forms, and of the 22 who filed, four received a response. The Council recommended putting BP-9 forms in the housing units and libraries so they could be picked up without asking staff. The Bureau declined: the process “is not a process that can be handled in an anonymous way,” and forms are issued by staff for tracking.

Not everything got worse. The Council closed its 2019 lockdown recommendation as resolved in 2023, finding units rather than the whole facility being secured — the same change the Bureau reported making again in 2026 — and closed its 2019 recommendations on programming and anti-racism training as partially resolved. Those came out of two visits in 2019, the second ninety days after the first because of what inspectors heard: of 38 people surveyed in November, during a lockdown, more than 80 percent said conditions had worsened since August.

The April 2026 PREA audit

FCC Hazelton was audited under the Prison Rape Elimination Act on April 7–9, 2026, by Brian Sutherland of Corrections Consulting Services, whose final report is dated May 15, 2026. It covers the whole complex, not the FCI alone, and the complex passed: forty-five standards met, none exceeded, none unmet. It is also the most detailed public description of the physical plant and staffing there is.

Designated capacity (complex)	2,752
Population on day one of the audit	3,376
Average daily population, prior 12 months	3,550
Over capacity in the prior 12 months	Yes
Buildings	51
Housing units	33 — none single-cell; 31 multiple-occupancy; 2 open bay or dormitory
Segregation cells	232
Staff who may have inmate contact	704, against 855 authorized positions
Contractors / volunteers cleared	16 / 64
Age range of the population	18 to 85
Average length of stay	409 to 521 days
Accreditation within three years	American Correctional Association only

Three things carry practical weight. The first is the staffing sentence, from the Warden via the auditor: “The facility Warden informed me the total staffing on the first day of the audit was 704 and the complex was operating at an 82% staffing level,” with custody accounting for 447 of 855 authorized positions.

The second is the allegation data. In the twelve months before the audit the complex recorded 38 allegations of sexual abuse — 24 inmate-on-inmate and 14 staff-on-inmate — and 13 of sexual harassment, all 51 handled as administrative investigations. No criminal investigation was conducted in that period, and the facility employs no criminal investigators; that is a matter for a Justice Department component. None was substantiated.

The third is camera coverage. Recordings are kept fourteen days, and the auditor recorded that “the facility has identified several blind spot areas throughout the facility where enhanced camera coverage will eliminate potential soft spots,” with extra unannounced rounds and mirrors as the interim measure. Fourteen days is the practical deadline for anyone who needs footage after an incident: an immediate written preservation request, to the institution and to counsel, is the only thing that stops it being overwritten.

Staffing

Three figures for staffing here have been published within eighteen months, and they are not the same measure. The Warden told the PREA auditor on April 7, 2026, that the complex was at 82 percent, 704 in post against 855 authorized positions. The Bureau wrote on July 24, 2026, that Health Services is “staffed at less than 60%.” And on August 25, 2026, a steward of AFGE Local 420 told WV MetroNews that staffing “has at times been as low as 75 percent,” with augmentation putting teachers and cooks on correctional posts.

The Bureau’s countermeasure is on the record too: FCC Hazelton pays a 13 percent retention incentive, runs weekly open-house hiring hours and offers help with the USAJobs application process. For a family, staffing is the reason a callout is canceled, a class has a two-year waitlist, a dental appointment sits behind a five-year national queue, or a unit is secured because there is nobody to run the movement.

What the Inspector General has and has not done

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its program of unannounced institution inspections had reached fourteen institutions on its own May 2026 count (Report 26-055). It has visited a Hazelton institution in published work four times: its February 2024 evaluation of inmate deaths, which chose FCC Hazelton as one of three institutions visited “where inmate deaths occurred during our evaluation period” and found that not all staff were carrying their own cut-down tools; its December 2022 report on the transfer of James “Whitey” Bulger to the penitentiary next door; its September 2018 review of the Bureau’s management of its female population, which visited the Secure Female Facility; and its May 2015 report on the impact of an aging inmate population, which chose USP Hazelton, FCI Morgantown and FCI Cumberland because “the institutions follow the same growing aging inmate trend.”

Congress and the U.S. Attorney have also looked. On September 12, 2023, Senators Durbin, Grassley, Manchin and Capito wrote to the Attorney General about whistleblower reports at FCC Hazelton, listing allegations that supervisory staff were “falsifying documents, encouraging inmate abuse, and covering up alleged abuse” and “repeatedly directing racial slurs against minorities.” Three weeks later U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld announced a civil-rights hotline for FCC Hazelton — 1-855-WVA-FEDS, wvafeds@usdoj.gov. It produced convictions on the penitentiary side: three former USP Hazelton officers admitted their roles in a prisoner’s assault in November 2024.

Both Hazelton facility pages also link a Department of Justice Notice to Employees stating that “it has been determined that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has subjected an employee to discrimination on the basis of disability at Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton, West Virginia,” posted by order of the Complaint Adjudication Office under 29 C.F.R. Part 1614. It concerns an employee rather than a prisoner.

What the courts have said

Two published Fourth Circuit decisions come out of this institution. In Earle v. Shreves, 990 F.3d 774 (4th Cir. 2021), a man held at FCI Hazelton was put in the Special Housing Unit for thirty days after filing grievances against an officer, then lost his job assignment and had his custody classification raised. The Fourth Circuit held that a Bivens damages action is not available for a federal prisoner’s First Amendment retaliation claim, the claim arising in a new Bivens context. It did not hold that retaliation is lawful or that no remedy exists — the administrative remedy process was part of its reasoning. The practical effect is that the paper trail through the administrative remedy process is not optional; in this circuit it is the route.

In Marlowe v. Warden, FCI Hazelton, 6 F.4th 562 (4th Cir. 2021), the court held that the petitioner could not satisfy the first requirement for using the savings clause of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), so the district court lacked jurisdiction over his § 2241 petition. The routing point matters: a § 2241 petition by someone held at FCI Hazelton is filed in the Northern District of West Virginia, where the prison sits, not in the district that sentenced them.

FCI Hazelton in the news

Recent news about FCI Hazelton centers on staffing, contraband and deaths: union reports of staffing as low as 75 percent, a methamphetamine charge from a visit, a death in March 2026 and drug exposures that hospitalized employees in 2025. Older items concern a staff prosecution, the civil-rights hotline, first-person accounts of conditions, the Bulger killing next door and the prison’s 2014 opening. Newest first:

• August 25, 2026 — after the resignation of the Bureau’s deputy director, a steward of AFGE Local 420 told WV MetroNews that staffing at the Hazelton facilities had at times been as low as 75 percent, with augmentation putting teachers and cooks on correctional officer posts.
• August 10, 2026 — a visitor and a man held at FCI Hazelton were charged with providing and possessing a prohibited object after an alleged attempt to deliver methamphetamine during visitation. Both are presumed innocent.
• March 2, 2026 — the Bureau reported that Isom Cooper, 62, was found unresponsive at 11:20 a.m. at FCI Hazelton and pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel. He had been there since April 22, 2024, serving a life sentence imposed by the D.C. Superior Court. The FBI was notified. Sixteen days later, on March 18, Jerome Jones died in hospital after being found unresponsive the evening before at the penitentiary next door.
• August 2025 — eight FCI Hazelton employees were hospitalized in one week after drug exposures. The president of AFGE Local 420 said carfentanil was detected in the Secure Female Facility on two of those days and drugs were found in five cells. The exposures coincided with additional lockdowns and extensive searches.
• June 2024 — a former FCI Hazelton correctional officer was sentenced in the Northern District of West Virginia to four months’ incarceration and a year of supervised release for providing tobacco to a prisoner.
• October 2023 — the U.S. Attorney opened the 1-855-WVA-FEDS civil-rights hotline for people who witnessed or suffered assault at FCC Hazelton, three weeks after four senators asked the Justice Department to investigate whistleblower allegations there.
• September 5, 2022 — the advocacy publication More Than Our Crimes ran a piece by Pam Bailey, “FCI Hazelton: Called ‘Misery Mountain’ for a Reason,” collecting first-person accounts from named men here describing medical neglect, retaliation and collective punishment. The accounts are the writers’ own and the piece carries no Bureau response; several themes reappear in the Council’s later findings.
• January 2021 to August 2022 — the Bureau posted three news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FCI Hazelton; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• October 2018 — James “Whitey” Bulger was murdered at USP Hazelton within hours of arriving. The Inspector General’s December 2022 report found serious performance and management failures but no malicious intent.
• June 18, 2014 — FCI Hazelton opened as the Bureau’s 120th facility, rated at 1,152 beds in six housing units and the first Bureau institution to earn LEED Gold certification.

Frequently asked questions about FCI Hazelton

Problems at FCI Hazelton: where we can help

The problems that recur here are the ones four inspections and two Fourth Circuit decisions keep finding: a unit locked down because the Special Housing Unit is full, a health service the Bureau itself says is staffed at under 60 percent, and a grievance process most of the men surveyed had never managed to use. Every route out of them runs on a deadline that is easy to miss.

• Lockdowns that stop programming. When a unit is secured because the Special Housing Unit is full, the men in it lose classes, law library, recreation and family contact for reasons unconnected to their own conduct. Document it as it happens: it bears on First Step Act credit-earning and on any later argument about why a recommended program was not completed. See the Bureau’s lockdown rules.
• Medical and dental care that is not happening. The Bureau itself states Health Services here is staffed at under 60 percent. The route is a written request to staff, then the administrative remedy process — twenty days to file the BP-9 from the incident. See medical care and, where negligence caused injury, Federal Tort Claims Act claims.
• Grievance forms that do not arrive and responses that do not come. Two-thirds of the men surveyed in 2023 had never used the process; fifteen of twenty-two who filed in 2025 got no answer. A record of asking is itself evidence.
• RDAP and the § 3621(e) year. The program is not offered at this institution, so the question is when a transfer request goes in, not when a class starts. See our RDAP and early release work.
• First Step Act time credits — and, for people serving DC Code sentences, whether the guidance finalized before September 2025 has actually reached their computation. See First Step Act time credits and DC educational good time.
• Designation and transfer. Security points, Public Safety Factors and Management Variables are all arguable, and a nearer-release transfer needs eighteen consecutive months of clear conduct in general population before the unit team will send it on. See federal prison transfers and the Bureau’s designation rules.
• Disciplinary proceedings that threaten good conduct time, and Special Housing Unit placements that outlast their justification, including protective custody requests.
• Retaliation for filing grievances. The Fourth Circuit held in Earle v. Shreves, a case from this prison, that damages under Bivens are not available for a First Amendment retaliation claim — which makes the administrative record, and the timing of every filing, decisive in this circuit.
• Evidence that disappears: camera recordings here are retained for fourteen days, so a written preservation request has to go in inside that window.
• Compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence procedures, sentence computation errors, and habeas relief under § 2241, which for someone held here is filed in the Northern District of West Virginia.
• 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. The federal prison policy material on this site is written by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director; he is not counsel of record, and legal representation is provided by Elizabeth Franklin-Best. Calls are answered 24 hours a day. Call (843) 620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation.

Sources and currency

Bureau of Prisons documents

• FCI Hazelton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Address, contact details, mailing addresses and posted documents.
• USP Hazelton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The penitentiary’s page, which carries the FCI Hazelton commissary list.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement HAX 5267.09I, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Hazelton, 2026. Visiting times, points, dress, permitted items, ION scan rules and directions; replaced Institution Supplement 5267.09H (2026).
• FCI Hazelton General Population List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Hazelton, 2025. Commissary order form: spending limit, prices and quantity caps.
• FCC Hazelton Inmate Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCC Hazelton, 2022. Daily schedule, telephone hours, mail, clothing and programs.
• Secure Female Facility Hazelton Inmate Information Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, SFF Hazelton, 2011. Historical.
• Death at FCI Hazelton, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Isom Cooper’s death on March 2, 2026.
• FCI Hazelton Becomes 120th Bureau of Prisons Facility, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2014.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Includes the three 2021–2022 releases reporting deaths at FCI Hazelton.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Commissary spending limit and its exclusions.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Monthly minute allowance and call rules; replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Release Preparation Program, Program Statement 5325.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026.
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. August 2026 edition; programs by institution, including the RDAP locations list.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes, posting times and holds.
• Residential Drug Abuse Programs and Locations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. Marks the SFF Hazelton program suspended.
• 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.
• Response to the FCI Hazelton inspection report, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Correctional Programs Division, 2026. Published by the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FCC Hazelton, Brian Sutherland, Corrections Consulting Services, 2026. On-site audit of April 7–9, 2026, covering the whole complex.
• FCI Hazelton Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2026. Inspection of September 16–18, 2025.
• Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institutions (Report 24-041), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024.
• FCI Hazelton Follow-Up Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2023. Inspection of February 22–23, 2023.
• Durbin, Grassley, Manchin, Capito Call on DOJ and BOP to Investigate Reports of Abusive Treatment at FCC Hazelton, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 2023. Carries the senators’ September 12, 2023, letter.
• Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Handling of the Transfer of Inmate James “Whitey” Bulger, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022.
• FCI Hazelton Inspection Report, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2021. Inspections of August and November 2019, with the Bureau’s comments.
• Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of Its Female Inmate Population (Report 18-05), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2018.
• FCI Hazelton Inspection Report with BOP Response, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2016. Inspection of April 14, 2016.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Report 15-05), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015. Revised in 2016.
• Notice to Employees, U.S. Department of Justice, Complaint Adjudication Office. A finding of disability discrimination against an FCC Hazelton employee, linked from both Hazelton facility pages.

Court records

• Two Charged After Alleged Meth Delivery Attempt During Prison Visitation at FCI Hazelton, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of West Virginia, 2026.
• Former BOP Correctional Officer Sentenced for Providing a Prohibited Object in Prison, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024. The sentence of a former FCI Hazelton officer.
• Civil rights hotline created for federal prison in West Virginia, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of West Virginia, 2023. The FCC Hazelton hotline.
• Marlowe v. Warden, FCI Hazelton, 6 F.4th 562, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2021.
• Earle v. Shreves, 990 F.3d 774, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2021.

News and other sources

• FCI Hazelton workers applaud resignation of BOP deputy director, former inmate, WV MetroNews, 2026.
• Two inmate deaths at Hazelton highlight facility’s violent past, WV News (Charles Young), 2026.
• Two inmates at Hazelton prisons die this month, The Dominion Post, 2026.
• Multiple FCI Hazelton employees exposed to carfentanil for 4th time this week, WDTV, 2025.
• FCI Hazelton: Called ‘Misery Mountain’ for a Reason, More Than Our Crimes (Pam Bailey), 2022. First-person accounts; no Bureau response included.
• Longtime federal warden joins WV Parole Board as chair, West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, 2018. Warden O’Brien’s tenure.
• 18 U.S.C. § 1791, Providing or possessing contraband in prison, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), Federal custody; remedies on motion attacking sentence, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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