FPC Morgantown (formerly FCI Morgantown), West Virginia

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

FPC Morgantown at a glance

FPC Morgantown is a minimum-security federal prison camp for men at 446 Greenbag Road, at the southern edge of Morgantown, West Virginia, holding 159 men as of September 2026. It is a stand-alone institution in Monongalia County, with no parent prison and no satellite camp of its own.

Official name	Federal Prison Camp, Morgantown
BOP code	MRG
Security level	Minimum; men
Status	Converting to a Federal Satellite Low (announced July 1, 2026) · no date published · see the conversion
Population	159 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · no weekday visiting · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Inmate Name & Register Number · FPC Morgantown · Federal Prison Camp · P.O. Box 1000 · Morgantown, WV 26507
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	304-296-4416 · Fax 304-284-3600
Street address	446 Greenbag Road, Route 857, Morgantown, WV 26501 · Monongalia County
Judicial district	Northern District of West Virginia
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Housing	Dormitories, cubicles and two-person rooms
Special Housing Unit	Yes · video visiting only
Medical care level	Level 2
Mental health care level	Level 2
RDAP	Not on the Bureau’s current list · see RDAP
UNICOR	Unconfirmed · see work

One sequence belongs to this camp alone: in a little over two years the Bureau renamed it (FCI to FPC, April 2024), announced it would suspend operations (December 2024), reversed that decision (2025), and on July 1, 2026 announced that it will become a Federal Satellite Low, a low-security institution. It is one of the federal prisons in West Virginia and falls under the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region.

One prison, several names: FPC Morgantown, FCI Morgantown and the Kennedy Youth Center

FPC Morgantown and FCI Morgantown are one institution, at one address, under one code, MRG; the Bureau changed the name on April 4, 2024 without changing the security level.

The Bureau’s news item of April 4, 2024 says a planning committee recommended in January 2024 that seven facilities be renamed “to match their approved mission and security level,” and that “As a minimum security institution, FCI Morgantown will become FPC Morgantown.” The other six were penitentiaries renamed as FCIs. When the Justice Department’s Inspector General printed a table of the 2024 name changes that the Bureau supplied, in its July 2025 audit of restraint use (Report 25-070, Appendix 2), the Bureau’s note beneath it settled the point: “FPC Morgantown was always designated as a FPC but was named an FCI.”

Before that it was a youth institution. The Bureau’s historical timeline records that the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center opened in 1969, and its 1974 directory describes a co-correctional center for 350 young men and women aged 14 to 27, run as “a completely open institution” three miles south of Morgantown, and prints a telephone number, 304-296-4416, that the camp still answers.

The paperwork has not caught up. The Bureau’s timeline still says the youth center “is now FCI Morgantown,” and the facility page still links the “FCI Morgantown PREA Report.” The visiting supplement is signed by the Warden of “FCI Morgantown”; the commissary sheet is headed “FCI MORGANTOWN COMMISSARY SHEET”; and the Spanish handbook, marked “UPDATED: 01-02-2024,” uses the old name and describes about 1,300 men, where the English handbook of June 2024 uses the new one and describes about 960 men. The facility page carries the Bureau’s notice that a renamed building’s facade “may reflect the old name” until a state historical survey is approved.

Two neighbors should not be confused with it: the Hazelton complex in Preston County, home to FCI Hazelton and USP Hazelton, where the Bureau planned in December 2024 to send Morgantown’s staff; and FPC Alderson, West Virginia’s other stand-alone federal prison camp, which holds women.

Is FPC Morgantown closing, or becoming a Federal Satellite Low?

Neither has happened yet. On July 1, 2026, in a release that also announced six closures and cited “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges,” the Bureau said: “In addition, Morgantown FPC and Duluth FPC will transition from minimum-security camps to FSL facilities.” It gave no date, said nothing about the men already here, and did not say whether a low-security Morgantown would run alone or under another institution. The Bureau has published no later statement on any of those points. Our overview of recent closures and deactivations covers the national picture.

What the Bureau’s own systems showed in September 2026:

• The roster still types MRG as a Federal Prison Camp at Minimum security, with its Federal Satellite Low flag false and no parent complex, and the facility page still opens “A minimum security federal prison camp.”
• The population report dated September 10, 2026 counts 159 men. The facility page showed a population of 177 in June 2026, three weeks before the announcement, and The Dominion Post, reporting the Bureau’s comments in December 2024, put the camp at 397 men.
• The location feed records no lockdown and no visiting suspension for MRG.

On today’s roster, every Federal Satellite Low is attached to something. Only two roster records carry the FSL flag, FCI Elkton in Ohio and FCI Jesup in Georgia, and each FSL is a separate low-security unit with its own line in the population report: 473 men at Elkton’s and 494 at Jesup’s on September 10, 2026. The script that builds the Bureau’s facility pages calls an FSL “an adjacent low security satellite prison.” Morgantown has no parent institution to sit beside, so the announcement describes an arrangement the roster has no example of.

The conversion is the third change of direction in two years:

Date	What the record says	Source
April 4, 2024	Renamed FPC Morgantown “as a minimum security institution”	BOP news item
December 5, 2024	Deactivation announced: about 150 employees to FCC Hazelton, and the 397 men held there in December 2024 to other minimum-security facilities, ideally within 500 miles of their release destinations, over “approximately nine months”	The Dominion Post; WDTV
January 2025	The Bureau’s standalone RDAP list marks “FCI Morgantown (WV) (CLOSING)”	BOP RDAP locations list
June 23, 2025	Director William K. Marshall III’s visit “directly informed his decision to reverse the previous administration’s order to deactivate the institution”	BOP news item
July 1, 2026	Conversion to a Federal Satellite Low announced	BOP press release

For a family, nothing on the record yet requires anyone to leave Morgantown, and nothing promises that anyone will stay. Our page on FPC Duluth follows the other camp named in the announcement, which the roster still listed as a camp in September 2026. If your family member is here, ask his unit team in writing what the conversion means for him, keep the answer, and watch the roster and facility page for the day the facility type changes.

What is the security level at FPC Morgantown?

Minimum, for now. The roster types Morgantown as a Federal Prison Camp at Minimum security, and the facility form in the March 2024 PREA audit records its levels as “Minimum/Custody/In/Out.” If the conversion goes ahead, Morgantown becomes a low-security institution, and the Bureau’s classification manual, Program Statement 5100.08 (2006, amended 2026), sets out the difference:

Security level	Custody levels it houses	Security points for men	PS 5100.08
Minimum (today)	Community and Out	0 to 11	ch. 1, p. 2
Low (announced)	Out and In	12 to 15	ch. 1, p. 2

The bigger change is who can be sent. Under the manual’s Table 5-2, seven Public Safety Factors move a man who scores 0 to 11 points from minimum to low security: Deportable Alien, Juvenile Violence, Greatest Severity Offense, Sex Offender, Serious Telephone Abuse, Threat to Government Officials, and more than ten years left to serve (ch. 5, p. 12). The manual lets only the Administrator of the Designation and Sentence Computation Center waive a Public Safety Factor, on a form 409 request (ch. 5, p. 4). Without a waiver, a camp cannot hold those men; a Federal Satellite Low could. Two of those factors appear again in a separate announcement: on May 28, 2026, the Bureau announced a Strategic Expansion of Minimum-Security Camp Utilization, under which institutions would begin transferring eligible people to camps once they have a Residential Reentry Center or home-confinement date, prioritizing at first those held in low-security institutions and excluding categories the release lists, among them sex offenders and deportable aliens.

PS 5100.08 does not address a camp that becomes a low; its tool for a mismatch between a man’s score and his institution is the Management Variable: Population Management applies when a man “requires housing in a facility which is not commensurate with his or her security level,” names “facility activation” as an example, and lasts up to 18 months (ch. 5, pp. 3, 6); Lesser Security lets the Center’s Administrator place a man below his scored level, for example where age is largely the reason (ch. 5, p. 5). Neither says what happens to camp-only arrangements here, such as the off-grounds Town Driver job; ask the unit team in writing, and remember that 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) asks the Bureau to hold people within 500 driving miles of home where practicable.

Minimum security has not meant “non-secure” here, at least in the Fourth Circuit. In United States v. Sarno, 24 F.3d 618 (4th Cir. 1994), a man convicted of escaping from what was then FCI Morgantown in June 1991 argued that its four-foot fence made it non-secure, so that the escape guideline’s four-level reduction should apply. On a record describing “a minimum-security prison with a four foot high perimeter fence and perimeter road that inmates are warned not to cross,” and “a more secure facility than a federal prison camp,” the court held that Morgantown “fits squarely within the Guidelines’ definition of secure facility.” Id. at 623–24.

The court applied Sarno to Morgantown again in two unpublished per curiam decisions, United States v. Clark, No. 93-5136, 37 F.3d 1496 (4th Cir. Oct. 12, 1994) (table), and United States v. Whitman, 431 F. App’x 217 (4th Cir. 2011), where a man who walked away from an unescorted hospital appointment on April 15, 2010 was denied the reduction because he “was always in the custody of FCI-Morgantown, which was held in Sarno to be a secure facility.” USSG § 2P1.1(b)(3) still limits that reduction to escapes from the non-secure custody of a community corrections center, community treatment center, “halfway house,” or similar facility. Whether a court would say the same of FPC Morgantown after the renaming is open.

Who are the notable inmates at FPC Morgantown?

Of the names that circulate, one is at Morgantown today and one reported here this year is not; the rest have been released, and the table gives the source that ties each of them to Morgantown. For someone already released, the locator shows a release date and no facility, and the record often names the Residential Reentry Management (RRM) office that handled the release rather than the prison.

Name and register number	What the public record shows	Bureau record, September 2026
Michael J. Madigan 90368-509	Former Illinois House Speaker; reported to the Morgantown camp on October 13, 2025 to begin a 90-month corruption sentence (Capitol News Illinois). The Seventh Circuit affirmed his convictions on April 27, 2026, and the Chicago Tribune reported a Supreme Court petition on July 29, 2026.	At MRG; projected release October 20, 2031
Keonne Rodriguez 11404-511	Samourai Wallet co-founder, sentenced to 60 months. He wrote from FPC Morgantown after surrendering on December 19, and BeInCrypto, dating the surrender to December 2025, still placed him there on May 6, 2026.	At MCK, the code for FCI McKean, Pennsylvania, which also covers its camp; projected release December 22, 2029
William (Bill) Courtright 76927-067	Former Scranton mayor; The Times-Tribune reported in January 2021 that he had been held at FCI Morgantown since October 30, 2020.	Released October 15, 2025 (Philadelphia RRM)
R. Seth Williams 75926-066	Former Philadelphia district attorney; CBS Philadelphia reported on December 10, 2017 that he had been moved to Morgantown after a five-year bribery sentence.	Released September 30, 2020 (Philadelphia RRM)
Patrick Cannon 29396-058	Former Charlotte mayor, sentenced to 44 months; Spectrum News reported his release from the Morgantown prison on September 15, 2016.	Released January 25, 2017, after home confinement (Raleigh RRM)
Robert Eloff 24092-055	Former Buffalo police officer, sentenced in December 2016 to three months for a civil-rights violation; WKBW reported on February 15, 2017 that he would serve it at FCI Morgantown.	Released May 12, 2017 from MRG, on the locator’s own record
Richard Hatch 05559-070	Survivor winner convicted of tax evasion; UPI reported on August 1, 2006 that he had been moved to the minimum-security prison at Morgantown.	Released December 12, 2011 (Philadelphia RRM)
Robert (Bob) Ney 28882-016	Former Ohio congressman, sentenced in January 2007 to 30 months; PBS NewsHour reported that the judge asked that he serve it at Morgantown.	Released August 15, 2008 (Cincinnati RRM)
Richard (Rick) Renzi 29375-208	Former Arizona congressman; on February 27, 2015 the Associated Press quoted a Bureau spokesman as saying he had reported to “the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution at Morgantown, West Virginia,” and on January 6, 2017 it reported that he finished his sentence at a Bureau facility in Washington, D.C.	Released January 6, 2017 (Baltimore RRM)

Rodriguez is not at Morgantown today. The Bureau’s roster records no detention center here, although the court in the 1994 Sarno appeal noted a record describing the prison as containing “a pretrial unit and a detention facility for inmates.”

How do I find someone at FPC Morgantown?

Search the Bureau’s Inmate Locator by the eight-digit register number, or by first and last name together; a last-name search alone can come back empty even for a real record. A man held here appears as “Morgantown FPC,” and a man designated here may not appear that way until he actually arrives. The visiting supplement also treats men in transit, whom it calls “Holdover inmates,” as Special Housing Unit visitors who may see only immediate family named in the presentence report (MRG 5267.09F, § 9.J).

How do I write to someone at FPC Morgantown?

Use this block exactly as the Bureau’s facility page gives it:

Inmate Name & Register Number
FPC Morgantown
Federal Prison Camp
P.O. Box 1000
Morgantown, WV 26507

The mail ZIP code, 26507, is not the street ZIP code, 26501. Do not improvise a camp or satellite-low variant; if the conversion changes the name lines, the facility page will show it.

Under the Bureau’s correspondence rules, general correspondence is opened and inspected; the June 2024 handbook adds the local practice (pp. 42–45). Mail is handed out Monday through Friday, ordinarily by each unit’s evening officer, with no service on weekends or federal holidays; put the register number and housing unit on the envelope; and every package needs prior authorization. Mail from attorneys, courts and similar senders is opened only in the man’s presence if the envelope identifies the sender and is marked along the lines of “Special Mail – Open in the presence of the inmate.” Outgoing letters use TRULINCS labels, and the handbook still tells men to write “Federal Correctional Institution Morgantown” in the return address.

Books are where the handbook contradicts itself. Its publications section says that since February 1, 2018 all books, including softbound books, must come from a publisher, book club or bookstore, or be returned (p. 43); its religious-services section says “Softcover books may be sent from home” (p. 51). The regulation settles the contradiction for a minimum-security camp: softcover books and magazines may come from any source, while hardcover books and newspapers must come from a publisher, book club or bookstore (28 C.F.R. § 540.71(a)). A man may keep five books, five newspapers and five magazines.

How do I send money to someone at FPC Morgantown?

Never send money to Morgantown itself. The Bureau’s Send Money guidance gives three routes, all into the Bureau’s national system, and asks senders to wait until the man has physically arrived at a Bureau facility:

• MoneyGram, receive code 7932. Account number: the eight-digit register number followed immediately by his last name, with no spaces or dashes; company Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC. Online payments are capped at $300.
• Western Union, code city FBOP, DC. Same account number, committed name on the attention line.
• Mail to the lockbox: Federal Bureau of Prisons, his committed name, his register number, Post Office Box 474701, Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001, with your return address. Only money orders, U.S. government checks, cashier’s or certified checks and bank drafts are accepted, and anything other than a Postal Service money order or a government check is held 15 days.

Both wire services run every day, holidays included: money sent from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern posts within two to four hours, and anything later waits until 7:00 a.m. Bureau staff answer deposit questions at 202-307-2712. The June 2024 handbook adds that a man in “refusal” status under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program may spend only $25 a month at the commissary.

What are the visiting hours at FPC Morgantown?

Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., under the institution’s visiting supplement, MRG 5267.09F, signed on February 5, 2024; there is no other weekday visiting. Visitors are admitted from 7:45 a.m. in order of arrival, and no one new is processed after 2:00 p.m. The current supplement sets no Friday-evening visiting. Our visiting guide and the Bureau’s visiting regulations cover the national rules.

Men in the Special Housing Unit visit only by video, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. or noon to 2:00 p.m. on the same days, with at most two visitors and one session a day. The supplement contradicts itself on length: its visitor attachment says a SHU visit “will not exceed one hour,” while paragraph 7 lets the Captain approve a second hour if it is requested two weeks ahead, and the June 2024 handbook says “two hours per visit.” Request the second hour in writing two weeks out.

When the schedule changes, the supplement makes the Warden’s secretary update the Bureau’s website and the recorded message at 304-296-4416, option 1. Check the recording the night before any trip.

Who can visit, and how many at once

• Immediate family (spouse, children, parents, brothers and sisters) is normally approved, and up to ten others may be added after the unit team reviews background forms the man gets from his counselor. Visitors must have known him before his incarceration unless the Warden approves otherwise.
• List changes may be requested on the first Monday of each month, and a visitor may normally appear on only one man’s list unless related to more than one.
• Children under 16 must come with an approved adult of at least 18. Under paragraph 3 of the supplement, visitors aged 16 or 17 without a parent, guardian or adult family member need written parental approval reviewed by the Unit Manager; the visitor attachment requires written approval for any visitor under 18.

The limit on numbers depends on the document. The supplement’s paragraph 5 allows five visitors, no more than three of them adults, and its attachment says three adult visitors. The June 2024 handbook says “a total of four visitors” and adds a rule the supplement never mentions: “four visiting points per month,” one per visit. The signed supplement should control, but bring no more than three adults and ask the counselor in writing whether the points rule is applied.

What visitors can wear and bring

The supplement’s dress code bars, among other things, shorts on anyone 16 or older, khaki or camouflage (the men wear khaki), leggings and other tight clothing, sleeveless or see-through tops, short or slit skirts, torn jeans, hats, long coats, sweatpants, hooded sweatshirts and open-toed shoes.

Allowed into the room: one small clear change purse, up to $20 for the vending machines, two pre-made baby bottles, three diapers per child, two unopened clear jars of baby food, one small clear diaper bag, two feminine hygiene products, and nitroglycerine, an inhaler, an epinephrine pen or a diabetic kit, which the officer holds. Phones, watches, wallets, cosmetics, photographs, paper, books, strollers, toys and outside food are among the prohibited items; lockers at the Administration Building entrance take belongings, with the key issued against your driver’s license or state ID. The June 2024 handbook says “No diaper bags” are allowed in the visiting room, yet a page later lists “clear diaper bags” among items subject to inspection; the supplement’s more specific rule allows one small clear bag. A room across from the officer’s station is reserved for nursing mothers.

Identification, screening and the rules inside

Visitors 16 and older need current photo identification, such as a driver’s license, passport or state ID card; the handbook adds that a birth certificate will not do. Every visitor completes the BP-A0224 form and may be searched or screened for metal or drugs under the Bureau’s search rules, and the men are pat-searched before visiting.

An embrace and a kiss are allowed only at the start and end of a visit, and nothing may be passed. Leaving the room, even for lunch, ends the visit, and a terminated visit means leaving the grounds at once. No one may wait in a parked car, children and pets may not be left in vehicles, and cameras are prohibited. Park in the lot to the left of the main entrance; accessible spaces are to the right.

Attorney visits, which the Bureau’s legal activities rules govern, are arranged through the unit team, ordinarily on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., for the attorney of record carrying a bar card; the supplement still cites the rescinded Program Statement 1315.07 rather than its replacement, 1315.08 (2026).

Getting to FPC Morgantown

The camp is at 446 Greenbag Road, near Exit 1 (University Avenue) of Interstate 68. From I-79 in either direction, take Exit 148 onto I-68 and then Exit 1; from Maryland, Washington or Virginia, come west on I-68 to Exit 1. Turn left at the end of the ramp, then right onto Greenbag Road; the institution is about a mile along on the right.

The Bureau’s two documents disagree about that right turn. The February 2024 supplement says to pass one traffic light and turn at the second, at the bottom of the hill, whatever direction you come from; the June 2024 handbook says to “go through three traffic lights and turn right at the third light” from the north or south, and to turn at the second from the east. Use a map and watch for the Greenbag Road sign. Mountain Line Transit Authority runs the local buses, including a service to and from Pittsburgh.

How do phone calls and email work at FPC Morgantown?

Each housing unit has telephones and TRULINCS computers, and the monthly phone limit is set by Program Statement 5264.09 of September 3, 2026: 510 minutes per calendar month, 300 of them free to men eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives and 210 that any man may buy (at 7). The June 2024 handbook’s “300 minutes of telephone calls each month” was written under the rescinded 2008 statement and no longer states the limit. Under PS 5264.09 a call should generally last no more than 15 minutes, completed calls must be at least 30 minutes apart, phones may run from 6:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. subject to the Warden’s schedule, and properly arranged unmonitored legal calls fall outside the cap (at 6–7). PS 5264.09 also drops the extra 100 minutes a month that the 2008 statement allowed in November and December.

The handbook describes the local mechanics (pp. 37–40). Trust Fund staff activate a new arrival’s account, normally the next day; his counselor issues a nine-digit access code and four-digit PIN; every number he calls must be on his TRULINCS list with the person’s full mailing address; and he records a voice sample by dialing 111. One red phone in each unit works around the clock for emergencies, calls to staff or volunteers are forbidden, and unmonitored attorney calls go through the unit team. TRULINCS messaging costs $0.05 a minute in blocks of 40 to 600 minutes, printing costs $0.15 a page, and the terminals in a man’s own unit are open 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. outside his work hours. On the Bureau’s national page, both sides must consent to monitoring, and messages are text only, up to 13,000 characters.

For a death or hospitalization in the family, call 304-296-4416; once the news is verified, usually by the chaplain, staff tell the man, and the chaplain may allow one compassion call of up to 15 minutes. The handbook advises keeping minutes in reserve for it.

What can people buy at the FPC Morgantown commissary?

Up to $460 a month in ordinary purchases, the national ceiling in Program Statement 4500.13 of May 7, 2026, which raised it from $360 (at 2, 28). Both Morgantown documents still print the old figure: the sheet posted as “mrg_commlist2025.pdf” reads “SPENDING LIMIT $360 MONTHLY,” and so does the June 2024 handbook. That figure is obsolete. The sheet is also older than its file name: signed by the Trust Fund Supervisor and Warden M.J. Bayless, it is dated January 2024. More on commissary items and the Bureau’s trust fund policy is on our site.

PS 4500.13 names “the only items excluded” from the ceiling, among them postage stamps, over-the-counter medications, copy cards, footwear, mattresses and a secured media device (at 28). Telephone credits are not on that list, so the handbook’s line that “telephone credits do not come off this spending limit” has no support in the current statement; ask Trust Fund staff how it is applied. The ceiling rises by $50 for one validation period in the November–December holidays; Special Purpose Orders may total $600 a quarter, where the handbook still says $300 (at 28, 40); and athletic shoes, work shoes and watches may now sell for up to $150, where the handbook caps shoes, radios and watches at $100 (at 2).

Shopping runs Tuesday through Thursday after the breakfast and lunch mainlines, each man on an assigned day that rotates quarterly, with Special Housing Unit sales ordinarily on Thursdays (handbook, pp. 40–41). The two documents disagree on the penalty for stepping out of line: the handbook says the man loses his shopping “for that day,” while the sheet says any violation “will result in loss of commissary shopping for the week.”

A sample of the January 2024 sheet, at the prices it printed:

Item	Price on the sheet	Notes
IBM typewriter wheel ribbon	$25.35	IBM correction tape $15.50
Timex Ironman watch	$45.35	radio $42.50; ear buds $17.95
LED book light	$11.95	alarm clock $10.00
Book of stamps	$13.20	copy cards $7.50, limit two
Ice cream pint	$2.10	limit two
Kosher or halal meals	$7.05 to $8.25	beef cholent, cheese ravioli, turkey shawarma; limit seven each
Shoes, boots, and clothing 4X and larger	Special Purpose Order only	not sold over the counter

The sheet’s over-the-counter column runs from aspirin at $1.60 to Nasacort at $21.10, for a population whose March 2024 audit form recorded ages from 23 to 87. It warns that prices change without notice, and it is now more than two and a half years old.

What programs are available at FPC Morgantown?

Fewer than the Bureau’s national lists imply, and residential drug treatment is off the Bureau’s current list. Below, the June 2024 handbook and the Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (August 2026) are kept apart; they do not always agree, and neither proves that a class is meeting this month.

RDAP and drug treatment

The June 2024 handbook describes a nine-to-twelve-month, 500-hour Residential Drug Abuse Program with participants housed apart, but the Bureau’s later lists no longer show one at Morgantown. Its standalone RDAP list, updated in January 2025, a month after the deactivation announcement, marks “FCI Morgantown (WV) (CLOSING)” under the key “Red = RDAPs pending closure.” The list in the August 2026 First Step Act guide (p. 29), “Updated 6/4/2026” and totalling “57 RDAPS at 50 Locations,” does not include Morgantown, and neither does the guide’s program matrix, even though the deactivation itself was reversed in 2025.

That matters to anyone hoping for the sentence reduction that 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) allows for completing the program, which has to be done where the Bureau runs one, such as FCI Beckley in West Virginia or FCI Cumberland and its satellite camp in Maryland, both on the June 2026 list. Placement and any transfer are Bureau decisions made through psychology staff and the unit team, so ask early and in writing; our RDAP page explains the national rules. The handbook still describes a Non-Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program of 12 to 24 weeks, a drug education class, self-help groups, and smoking cessation with nicotine replacement for newly committed men in their first 90 days. The guide’s matrix marks non-residential treatment and drug education for Morgantown, but the narrative entries for both say only that they may be offered at all Bureau institutions.

Education, vocational training and work

Under the Bureau’s literacy rules, the handbook offers a GED program (after the TABE achievement test), vocational courses in computer literacy and welding for men with a GED or diploma, Department of Labor apprenticeships for sentences of three years or more, and a ten-week job-search class leading to a mock job fair held each fall.

Every man is expected to hold a job, such as food service, unit orderly, education tutor, landscaping or the maintenance shop, on the performance-pay scale. One job leaves the grounds: Town Driver, a public-trust post the Warden must approve, and the unit team recommends men for community-service projects that local agencies request.

Federal Prison Industries is where the record is thinnest. The June 2024 handbook offers no UNICOR job, mentioning UNICOR employment only in a Bureau-wide list of example programs. The August 2026 guide’s narrative entry for Federal Prison Industries names 54 institutions and omits Morgantown, while the guide’s matrix marks Morgantown anyway. The two halves of one guide disagree, so treat UNICOR work as unconfirmed and ask the unit team in writing.

Psychology, faith and reentry programs

Psychology Services, per the handbook, runs introductory groups (Basic Cognitive Skills, DBT and CBT skills), intermediate work (Criminal Thinking, Trauma in Life, Anger Management) and specialty groups such as chronic-pain treatment, and an Inmate Companion Cadre in purple lanyards holds monthly workshops. Religious Services uses the chapel and an outdoor worship area; weddings are ordinarily held once a year, in November, and religious diets follow a written request and an interview with the chaplain.

Morgantown once ran programs for veterans. Bureau news items from 2014 to 2016 describe a veterans’ wing in which more than 350 veterans had taken part since 2011, and a service-dog program begun in November 2013 with West Virginia University, in which veteran prisoners trained dogs for veterans with mobility impairments or post-traumatic stress disorder. The June 2024 handbook mentions neither.

The guide’s matrix marks 36 First Step Act programs at Morgantown, several aimed at older men: AARP Foundation Finances 50+, Money Smart for Older Adults, the Arthritis Foundation’s Walk With Ease, a brain-health course and a guide to talking with doctors. For all five, the narrative entry says only that the program “may be offered at all BOP institutions,” which records permission, not a scheduled class. The handbook’s table headed “Programs Offered at FPC Morgantown” (p. 54) is no firmer: it prints some lines on top of each other and lists programs of 100 hours or more that earn a $50 completion award, including Life Connections and RDAP, whose narrative entries in the guide omit Morgantown.

The handbook says release plans go to the probation officer about 12 months before release, and halfway house referrals follow the Bureau’s procedures; our pages on halfway houses and First Step Act time credits explain how placement works.

What is daily life like at FPC Morgantown?

Regular and closely counted, in dormitories, cubicles and two-person rooms. The schedule below is the June 2024 handbook’s; the Bureau has published nothing since the July 2026 announcement that changes it.

Time	What happens	Handbook page
6:10 a.m.	Weekday breakfast opens, units called in turn	p. 47
6:15 a.m.	Wake-up, Monday through Friday	p. 10
6:45 to 7:00 a.m.	Sick-call sign-up at Health Services (none on Thursdays)	p. 21
7:30 a.m.	Beds made, area clean, work call	pp. 9–10
10:45 a.m.	Lunch	p. 47
4:10 p.m.	Stand-up count, then unit recreation	pp. 17–18
5:00 p.m.	Dinner	p. 47
9:00 p.m.	Stand-up count	p. 17
Midnight, 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.	Counts; unit recreation ends and showers close at midnight	pp. 9, 17–18
Weekends and holidays	Extra stand-up count at 10:00 a.m.; beds made and areas inspection-ready by then	pp. 9–10, 17

The handbook counts seven housing units, where new arrivals usually start in a dormitory or cubicle before the Unit Manager assigns a room; the March 2024 PREA audit form lists 28, and neither document explains the difference. Male and female staff work in the units, the camp is tobacco-free, living areas are inspected daily, and a man answers for anything found in his area. See our pages on housing and counts.

Men sign out of their units for leisure activities, may not visit other units, and must keep off the perimeter road without supervision; the walking track closes at dusk, and feeding the geese and ducks is a disciplinary matter. Recreation includes an auditorium, a multipurpose room and a gymnasium, supervised outdoor areas behind the education building and south of the Randolph housing unit for horseshoes, bocce, volleyball and ball games, and a hobby shop (drawing, painting, leathercraft, crochet, beading) whose finished projects must be mailed home within 30 days.

Meals are self-service, with heart-healthy and meatless choices, a salad bar and a hot bar; the khaki uniform is required at the weekday noon meal, and one piece of fresh fruit is the only food that may leave the dining hall. Random drug and alcohol tests apply, and a refusal brings an incident report. The property list allows three khaki shirts and pants, five T-shirts and one pair of work boots, among other issued items, and everything but shoes must fit in the locker; the handbook still cites Program Statement 5580.08 on property, which Program Statement 5580.10 replaced in 2026.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FPC Morgantown?

Very little, and nothing recent beyond a 2024 sexual-abuse audit. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. Its staff have been inside once on the public record: for its review of the aging federal prison population (E&I Report 15-05, May 2015, revised February 2016), an Inspector General team visited eight institutions in person during fieldwork between February and September 2014, including FCI Morgantown, which the report says it chose, with USP Hazelton and FCI Cumberland, because those institutions “follow the same growing aging inmate trend” and to reach every security level. The report makes no finding about Morgantown itself. Its other products name Morgantown only in system-wide lists and data tables, including a 2021 staff survey reported by institution, and its list of ongoing work includes nothing here.

The District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, which reports on federal prisons holding people convicted under D.C. law, lists no Morgantown inspection, and its January 2025 chart of Bureau institutions leaves Morgantown out. The care levels on this page come from the Bureau’s own charts released under FOIA request 2024-03455, which put Morgantown at Care Level 2 for medical care (“Institution Care Levels for Medical Assignment” (2024)) and, on the undated “Institutional Mental Health Care Levels” chart, for mental-health care.

Lori Fadorick, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, audited the institution under the Bureau’s Prison Rape Elimination Act rules. Her report, which calls the institution “FCI Morgantown,” records an on-site audit of March 26–27, 2024 and a final report of May 13, 2024; the facility page still links it. She found two standards exceeded (115.31, employee training, and 115.41, screening for risk of victimization and abusiveness), 39 met and none unmet, and the ten agency-level standards were all met. The facility reported one allegation of sexual harassment, investigated administratively, and none of sexual abuse in the previous twelve months.

Three details are specific to Morgantown. Forensic examinations take place at WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, whose emergency department provides victim advocates. The Warden told the auditor that the local rape crisis center, the Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center, had so far been unwilling to sign an agreement because of confidentiality concerns, so psychology staff trained as advocates fill that role. And the audit form counted no one ever placed in segregated housing there for risk of sexual victimization.

The audit’s facility form also shows the population falling before the deactivation plan: it records a designed capacity of 1,302, an average daily population of 506 over the prior year and a current population of 436, while the count for the first day on site, March 26, 2024, was 369. The population report dated September 10, 2026 counted 159 men, about one in eight of the design capacity.

The Government Accountability Office’s May 2026 report on sexual abuse in federal prisons (GAO-26-107343) lists Morgantown under both its names. Table 7, allegations against incarcerated people counted by year of incident, shows none under either name from 2020 through 2024; Table 8, allegations against Bureau employees counted by year reported, shows one, reported in 2024. These are allegations, not findings; “unsubstantiated,” the most common national outcome from 2014 through 2022, means the evidence could not settle what happened, not that nothing did. The two tables come from different systems and should not be added together, and neither is adjusted for population, so they cannot rank Morgantown against other prisons.

The court record fills the gap. In March 2026 a former Morgantown correctional officer, Elaina Massey, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official; court documents quoted by WBOY say she “was allowing prisoners to keep cell phones, and providing new phones, alcohol, and tobacco, in exchange for payments from inmates,” and the Inspector General’s office investigated. WV News reported at the end of June 2026 that Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh had sentenced her to six months, that her crimes ran from May 18 to December 27, 2021, and that her plea stipulation put the payments at $22,961.

Phones are an old problem here. In United States v. Beason, 523 F. App’x 932 (4th Cir. 2013), an unpublished decision, the Fourth Circuit recorded that the presence of cell phones “has recently escalated” at FCI Morgantown, where an officer saw a man using one on May 20, 2010, and over a dissent reversed his conviction, holding the prohibited-object statute’s catch-all clause void for vagueness as applied to possession that predated the Cell Phone Contraband Act of 2010.

The newest litigation concerns time credits. In 2024 at least four men held at FPC Morgantown argued in the Northern District of West Virginia that 28 C.F.R. § 523.42(a) unlawfully delayed their First Step Act credits until they reached their designated prisons; in each of those cases the magistrate judge recommended dismissal, as in Dane v. Bayless, No. 5:24-cv-157 (N.D. W. Va. Nov. 20, 2024) (report and recommendation). A Bureau rule published on August 31, 2026 removes the arrival clause from that regulation, effective September 30, 2026, citing court decisions that found it in conflict with the statute.

FPC Morgantown in the news

• July 1, 2026 — The Bureau announces that Morgantown and Duluth “will transition from minimum-security camps to FSL facilities.”
• June 2026 — WV News reports a six-month sentence for former officer Elaina Massey, who took bribes to let prisoners keep phones and to bring in contraband.
• April 27, 2026 — The Seventh Circuit affirms former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s convictions while he serves his sentence at Morgantown.
• December 2025 — Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez surrenders to begin a five-year sentence, and later writes from FPC Morgantown.
• October 13, 2025 — Madigan reports to the camp.
• June 23, 2025 — A Bureau news item credits Director Marshall’s visit with his decision to reverse the deactivation order.
• December 5–6, 2024 — The Bureau announces Morgantown’s deactivation; the prison workers’ union asks the Federal Labor Relations Authority to stop the plan, and both of West Virginia’s senators question its timing (The Dominion Post).
• March–April 2024 — The PREA audit takes place on site, and about a week later the Bureau renames FCI Morgantown as FPC Morgantown.
• March–April 2016 — Bureau news items describe the veterans’ wing and the camp’s first OSHA-10 safety course.
• 2013–2014 — The veterans’ service-dog training program begins in November 2013, and Inspector General staff visit in 2014 for the review of aging prisoners.
• 2010 — Dean Whitman walks away from an unescorted hospital trip on April 15, and on May 20 an officer finds Johnny Beason using a cell phone; both cases reach the Fourth Circuit.
• June 3, 1991 — Mark Sarno escapes, producing the 1994 decision that treats Morgantown as a secure facility.
• 1976 — Kathleen Hawk Sawyer begins her Bureau career as a psychologist at FCI Morgantown; she was the Bureau’s sixth Director from 1992 to 2003.
• 1969 — The Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center opens on the site.

Frequently asked questions about FPC Morgantown

Problems at FPC Morgantown: where we can help

The issues we can help with follow from this camp’s own record:

• The conversion. If Morgantown becomes a low-security institution, men held here may be reclassified, kept in place under a Management Variable, or moved; each is a decision under Program Statement 5100.08 that can be questioned through the unit team and the administrative remedy program. We review classification paperwork, Public Safety Factors and the 500-mile question, ideally before any transfer order.
• When credits start. From September 30, 2026, 28 C.F.R. § 523.42(a) says only that credits begin “after the inmate’s term of imprisonment commences,” without the clause tying the start to arrival at the designated facility; the rule puts the average gap between sentencing and arrival, for sentences starting in 2023 through 2025, at 66.06 days, worth about 23.81 days of credit. Morgantown’s June 2024 handbook still starts credits on arrival (p. 69), and the rule does not say how time before September 30, 2026 will be treated, so anyone whose credits began on arrival here should ask in writing for a recalculation; our pages on sentence computation disputes and § 2241 petitions explain the next steps if the answer is wrong.
• Drug treatment. With no RDAP at Morgantown on the Bureau’s June 2026 list, a man who needs the program has to be placed where it runs. We help families raise that request early and document the answer.
• Escape exposure. The Fourth Circuit has treated walking away from Morgantown as an escape from a secure facility and denied the guideline reduction for non-secure custody, and escape under 18 U.S.C. § 751 is on the First Step Act’s list of offenses that bar time credits (18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D)(xiv)). A man facing a family crisis during an unescorted trip should call his lawyer, not leave.
• Age and health. The March 2024 audit form recorded men up to 87 years old here. Program Statement 5050.51 (2026) eliminated the Bureau’s criteria for elderly prisoners who had served a specified portion of their terms; its current text provides for men 65 or older with serious age-related deterioration who have served the lesser of ten years or 75 percent, and for men 70 or older who have served 30 years (at 1, 6). A reduction-in-sentence request under Program Statement 5050.51, the route families know as compassionate release, starts with the Warden.
• Phones and discipline. Beason in 2010 and the Massey case in 2021 show contraband phones moving through this camp for more than a decade. A man found with a phone faces an incident report, possible placement in the Special Housing Unit while it is investigated, and possible prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1791, another offense on that list (§ 3632(d)(4)(D)(xxix)); the handbook warns that such a conviction, even with a short sentence, makes the whole term ineligible for credits (p. 69).
• 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

• FPC Morgantown, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with the address, contact details, population, region and judicial district.
• Visiting Regulations, Institution Supplement MRG 5267.09F, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Morgantown, 2024. Visiting days and hours, visitor lists, the dress code, screening and Special Housing Unit video visits.
• FPC Morgantown Admission and Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. The daily schedule, housing, mail, telephone, commissary, work and program practice.
• FCI Morgantown Manual de Admisión y Orientación, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. The older Spanish edition, which still uses the FCI name.
• FCI Morgantown Commissary Sheet, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. Prices, category limits and the shopping rules.
• Inmate Legal Activities, Program Statement 1315.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 1315.07 (2023).
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The $460 commissary limit, the exclusion list and Special Purpose Orders.
• Compassionate Release/Reduction in Sentence Procedures, Program Statement 5050.51, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5050.50, Compassionate Release/Reduction in Sentence.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Security point ranges, Public Safety Factors and Management Variables.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• Incoming Publications, Program Statement 5266.11, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2011. Where books and magazines may be sent from at a minimum-security institution.
• Inmate Personal Property, Program Statement 5580.10, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5580.08 (2011).
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Program availability by institution, and the RDAP locations list.
• Residential Drug Abuse Programs and Locations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. The standalone list that marked the Morgantown program as closing.
• Population Statistics, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s monthly population report.
• Community Ties: Sending Money, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Deposit routes, wire-transfer posting times and the lockbox address.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The conversion announcement.
• Dir. Marshall and Deputy Dir. Smith Hit the Compound, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. The visit credited with reversing the deactivation order.
• Name Changes Approved for Seven FBOP Facilities, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2024. The renaming of FCI Morgantown as FPC Morgantown.
• FCI Morgantown OSHA Training, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016.
• Veterans Live and Learn Together, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016. The veterans’ wing.
• FCI Morgantown’s Veterans Service Dog Training Program, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015.
• FCI Morgantown Begins Service Dog Training Program, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2014.
• Historical Timeline, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center in 1969.
• Past Directors, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer’s service as Director.
• Federal Prison System, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1974. The directory description of the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center.
• Strategic Expansion of Minimum-Security Camp Utilization, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Moving eligible people with a halfway-house or home-confinement date to camps.
• 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, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026. Report GAO-26-107343, with the allegation tables that list Morgantown under both names.
• Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Oversight of the Use of Restraints, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2025. Report 25-070, whose appendix reprints the Bureau’s table of the 2024 name changes.
• PREA Facility Audit Report: FCI Morgantown, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. On-site audit of March 26–27, 2024 by Lori Fadorick; standards, population, capacity and forensic-examination arrangements.
• Staff Perceptions of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Survey of BOP Staff, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2021. Report 21-126, which breaks its results out by institution.
• The Impact of an Aging Inmate Population on the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2015. Report 15-05, revised in 2016; FCI Morgantown was one of eight site visits.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Institutions, Facility Type, Distance, Security, Medical and Mental Healthcare, District of Columbia Corrections Information Council, 2025. The chart that leaves Morgantown out.

Court records

• United States v. Madigan, No. 25-2249 (7th Cir.), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 2026. Affirming the convictions of the man now held at this camp.
• Dane v. Bayless, No. 5:24-cv-157 (N.D. W. Va.), U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, 2024. Docket and report and recommendation on the start date of First Step Act credits.
• United States v. Beason, 523 F. App’x 932 (4th Cir. 2013), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2013. Unpublished; the contraband cell phone found at FCI Morgantown in 2010.
• United States v. Whitman, 431 F. App’x 217 (4th Cir. 2011), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2011. Unpublished; the escape-guideline reduction denied to a man who walked away from a hospital appointment.
• United States v. Clark, No. 93-5136, 37 F.3d 1496 (4th Cir. 1994), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1994. Unpublished table decision applying Sarno.
• United States v. Sarno, 24 F.3d 618 (4th Cir. 1994), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1994. Holding that Morgantown is a secure facility for the escape guideline.

News and other sources

• Ex-Prison Guard Sentenced to Six Months for Accepting Bribes at FCI Morgantown, WV News, 2026.
• Ex-Speaker Michael Madigan Petitions Supreme Court to Hear Corruption Case, Chicago Tribune, 2026.
• Samourai Wallet’s Co-Founder Appeals for Bitcoin Donations From Federal Prison, BeInCrypto, 2026.
• Former Corrections Officer Admits to Accepting Bribes From Inmates, WBOY, 2026.
• Samourai Letter #1: Notes From the Inside, Bitcoin Magazine, 2026.
• Ex-Speaker Madigan Reports to West Virginia Prison to Begin 7 1/2-Year Sentence, Capitol News Illinois, 2025.
• Federal Prison Employees’ Union Seeks Injunction Against Bureau of Prisons Plan for Morgantown, Hazelton Prisons, The Dominion Post, 2024.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons to Deactivate FPC Morgantown, The Dominion Post, 2024.
• BOP Announces Suspension of Operations at FPC Morgantown, WDTV, 2024.
• Feds Put Lien on Convicted Scranton Mayor’s Home, The Times-Tribune, 2021.
• The Latest: Ex-US Rep. Renzi Leaves Prison After 3 Years, Associated Press, 2017.
• Disgraced Former Buffalo Cop Surrenders to Federal Authorities, WKBW, 2017.
• Former Philadelphia DA Seth Williams Moved to West Virginia Prison, CBS Philadelphia, 2017.
• Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon Released From Prison, Spectrum News, 2016.
• Former US Rep. Rick Renzi Reports to Prison for 3-Year Term, Associated Press, 2015.
• Former Rep. Bob Ney Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison, PBS NewsHour, 2007.
• Ex-Survivor Richard Hatch Swaps Prisons, UPI, 2006.
• First Step Act Time Credits—Revisions, 91 Fed. Reg. 55,740, Federal Register, 2026. Interim final rule effective September 30, 2026.
• U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2P1.1, Escape, Instigating or Assisting Escape, U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2025. The reduction for escape from non-secure custody.
• 18 U.S.C. § 751, Prisoners in custody of institution or officer, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 1791, Providing or possessing contraband in prison, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) and (e), Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D), Development of risk and needs assessment system, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 523.42, Earning First Step Act Time Credits, Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).
• 28 C.F.R. § 540.71, Procedures (incoming publications), Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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