FPC Alderson (Camp Cupcake): Visiting, Mail, Programs

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

FPC Alderson at a glance

FPC Alderson is a minimum-security federal prison camp for women in Alderson, West Virginia, holding 438 people as of September 2026. It opened in 1927 as the first federal prison built for women and is one of only two federal prison camps that hold women. It is a stand-alone camp, not a satellite of a larger prison, which changes almost everything about how a sentence is served here.

Official name	Federal Prison Camp, Alderson
BOP code	ALD
Security level	Minimum; women; stand-alone camp
Population	438 (as of September 2026)
Visiting	Monday, Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · see visiting hours
Inmate mail	Committed Name & Register Number · Housing Unit #, Range # (1, 2, 3 or 4) · Federal Prison Camp · Post Office Box A · Alderson, WV 24910
Send money	Lockbox · Western Union (code city FBOP, DC) · MoneyGram (receive code 7932)
Phone	304-445-3300 · Fax 304-445-3320
Street address	Glen Ray Road, Box A, Alderson, WV 24910 · Greenbrier County
Judicial district	Southern District of West Virginia
BOP region	Mid-Atlantic
Designated capacity	992
Housing	10 housing units: 8 open-bay dormitories, 2 with multiple-occupancy cells
Special Housing Unit	None · disciplinary cases go to a county jail
RDAP	Yes
UNICOR	No

The camp sits on a hillside campus in Greenbrier County, about twelve miles south of Interstate 64. It is one of the federal prisons in West Virginia and falls under the Bureau’s Mid-Atlantic Region.

Why is FPC Alderson called Camp Cupcake?

FPC Alderson is called Camp Cupcake because reporters covering Martha Stewart’s sentence in 2004 coined the name, and it stuck. The Bureau has never used the phrase, and the women who have served here did not invent it. The Bureau’s Inmate Locator carries Stewart under register number 55170-054, facility code ALD, with an actual release date of March 4, 2005. She reported on October 8, 2004, and served five months for conspiracy, obstruction and false statements arising from her sale of ImClone stock.

The record the camp has built since then is less comfortable than the nickname. Its own captain, the officer in charge of correctional and security functions, was sentenced to ten years in January 2019 for sexual abuse of six women held here. A serving officer was indicted in August 2024 on seven counts involving three women, has been detained since, and is due to stand trial in November 2026. The 2024 PREA audit recorded thirteen allegations of sexual abuse in twelve months, eleven of them staff-on-inmate, at an institution then holding 712 women. There is no Special Housing Unit, so a woman facing segregation is driven to a county jail and held under its rules. And the handbook states that asbestos is present or assumed present in every building except the two housing units.

None of that makes Alderson the worst place in the federal system. The 2024 audit passed the institution on all forty-five standards, the warden told the auditor the camp was nearly fully staffed, and a minimum-security camp is a different life from a penitentiary. But a family that plans around the word “cupcake” is planning around a caricature, and can miss what actually goes wrong here.

What is the security level at FPC Alderson?

FPC Alderson is a minimum-security camp, the lowest security level the Bureau operates. It has no walls, no gun towers and no secure perimeter. The institution’s Admission & Orientation Handbook (2026) marks the edge of the reservation this way: “FPC Alderson boundaries are clearly marked with United States Government property signs. Inmates beyond these boundaries are subject to prosecution.” The perimeter is signs and the criminal law.

Housing is dormitory. The 2024 PREA audit counted fourteen buildings and ten housing units — eight open-bay dormitories, two with multiple-occupancy cells, and no single-cell unit anywhere. Women live in cubicles in the A and B buildings, in numbered ranges, under two unit teams called Ridge and Valley. Designated capacity is 992, so the population of 438 as of September 2026 fills roughly 44 percent of it.

Counts take the place of a fence: five official counts in every twenty-four hours, plus a weekend standing count and two weekday unit census counts, all listed in the daily schedule below. No one leaves a housing unit until the count clears over the public address system, and anyone going anywhere other than food service, a job or a scheduled callout signs out by hand with a specific destination: “the term ‘Open Compound’ or simply ‘Compound’ is not acceptable.” Failing to sign out draws an incident report.

There is no Special Housing Unit, and what that means

Alderson has no Special Housing Unit, the single most consequential difference between it and almost every other federal prison, and the handbook says so directly: “FPC Alderson does not have a Disciplinary Segregation Unit. Inmates that are management problems at this institution will be transferred immediately to an approved local jail facility.” A later line is blunter: “If you commit a prohibited act, you will immediately be placed in the county jail.” The 2024 PREA audit confirms it from the other direction, recording zero segregation cells here.

The handbook’s restrictive-housing pages are, in consequence, written about somewhere else: “The jail will provide you with the following” — clothing, bedding, food, hygiene items; exercise “per jail rules”; a commissary list that “will follow jail policy.” A woman sent out loses the camp’s telephone access, programming, visiting room and commissary and picks up a county jail’s instead, while the federal disciplinary process runs on. The Discipline Hearing Officer’s main office is at FCI Beckley, with an alternate assigned here. If someone stops answering the telephone and stops appearing in the visiting room, ask the unit team in writing whether she has been moved.

How a woman is designated to a camp

A woman is designated to a camp by her security point score unless something overrides it, and the cut-points for women differ from those for men. Under the Bureau’s security designation rules, Program Statement 5100.08, a man qualifies for minimum security at 0 to 11 points; a woman qualifies at 0 to 15. She scores low security from 16 to 30 and high security at 31 and above, and a footnote in the same table explains the gap in the middle: “Female security level institutions are classified as Minimum, Low, High and Administrative.” There is no medium-security prison for women in the federal system. Four extra points of headroom at the bottom is why a great many women who would be at a low-security institution if they were men are at a camp instead.

Then come the Public Safety Factors, which override the score. A PSF is not a punishment and not a finding of misconduct; it is a classification flag setting a floor on where a person may be held whatever she scores. At most three apply. These are the ones that keep a woman out of a camp:

Public Safety Factor	What it takes	Where she goes instead
F — Sex Offender	Conduct in the current term or prior history in one of six listed categories. No conviction required: the presentence report is enough, and a plea bargain does not avoid the factor	At least a low
G — Threat to Government Officials	A Central Inmate Monitoring assignment of that name	At least a low
H — Deportable Alien	Not a U.S. citizen. Removed on naturalization or a decision not to deport	At least a low
K — Violent Behavior (women only)	Two convictions, or two discipline-hearing findings, for serious violence in the last five years	At least a low
L — Serious Escape (women)	A serious escape in the last ten years, including the current term	FMC Carswell administrative unit
M — Prison Disturbance	A guilty finding for engaging in or encouraging a riot	FMC Carswell administrative unit
O — Serious Telephone Abuse	Using the telephone to further criminal activity. Again, no conviction required	A higher security level

Source: Program Statement 5100.08, Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Chapter 5 (as amended in 2026).

Two of the factors work differently for women. Sentence Length, which pushes a man with more than ten years left to a low, is written for male inmates only, so a woman with a very long sentence and a clean record can be designated to a camp on her points alone. Violent Behavior is written for women only, with a five-year lookback and a two-incident threshold: a single old conviction should not trigger it, but a disciplinary finding counts the same as a court judgment. Both are arguable, and a waiver is decided at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, not at the prison.

What a walkaway costs

A walkaway from a camp is physically easy and legally expensive. Walking off the grounds of a non-secure institution is an escape: the handbook puts the exposure at “a fine up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment up to five years.” On January 29, 2019, a woman serving twelve years here for conspiracy to defraud the government and mail fraud walked away; she pleaded guilty to escape and, in a sentence announced by the United States Attorney on March 2, 2020, received four months consecutive to what she was already serving. The four months are not the whole cost: an escape conviction is scored as escape history in her security classification (a walkaway from a camp without violence counts as a minor escape; only a serious escape brings the Serious Escape factor), and it weighs on every later halfway house and home-confinement decision.

Why is it hard to get a woman designated close to home?

Because the Bureau has far fewer places to hold women than men: the obstacle is arithmetic, not policy. Women are about seven percent of the federal prison population. Counting the Bureau’s 118 institutions on its own roster — the individual prisons, setting aside the fifteen records that stand for whole complexes — six hold women only, twenty-one hold both men and women, and the remaining ninety-one hold men. A judge’s designation recommendation and a family’s hardship run into an estate with far fewer places to put someone.

Institution	Security level	State
FPC Alderson	Minimum (stand-alone camp)	West Virginia
FPC Bryan	Minimum (stand-alone camp)	Texas
FCI Aliceville	Low, with a camp	Alabama
FCI Estill	Low	South Carolina
FCI Waseca	Low	Minnesota
FMC Carswell	Administrative (medical), with a camp	Texas

The six institutions the Bureau’s roster lists as holding women only. West Virginia also holds women at the Secure Female Facility beside FCI Hazelton, which is a secure institution under a different facility code and not a camp.

Narrowed to camps, the numbers shrink again: only six institutions in the whole Bureau are classified as federal prison camps, and only two hold women. That is what the statutory promise of placement “as close as practicable” to a prisoner’s home, and “to the extent practicable” within 500 driving miles of it, means in practice for a woman: the qualifiers do the work.

The estate is also shrinking. On July 1, 2026, the Bureau announced six closures and two mission changes, citing “decades of deferred maintenance and extreme staffing challenges.” The satellite camp at FMC Lexington is closing, and two of the six stand-alone camps — FPC Morgantown, the other camp in West Virginia, and FPC Duluth — will “transition from minimum-security camps to FSL facilities,” the low-security satellite format — a change the roster still had not recorded in September 2026. FPC Alderson is named nowhere in that release, and the Bureau’s roster shows no change of mission here. With two of the six stand-alone camps converting, the two camps that hold women bear watching. Two months earlier, on May 28, 2026, the Bureau had announced a Strategic Expansion of Minimum-Security Camp Utilization: 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.

Who are the notable inmates at FPC Alderson?

Martha Stewart is the best-documented of the notable women tied to FPC Alderson, and the only name on this list whose Bureau record points to the camp itself. The Bureau’s Inmate Locator records the facility a person was in at release, and for anyone who finished a sentence through a halfway house, that is a Residential Reentry Management office, not a prison. A record that does not point to Alderson is not proof that someone was never here.

Name	Register number	What the Bureau’s record shows
Martha Stewart	55170-054	The only name the locator ties directly to this institution: facility code ALD, released March 4, 2005, after five months for conspiracy, obstruction and false statements
Sandi Jackson	32453-016	Committed as Sandra Stevens Jackson; released October 18, 2016, through the Baltimore reentry office. The Associated Press reported her arrival at Alderson on October 20, 2015, to serve a year for filing false tax returns
Nancy Salzman	25533-052	Released March 19, 2024, through the Pittsburgh reentry office after a three-and-a-half-year NXIVM sentence. Contemporary reporting placed her at Alderson from 2022
Monica Conyers	43693-039	Released May 16, 2013, through the Detroit reentry office. Former Detroit City Council president, convicted of bribery
Diane Hathaway	48069-039	Released June 26, 2014, through the Detroit reentry office. Former Michigan Supreme Court justice, convicted of bank fraud
Barbara Byrd-Bennett	48517-424	Released June 28, 2021, through the Cincinnati reentry office. Former chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, convicted of wire fraud

Several names often attached to Alderson belong elsewhere or cannot be confirmed.

• Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell are not at Alderson. Bureau records place both at FPC Bryan in Texas — Holmes under register number 24965-111, Maxwell under 02879-509. Mail sent to the wrong camp is not forwarded.
• Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme’s Bureau record ends at FMC Carswell, register number 06075-180, released August 14, 2009, not at Alderson.
• Billie Holiday, Iva Toguri d’Aquino and the other pre-war names attached to Alderson cannot be checked against the locator, which covers federal custody from 1982 onward.

How do I find someone at FPC Alderson?

To find someone at FPC Alderson, use the Bureau’s free public Inmate Locator and search by the eight-digit register number if you have it, because the locator matches the committed name on the judgment rather than the name anyone uses. A result of “Alderson” is unambiguous, because this institution has no camp, satellite low or secure female facility reporting under its code — which is not true of most federal prisons. If the search returns nothing, the usual explanations are state rather than federal custody, pretrial detention under the U.S. Marshals Service, or a committed name spelled differently. Our guide to how register numbers work explains what the digits after the hyphen mean.

How do I write to someone at FPC Alderson?

Write to someone at FPC Alderson at the camp’s post office box, not its street address, using the block the institution prescribes. The March 2026 handbook gives the address below and warns: “It is imperative that P.O. Box A be the only information listed above the city, state and zip code, as this information is the determining factor for routing mail to the appropriate box. If these procedures are not followed, it will delay or cause non-delivery of mail.”

What the institution’s own handbook says to use	What bop.gov prints
Committed Name & Register Number Housing Unit #, Range # (1, 2, 3 or 4) Federal Prison Camp Post Office Box A Alderson, WV 24910	Inmate Name & Register Number FPC Alderson Federal Prison Camp Glen Ray Rd. Box A Alderson, WV 24910

Left: FPC Alderson Admission & Orientation Handbook (2026). Right: the inmate-mail block on the Bureau’s facility page for FPC Alderson. Use the handbook’s version: it is the institution’s own instruction, and the one the mailroom follows.

Alderson rejects more mail than most institutions, on specific grounds. Envelopes and paper must be white. Address labels are not accepted for either the sender or the recipient. Rejected on sight: glitter, stickers, lipstick, crayon, marker, card-stock envelopes or paper, greeting cards with heavy drawing, and anything wet, stained, oily or scented. Children’s artwork in marker or crayon is a common casualty. Our guide to writing to someone in federal prison and our summary of the Bureau’s correspondence rules set out what gets rejected system-wide.

Legal mail gets different treatment only when it is marked. It counts as special mail — opened for contraband in front of the addressee and not read — when the sender is clearly identified and the envelope is marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the inmate.” An unmarked attorney’s letter is read as ordinary mail. Outgoing legal mail goes to a staff member during mailroom open house, not into the unit box. Our guide to attorney-client communication in the Bureau of Prisons covers the privilege question.

Mail is handed out after the 4:15 p.m. count, with a later call before the 9:15 p.m. count; outgoing mail is collected at 6:00 a.m. on working days. Publications are capped at five magazines, five books and two newspapers, hardbacks and newspapers direct from a publisher. The only package anyone may receive from home is release clothing, in the last thirty days.

Never put money in a letter. It goes to a different address entirely.

How do I send money to someone at FPC Alderson?

Money for someone at FPC Alderson goes to the Bureau’s national lockbox in Iowa or through one of two wire services, never to the prison itself. All three routes need the committed name and the eight-digit register number, entered exactly.

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	U.S. postal money orders post without a hold. Every other non-postal money order and non-government check has carried an automatic 15-day hold since December 1, 2007
Western Union Quick Collect	Code city FBOP, DC	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 morning
MoneyGram ExpressPayment	Receive code 7932, company name Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC	Same as Western Union

No cash and no personal checks. Send the deposit envelope with nothing else in it — the Bureau “shall dispose of all items included with the funds” — and add your return address: funds that cannot be posted and have no return address go to the Treasury. Our guide to sending money to a federal prisoner compares the routes and their costs.

Two things limit what a large deposit is worth: money beyond the commissary cap, below, simply sits in the account, and the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program takes a share — at least $25 a quarter regardless of resources, collected on the first Friday of the month. Payments are taken in the morning and outside deposits post in the afternoon, so money deposited on the first can be swept the same morning.

What are the visiting hours at FPC Alderson?

Visiting at FPC Alderson runs on Mondays, Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. under the institution’s March 2026 handbook. Its older visiting supplement gives hours fifteen minutes later at each end.

Source	Days	Hours
A&O Handbook, updated March 2026	Monday, Saturday, Sunday, federal holidays	8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Institution Supplement ALD 5267.09E, August 23, 2022, paragraph 5	Saturday, Sunday, Monday, federal holidays	8:15 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.
The visitor handout attached to that same supplement	Adds Friday	11:15 a.m. – 6:15 p.m. on Fridays; 8:15 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. otherwise

The handbook is four years newer, so treat 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. as the working answer and arrive early. Be careful with the Friday evening session: it appears only in an attachment to a 2022 document, the body of that same document does not list it, and the 2026 handbook does not either. If you are planning a trip around a Friday visit, call 304-445-3300 first. Our guide to federal prison visiting covers the national rules.

The processing deadlines are firmer than the closing time and catch more people out: on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, processing for the out-count cuts off at 9:20 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m.; on Mondays it ends at 2:30 p.m. And one rule ends more visits than any other — “Once a visitor leaves, the visit is terminated for that particular day.”

Who can visit, and how many

• The list holds twenty people, family and friends together, under the March 2026 handbook; the 2022 supplement separately caps friends and associates at six. Approval of a new visitor takes about three weeks.
• Four adult visitors at one time, not counting children, unless the Unit Manager approves more — or the Associate Warden on a holiday.
• There is no monthly cap on visits and no points system, unlike most federal institutions, with a guaranteed minimum of four hours a month. The constraint is capacity: the room is rated for 131 people (44 main, 45 middle, 42 Children’s Center), and when that is reached visits are terminated in order of how often the person visits, then friends before family, then distance traveled.
• A prior conviction does not disqualify a visitor automatically, but it needs the Warden’s approval, and anyone under supervision needs their officer’s written authorization. A former Alderson prisoner may visit only an immediate family member, with the Warden’s written approval two weeks in advance.

Contact is allowed: an embrace and a kiss at the beginning and end and hand-holding in between, and the supplement states that “[n]on-contact visiting areas are not available at this facility.” There is a nursery inside the Children’s Center for nursing an infant, with a privacy screen on request.

What visitors can wear and bring

Shorts are allowed, but “at a minimum, must touch the top of the knee.” Sleeveless shirts pass if they do not reveal undergarments. Not allowed: tube tops, tank tops, halter tops, miniskirts, see-through clothing, hats, caps, sunglasses unless prescribed, doo-rags, muscle shirts, open-toed shoes on anyone, and anything resembling the khaki uniform the women wear. Female visitors must wear a bra.

Visitors may carry in one clear plastic purse or bag no larger than twelve inches square, with no wallet inside, plus itemized baby things. Medication is limited to three, held at the officer’s station rather than kept on you: “Nitroglycerin, Albuterol Inhaler, and EpiPens ONLY.” Anything else stays in the car.

Also barred: playing cards, toys other than one baby toy, newspapers, magazines, lighters, chewing gum, strollers, any diaper bag that is not clear plastic, all food and drink other than infant items, tobacco, electronic equipment of any type — and “[a]ny Bluetooth/recording capable watch/wrist application.” A smartwatch is contraband. Visitors may buy from the vending machines and share, but the woman being visited may never handle money.

Identification and screening

Photo identification is required for everyone sixteen and over, and it must be a valid state or government-issued photo ID: “If a visitor does not present identification with a photograph, the visitor will not be allowed to visit.” Two local rules go beyond the Bureau’s national visiting regulations: visitors “must not be dropped off at the Stone Gate” but must be driven up to the processing area, and anyone who came along without being approved may not wait in the parking lot. How those searches are conducted is covered in searches, shakedowns and contraband.

Attorney visits are handled separately and, at a camp, informally. They “are not subject to auditory supervision,” a recorder may be used if counsel agrees in writing that its only purpose is to facilitate the attorney-client relationship, and the Children’s Center is used if the room is crowded and counsel asks for privacy. The handbook adds that attorney visits “generally take place in the Visiting Room during non-visiting days,” arranged through unit staff.

Getting there

From every direction the route ends the same way: Interstate 64 to Exit 161 at Alta, then south on Route 12 for about twelve miles. The supplement is frank about the remoteness: “Due to the remote location of FPC Alderson, there are no available pay phone services.” Greenbrier Valley Airport at Lewisburg is about twenty miles away and Raleigh County Airport at Beaver about sixty; and, unusually for a federal prison, Amtrak stops in the town of Alderson itself.

Under accommodation, the supplement lists a Hospitality House: “A private home to assist visitors of inmates at FPC Alderson. Operates on donations for food and lodging. Local telephone number: (304) 445-2980.” Hotel rooms in Alderson itself are limited; the nearest real choice is Lewisburg. If you are driving a long way to see someone for a few hours, call that number before you book anything.

How do phone calls and email work at FPC Alderson?

Calls from FPC Alderson go out, never in. A woman places each call from her own account to a number she has added through the TRULINCS terminals, and the list holds thirty numbers. Under the Bureau’s telephone regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, issued September 3, 2026, she may use 510 minutes a calendar month: 300 are free if she is eligible for First Step Act telephone incentives, and a further 210 can be bought only after the 300-minute limit is exhausted. A single call should generally not exceed 15 minutes, at least 30 minutes must pass between calls, and the monthly limit does not apply to unmonitored legal calls. Credits are bought from the commissary account in whole dollars, three-way calls are prohibited, and every call except a properly arranged legal call is recorded. Our guide to federal inmate phone calls sets out the national rules and the charges.

Calls start at 6:00 a.m., but the March 2026 handbook gives two different closing times: its trust-fund section says calls may be placed “between 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.”, its telephone section “between 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., except fifteen minutes prior to official counts.” Plan around the earlier one, because a family member waiting for a 10:30 p.m. call may be waiting for a call that cannot be made.

Losing the personal access code costs $5.00 to replace, and sharing it is a disciplinary matter. If a call has to be made to another institution — to a relative also in custody — it is arranged by the counselor, restricted to immediate family, and only in a documented emergency with enough staff at both ends.

Email runs on TRULINCS, which families reach through CorrLinks; here it is available seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., at five cents a minute, text only. Messages to an attorney are monitored and not privileged, so privileged writing still travels as marked special mail. See CorrLinks and TRULINCS.

What can people buy at the FPC Alderson commissary?

The FPC Alderson commissary stocks a women’s list — cosmetics and hair products, bras by style and size, and crochet supplies alongside coffee and a radio — and the national spending limit is $460 a month. Three Bureau documents give three different answers about that limit, and one of them is fourteen years old.

Document	Date	What it says
Program Statement 4500.13, Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual	May 7, 2026	$460 a month, rising by $50 for no more than one validation period in the November–December holiday period. It records the increase from $360 in terms
FPC Alderson A&O Handbook	Updated March 2026	“You may spend up to $360 monthly, $180 bi-monthly, or $90 weekly at the discretion of the Warden”
FPC Alderson commissary order form	2012	No spending limit printed anywhere on it

The national ceiling is $460, and the handbook predates it by two months, so its $360 figure is out of date. Whether Alderson has implemented the increase locally is a question for the unit team. Items excluded from the cap include postage stamps, over-the-counter medicines and vitamins, copy cards and paper, nicotine replacement products, footwear, mattresses and a secured media device. The Bureau’s trust fund and commissary rules govern the limit.

The order form the Bureau’s page for the camp still links dates from 2012: coffee at $8.25, a radio at $44.10, a typewriter ribbon at $5.85. Those are not current prices. As a catalog it is visibly a women’s list — perms, relaxers, hair color, foundation and lipstick, bras by style and size, a full crochet section — built for a place with no vocational computer lab, where typing paper and typewriter ribbon are still sold.

Shopping is once a week on an assigned day. The list goes into a box on the commissary porch by noon the day before, the top of the sheet must be completed in full or there is no shopping, and no verbal orders are taken afterward. Items marked with an asterisk are for local retention only and cannot travel to another institution, so avoid spending heavily on them shortly before a transfer.

The form also lists tampons, pantyliners and sanitary pads for sale, at $5.00, $2.15 and $5.00. They should not be the only source: federal law requires the institution to provide them free, as the section on hygiene products explains.

What programs are available at FPC Alderson?

FPC Alderson offers the Residential Drug Abuse Program, vocational training that includes a state-licensed cosmetology course, GED and apprenticeship classes, the Resolve trauma program and a set of programs written for women. It has no UNICOR factory.

RDAP and drug treatment

The Residential Drug Abuse Program runs at this camp. FPC Alderson is named in the Mid-Atlantic column of the RDAP locations list in the Bureau’s First Step Act Approved Programs Guide (2026), which totals 57 programs at 50 locations. That list is the Bureau’s newest statement on where RDAP runs, and it supersedes the older standalone list of 65 programs at 53 locations.

It is a minimum nine-month unit-based program in a modified therapeutic community, run under the Bureau’s drug treatment program rules, and for a non-violent offense completion can take up to a year off the sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e). Community transition treatment at a reentry center is part of completion; skip it and the early-release benefit goes too. Alderson is not one of the five Female Integrated Treatment sites, and the only women’s facility the list marks for a Spanish-language program is FMC Carswell.

Education and vocational training

The vocational catalog here is better than most camps, and one course leads to something rare: a license recognized outside the prison. The cosmetology program is “accredited through the West Virginia Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists,” runs 1,800 classroom hours, ends in the state board examination, and a woman who passes “receive[s] a cosmetologist’s license from the state of West Virginia.” That is a state occupational license earned in federal custody, not a certificate of completion.

Course	What it is
Cosmetology	1,800 classroom hours, West Virginia state board examination, state license
Building Trades — masonry	Accredited through the National Center for Construction Education and Research
HVAC	NCCER curriculum, about 350 hours over six to eight months
Fire	120 hours; Firefighter 1, hazardous materials, first aid and CPR. Live training required
Horticulture	Botany, soil science, entomology, propagation, floral and landscape design
Culinary Arts	Menu creation, food preparation, food service operations
Semper K9 dog trainer	Training and socialization skills for work in animal care
Carpentry	Listed in the March 2026 handbook as “Information will be coming soon”

Source: FPC Alderson Admission & Orientation Handbook (2026).

Alongside those run GED classes, English as a second language, adult continuing education and Department of Labor apprenticeships requiring 144 hours of related coursework a year on top of the job. College is correspondence only, paid for by the student, and the handbook is explicit that the course “cannot be on-line or computer-based.” The electronic law library opens six afternoons and evenings a week; typewriters are available for legal use and copies cost fifteen cents. Our guides to prison education and vocational training explain how these run across the system.

There is no UNICOR. Neither the program description nor the by-institution table in the Bureau’s August 2026 approved-programs guide places Federal Prison Industries at Alderson, and the handbook’s job list contains no factory. Work is still compulsory: every medically cleared woman holds a full-time job, paid on the Bureau’s performance pay scale from a maintenance grade of no more than $5.25 a month up to forty cents an hour.

Trauma, parenting and the women’s program list

Alderson is named in the Bureau’s approved-programs guide as running Resolve, its cognitive-behavioral treatment for trauma-related mental health needs. The route through it is sequential and slower than people expect: a four-week Trauma in Life workshop, then a formal assessment with the Resolve coordinator, then a twelve-week Seeking Safety group, then dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive processing therapy or a skills-maintenance group depending on need. Ask for it early, because each stage gates the next.

The same guide’s by-institution table marks Alderson for a block of programs written for women — Family Programming for Women, Women’s Life Skills, Career Skills, Career Exploration, Basic Financial Literacy and Sexual Safety among the earned-credit programs, and Square One: Essentials for Women and the Women’s Relationships groups among the productive activities. The Foundation program and the National Parenting from Prison Program are marked here too.

The guide’s grid of institutions also marks Alderson for the Life Connections Program, but the program’s own description names only Carswell, Milan, Terre Haute, Fort Dix and Greenville; ask the unit team before counting on it. Approval to offer a program is not the same as running it this quarter with a place free.

Psychology, faith-based programming and reentry

Psychology Services, in the Activities Building, screens every arrival within fourteen days and runs groups in anger management, basic cognitive skills, criminal thinking, emotional self-regulation and Trauma in Life. It also runs the suicide-prevention program, in which watch companions hold a paid inmate job and write a log entry every fifteen minutes. If you are worried about someone here, the handbook says to tell a staff member directly rather than send an electronic request.

The institution also has a social worker, based in Psychology, and for families she is often the most useful person in the building: child and family matters, including cases where a child is involved with social services, and community resources for women leaving with medical needs, no housing, or a domestic violence history. Alderson is also marked for Threshold, the non-residential faith-based reentry course. Prisoner Visitation and Support volunteers visit women who get no visits, without needing to be on anyone’s list.

What happens if someone is pregnant at FPC Alderson?

She gives birth in a hospital outside the prison, she cannot lawfully be restrained while she does it, and the two programs that would let her keep the baby afterward both operate somewhere other than Alderson. The rules come from 28 C.F.R. part 551, from section 301 of the First Step Act and from the Bureau’s Female Offender Manual, Program Statement 5200.09 (2025).

Restraints come first. Section 301 of the First Step Act, now 18 U.S.C. § 4322, bars restraining a federal prisoner from the moment a healthcare professional confirms a pregnancy until the end of postpartum recovery — twelve weeks after delivery, or longer if the clinician says so. Three narrow exceptions exist, and even then the Female Offender Manual repeats the limits: restraints “may not be placed around the ankles, legs or waist of the inmate; may not restrain the inmate’s hands behind her back; and may not restrain the inmate using 4-point restraints.” Written notice must reach her within forty-eight hours of confirmation. A missing notice belongs in the first administrative remedy filed.

Keeping the baby: what MINT is, and what it is not

Mothers and Infants Together is not a prison nursery. Nothing like it exists inside Alderson or any other federal institution. The manual describes a residential program in which “[t]he inmate resides with the child at all times inside a contract Residential Reentry Center” — a halfway house she has to be referred out to, generally from her last two months of pregnancy through at least three months after the birth. The exclusions matter more than the eligibility rules: she “must not be referred” if she became pregnant on furlough, has more than five years left to serve, or plans to place the baby for adoption.

A second, less familiar program is the more realistic one for a woman at a camp. Under an agreement with the Washington Department of Corrections, the Bureau places qualifying pregnant women in the Residential Parenting Program at the Washington Correctional Center for Females in Gig Harbor, where a mother may live with her child for up to 30 months after delivery. Its eligibility list fits a camp closely: pregnant on commitment with delivery before release; scored minimum security with Out or Community custody; a release date within thirty months of the expected delivery; no 200-series or higher incident report in the previous six months; and no violent conviction. Ask about it in writing, early.

For a woman who takes neither route, the manual still requires maternity uniforms once pregnancy is reported, extra nutritional items on medical authority, a lower bunk if indicated, and consideration of extra visits or calls as delivery approaches. The manual also provides: “Females who have given birth have the option to pump breast milk with a pump provided by the institution for as long as desired.”

Free hygiene products, and the trap in the commissary list

Section 611 of the First Step Act requires the Director of the Bureau to make tampons and sanitary napkins available to prisoners “for free, in a quantity that is appropriate to the healthcare needs of each prisoner.” The Female Offender Manual turns that into five items the warden must provide at no cost — tampons and maxi pads with wings, each in regular and super, and regular pantyliners — and then closes the loopholes. Staff “may not ration these items.” They must sit in a common area of the housing unit and women “must have access to these items at all times of the day.” “Monthly issuance of these items is strictly prohibited.” A unit that runs out must be restocked within twenty-four hours of notification, a woman in restrictive housing must be able to get all five every day, and misuse is a disciplinary matter, “not cause for withholding access.” Hair dryers, curling irons and flat irons must be available too, which is why every range at Alderson has a hair room.

Alderson’s own commissary sheet lists tampons at $4.80 and $5.00, pantyliners at $2.15 and branded pads at $5.00. Those sales are lawful: the manual says the free products come “in addition to those required via the standardized female specific commissary list.” What is not lawful is a unit where the sheet is the only way to get any. A woman handed a fixed monthly allocation, told to wait for a restock, or told to buy her own is being treated contrary to the Bureau’s own policy — a clean, documented administrative remedy with a twenty-day deadline.

On the rest of women’s health, the handbook sets a screening schedule families can hold the institution to. Mammograms and Pap smears are available every two years for women aged 40 to 50; women over 50 may have a full physical and a mammogram every year. Prenatal care carries no co-payment, unlike the $2.00 charged for a self-initiated visit. Sick call runs from 7:00 to 7:15 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only — a fifteen-minute window four days a week for a population of 438 as of September 2026.

What is daily life like at FPC Alderson?

Daily life at FPC Alderson is structured, early and audible. The compound wakes on a fixed schedule, the day is bracketed by counts announced over the public address system, and almost everything — meals, laundry, commissary, showers — runs on a rotation keyed to the housing unit or the first letter of the surname.

	Weekdays	Weekends and holidays
Lights on	6:00 a.m.	10:00 a.m.
Beds made, cubicle in order	By 6:30 a.m., military style, no exception for a day off	—
Meals	Breakfast 6:30–7:30 a.m.; lunch 10:40–11:40 a.m.; dinner after the 4:15 p.m. count, about 5:00 p.m.	Coffee hour 6:30–7:30 a.m.; brunch after the 10:00 a.m. count, about 10:45 a.m.; dinner after the 4:15 p.m. count
Programming hours, khaki uniform required	6:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.	—
Counts	12:15, 3:00 and 5:15 a.m.; standing counts 4:15 and 9:15 p.m.; unit census 8:40 a.m. and 12:40 p.m. on weekdays; 10:00 a.m. standing count on weekends
Recreation center	Monday and Tuesday 10:00 a.m. – 7:45 p.m.; Wednesday to Friday 7:00 a.m. – 7:45 p.m.	7:00 a.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Unit television and games rooms	6:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. daily
Quiet hours; lights out	10:00 p.m. Sunday to Thursday	11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Source: FPC Alderson Admission & Orientation Handbook (2026). Times move with the season and the staffing roster; read this as the shape of a day, not a guarantee.

Which unit eats first is decided by a cleaning score: the duty officer walks the ranges weekly, and “[t]he unit with the highest sanitation is called first, and the unit with the lowest rating is called last.” A cubicle that fails inspection can cost property outright, and there is a $25 commissary restriction for being out of compliance. Laundry runs by surname, A to D on Monday through S to Z on Thursday. The initial issue is five bras, eight pairs of underwear, eight pairs of socks, five brown T-shirts, four uniform shirts and pants, a belt and composite-toe boots.

Recreation is in Willebrandt Hall — aerobics and step classes, Pilates, volleyball, basketball, softball, table tennis, walking and jogging, bingo and a substantial arts and crafts program with a hobby-craft mail-out every other Sunday. The Zimmer Amendment restrictions apply here as everywhere: no R, X or NC-17 films, no martial arts or weightlifting instruction, no electric instruments.

Two things set this compound apart. The first is the fire department. The Bureau’s own account, published in March 2016, records that Alderson “trains an all-volunteer, all-female inmate fire brigade, and has been doing so for over 38 years,” that about twenty-five women a year are selected from the volunteers, and that it is “the Bureau’s only female inmate fire brigade.” It covers the camp and backs up the town’s volunteer fire departments. The institution took delivery of a new engine in July 2022. A woman can leave here with a Firefighter 1 certification and have used it.

The second is the buildings. Alderson was built in 1927, and its own handbook is candid about what that means: asbestos “is known, or assumed to be present, in some floor tiles, roofing shingles, cementitious pipe insulation, and in some of the hard plaster walls and ceilings throughout the institution,” in every building “with the exception of the housing units (A & B Building).” The handbook carrying that notice is handed to every new arrival.

What do inspectors say about conditions at FPC Alderson?

Independent inspectors have said little about conditions at FPC Alderson. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has not conducted an on-site inspection of this facility. The District of Columbia’s Corrections Information Council, which inspects federal prisons holding D.C. residents and has produced the only independent conditions reports some institutions have ever had, has never inspected Alderson either. The most recent independent look at this camp is a Prison Rape Elimination Act audit conducted over three days in April 2024 by a contractor, and its scope is sexual safety, not conditions.

What the Inspector General has published about Alderson is a comparison inside a report on another prison. Inspecting FCI Tallahassee in November 2023, the OIG examined prescribing of 5 percent lidocaine patches and 1 percent diclofenac gel, both prescription-only in the Bureau: “From January 1, 2022, through August 22, 2023, we found that FCI Tallahassee providers wrote 531 total prescriptions… to 375 distinct inmates. In contrast… at Federal Prison Camp Alderson, providers wrote only 25 total prescriptions for these medications to 19 individual inmates.” That is the only published per-institution clinical data on this camp.

As of September 2026, the Inspector General listed six Bureau-wide engagements as ongoing — on lockdowns and modified operations, medical intake, monitoring of inmate email, drone contraband, food-service equipment, and the $5 billion appropriated by Public Law 119-21; none names Alderson.

The 2024 PREA audit

Lori Fadorick, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America, audited FPC Alderson on site from April 9–11, 2024; the final report is dated May 15, 2024. The facility passed: forty-five standards met, none exceeded, none unmet, no corrective action. Its allegation figures follow.

In the twelve months before April 2024	Number
Sexual abuse allegations, total	13
— inmate on inmate	2
— staff on inmate	11
Criminal investigations opened	6 — all still ongoing at the audit; none referred for prosecution or indicted
Administrative outcomes	4 unfounded, 3 unsubstantiated, 0 substantiated
Sexual harassment allegations	0
Population on the first day of the audit	712, against a designated capacity of 992

Eleven of the thirteen allegations were staff-on-inmate, at a minimum-security camp then holding 712 women. Nothing in the audit finds them true — the criminal investigations were open and the administrative files closed without a substantiated finding. But the audit’s job is to test the system, not the allegations, and it passed the system while recording that figure.

The same audit, the most detailed public description of the camp, records an average length of stay of 338.3 days, an age range of 21 to 75, and 918 women admitted during the audit year. The institution is accredited by the American Correctional Association and by no other body. Sexual assault forensic examinations are done at a local hospital rather than at the prison, which for a camp this remote means a drive.

On staffing, the audit says something unusual for a federal prison in 2024. The plan is built for 992 women and the facility employs 145 people, there were no deviations from it in the previous twelve months, and “[a]t the time on the on-site review, the Warden and PREA Compliance Manager stated that the facility was nearly at 100% staffing for custody staff.”

The criminal record on staff conduct

Alderson is one of the institutions that put sexual abuse of federal prisoners onto the Senate’s agenda. Testifying to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on November 2, 2022, Inspector General Michael Horowitz described a survivor’s assailant as “a captain, a high-ranking officer at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting multiple female inmates.”

That captain was Jarrod Grimes. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia announced on January 15, 2019, that Grimes, then 40, had pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual abuse of a ward and two counts of abusive sexual contact, admitting sexual intercourse with four women held at Alderson and other sexual activity with two more between about November 2016 and December 2017. He “was a captain when the crimes occurred, and was in charge of the correctional and security functions at the prison.” Judge Irene C. Berger imposed the ten-year sentence on January 9, 2019.

A second case is live now. On September 4, 2024, the Inspector General announced the arrest of James Bennett, a Bureau Senior Officer Specialist assigned to FPC Alderson, on an indictment charging six counts of sexual abuse of a ward and one of abusive sexual contact, alleging sexual acts with three women held here between about June 2023 and January 2024. He has been detained since September 6, 2024, the court denied his motion to suppress statements on November 7, 2025, and trial is set for November 23, 2026, before Chief Judge Frank W. Volk. United States v. Bennett, No. 5:24-cr-00139 (S.D. W. Va.). He has not been convicted and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

One conviction of a Bureau staff member at this camp, a second prosecution awaiting trial and eleven staff-on-inmate allegations in the audit year are a pattern, not a coincidence — which is why the reporting routes in the handbook matter. A woman here may report to any staff member; write to the Warden, the Regional Director or the Director using special-mail markings; file an administrative remedy, including a sensitive one straight to the Regional Director if filing at the institution would expose her; or write to the Office of the Inspector General directly.

FPC Alderson in the news

Recent news about FPC Alderson centers on an Easter family event in April 2026, the Bureau’s July 2026 closure announcement, which did not name the camp, and the 2024 arrest of a serving officer; older items concern the camp’s new fire truck, two deaths the Bureau reported in January 2022, a COVID-19 outbreak, the former captain’s sentence and the camp’s ninetieth anniversary.

• July 1, 2026 — the Bureau announced six institution closures and two mission changes, citing deferred maintenance and staffing. The satellite camp at FMC Lexington closes; FPC Morgantown and FPC Duluth convert from camps to federal satellite lows. Alderson is not named.
• April 2026 — the nonprofit God Behind Bars ran an Easter family reunion event at the camp, bringing children in to see their mothers.
• September 4, 2024 — a serving officer was arrested on a sealed seven-count indictment charging sexual abuse of a ward and abusive sexual contact involving three women held here. The case is set for trial in November 2026.
• July 2022 — the camp received a new fire truck and reinstated its inmate firefighter training program.
• January 2022 — the Bureau posted two news releases reporting the deaths of people held at FPC Alderson; the Bureau’s releases are listed on its press release page.
• December 2021 — the camp was in the middle of a COVID-19 outbreak, reported nationally.
• January 2019 — the camp’s former captain was sentenced to ten years for sexual abuse of six women in custody here.
• April 2017 — about 500 people gathered at the institution for its ninetieth anniversary.

Frequently asked questions about FPC Alderson

Problems at FPC Alderson: where we can help

The problems we help with at FPC Alderson follow from the three things that make it unusual: it holds only women, it is one of two camps in the country that do, and it has no segregation unit of its own. These are the problems its own records, audits and prosecutions show coming back:

• Designation and transfer for a woman. The female cut-points, the women-only Violent Behavior factor, the Sex Offender factor that can attach without a conviction and the men-only Sentence Length factor are all arguable; a Public Safety Factor waiver is decided at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center, not the prison. See federal prison transfers and our federal prison consulting services.
• Sexual abuse and harassment by staff. Two Bureau employees at this camp have been federally prosecuted, and the 2024 audit logged eleven staff-on-inmate allegations in a year. A sensitive administrative remedy can go straight to the Regional Director when filing at the institution is unsafe.
• A sudden move to a county jail. With no Special Housing Unit here, a disciplinary allegation can mean immediate transfer out of the camp, with programming, visits and telephone access lost before any hearing. Disciplinary proceedings that threaten good conduct time are worth contesting properly, and so is the placement.
• Pregnancy, the restraints prohibition under section 4322 and its forty-eight-hour notice requirement, and referral to MINT or the Residential Parenting Program.
• Free hygiene products under section 611. A unit that rations them, issues them monthly or points a woman at the commissary is acting contrary to the Bureau’s own manual.
• Medical care and screening. Sick call is a fifteen-minute window four mornings a week, and mammograms and Pap smears run on a two-year cycle. Our guides to medical care in federal prison and to Federal Tort Claims Act claims cover the routes.
• RDAP eligibility and the section 3621(e) year, including the community transition component without which the reduction is lost. See our federal prison early release practice.
• First Step Act time credits — whether they are being earned, calculated and applied — and halfway house and home confinement placement under the Bureau’s placement procedures.
• Compassionate release under the Bureau’s reduction-in-sentence rules, and sentence computation errors measured against the Bureau’s sentence computation manual.
• 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 Alderson, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. The Bureau’s facility page, with address, contact details, population and inmate-mail block.
• FPC Alderson Admission & Orientation Handbook, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Housing, counts, discipline, mail, telephone, commissary, daily routine, health services, education, programs and the asbestos notice.
• Institution Supplement ALD 5267.09E, Visiting Regulations, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FPC Alderson, 2022. Visiting times and rules, visiting-room capacity, permitted items, transport and accommodation; replaced ALD 5267.08D (2022).
• FPC Alderson Commissary List, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2012. Items stocked and prices as printed; no spending limit stated.
• Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Sets the $460 commissary spending limit; replaced Program Statement 4500.12.
• Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, Program Statement 5100.08, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006, as amended in 2026. Female security-level cut-points and Public Safety Factors.
• Female Offender Manual, Program Statement 5200.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2025. Hygiene products, MINT, the Residential Parenting Program, restraints and maternity care.
• Inmate Telephone Regulations, Program Statement 5264.09, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Replaced Program Statement 5264.08 (2008).
• First Step Act Approved Programs Guide, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Reentry Services Division, 2026. Program availability by institution, including RDAP locations.
• 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.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2026. Press release.
• Press Releases, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022. Includes the two January 2022 releases reporting deaths at FPC Alderson.
• FPC Alderson’s All-Female Inmate Fire Brigade, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016.

Audits and inspections

• PREA Audit Report: FPC Alderson, PREA Auditors of America, 2024. On-site audit of April 9–11, 2024, by Lori Fadorick, an independent auditor subcontracted by PREA Auditors of America; capacity, physical plant, staffing and allegation data.
• Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2023. Report 24-005, including a prescribing comparison naming FPC Alderson.
• Statement of Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General, on Sexual Abuse of Female Prisoners in the Custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2022. Testimony to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, November 2, 2022.
• Ongoing Work, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2026. The Inspector General’s list of engagements under way.

Court records

• United States v. Bennett, No. 5:24-cr-00139 (S.D. W. Va.), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, 2024. Docket: indictment, detention, suppression ruling and trial setting.
• BOP Correctional Officer Indicted and Arrested for Sexual Abuse of a Ward, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 2024. The arrest of James Bennett.
• Federal Inmate Sentenced on Escape Charge, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of West Virginia, 2020. The January 29, 2019, walkaway and the four-month consecutive sentence.
• Former Federal Prison Official Sentenced for Sex Offenses, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of West Virginia, 2019. Jarrod Grimes’s counts of conviction and ten-year sentence, imposed January 9, 2019, by Judge Irene C. Berger.

News and other sources

• FPC Alderson inmates reunite with children in Easter celebration, WVVA, 2026.
• FPC Alderson receives new fire truck, The Register-Herald, 2022.
• NXIVM’s Nancy Salzman reports to federal prison, Times Union, 2022.
• The Women’s Federal Prison Camp At Alderson In Middle Of COVID-19 Outbreak, Forbes, 2021.
• Alderson prison camp celebrates 90 years, The Register-Herald, 2017.
• Wife of ex-US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. reports to prison, Associated Press, 2015.
• 18 U.S.C. § 4322, Use of restraints on prisoners during the period of pregnancy, labor, and postpartum recovery prohibited, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).
• 18 U.S.C. § 3621, Imprisonment of a convicted person, U.S. Code (Legal Information Institute).

Sources reviewed September 2026.

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