Shape tells you what kind
A circle is a camp. A square is a federal medical center. A diamond is a holding or detention facility — somewhere people pass through, not somewhere they serve a sentence.
For families navigating federal sentencing
84 facilities · checked August 2026
A calm, current map of every federal minimum-security camp — checked against the Bureau’s own records, including the ones that have closed. Built for the people who love someone going in.
- 84
- Facilities mapped
- 70
- Take self-surrender
- 16
- Run RDAP on site
01
02
03
The Bureau aims to place people within 500 miles of home when it can — though almost everyone passes through a holding facility first. 10 medical centers and 11 holding facilities are mapped alongside the camps.
Drawing the map…
Contents
Five things worth knowing before the day comes.
- 01The mapEvery federal minimum-security camp, medical center, and holding facility — with what is open, what is closing, and how far each one is from your ZIP.
- 02The handbooksThe Admission & Orientation handbook the Bureau hands every new arrival, linked straight from bop.gov for each facility that publishes one.
- 03The InsidePlain-language entries on counts, recall, shots, R&D, diesel therapy — the vocabulary nobody explains to you beforehand.
- 04The checklistWhat to do at ninety days out, sixty, thirty, seven, and on the morning itself. Free, and built to be printed.
- 05What changedA dated log of camp closures, conversions, and BOP announcements, with the source for each one.
How to read the map
A map made for one careful question.
Not a directory — a way to look at one difficult moment and see what is actually nearby, and what is actually still open.
Fill tells you what state it is in
Solid means open. Hollow means the Bureau has announced it is closing, or converting to a security level that is no longer a camp. Crossed through means closed — kept on the map, with the date and the reason.
A ring means RDAP on site
The residential drug program can take up to a year off a sentence. The ring marks camps that run it themselves — not ones whose parent prison runs it, which would mean transferring off the camp to join.
“It’s going to be okay. There is a way through this, and a lot of people who’ve walked it before you.”
Handbook library
The official A&O handbook for every facility that publishes one.
These are the documents the Bureau gives every person in their first week. Each link here was checked against bop.gov — where the Bureau publishes no handbook, we say so rather than sending you to a dead page.