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Federal prison support groups, by facility

The best intel about any specific prison is in a Facebook group run by spouses and moms. Not lawyers. Moms. Visiting rules, package tips, which CO to avoid, when the phones are down. Find your facility below.

Under that are the groups that cover the whole system, the First Step Act groups where release date questions get answered, the nonprofits worth knowing, and the places people talk that are not Facebook.

These aren't private or secret.

Every group on this page turned up in a plain Facebook or Google search. That is how I found them, and it is the same search anybody can run, the BOP included. Nothing here was leaked to me, nothing here is hidden, and the facility your person is at almost certainly knows its group exists. Joining one is not sneaking around. Thousands of families are already in them.

What that does mean is that you should post like the institution is reading, because it might be. Keep a register number away from a complaint about a named officer, and don't put anything in writing that asks somebody to break a rule. Visiting hours, mail, packages, the drive, which lobby officer is having a bad week: that is what these groups are for, and it's what they're good at.

By facility

38 groups across 46 facilities. A group that covers a whole complex is listed under every prison in it.

I need to know about more groups. This directory only grows when someone who's in a group sends it in. If your facility's group isn't here, the next family searching finds nothing. Name of the group and the facility is all it takes.
Add a group

Showing 46 of 46.

Nothing on file for that one yet. Send it in and it'll be here tomorrow.

Anywhere in the system

These aren't tied to one prison. Useful when your person hasn't been designated yet, when they get transferred, or when the facility group is small and slow.

First Step Act, credits and release dates

Release math is the most asked question in every one of these groups, so two of them are just that. Check what you're told against the estimator and against the program statements. Confident wrong answers are common, and this is the one subject where a wrong answer costs months.

Advocacy and nonprofits

Organizations rather than chat. Some do policy work, some run programs you can use today.

By state

Mostly state prison families, but federal families use them too. They're the better source for anything local: the drive, the motels, the nearest halfway houses.

Off Facebook

Not everybody wants to do this under their real name, next to their kid's school photos. These don't ask for one.

Related

Groups tell you how a place feels. For the numbers (stamp rates, store markups, photo rules, and how each level generally runs), see the facility guide. If somebody in a group is telling you to pay a consultant, read before you pay anyone first.

Need help with this? Just ask.

These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. Answers are free, and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.

[email protected]

I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.

Pass it on

If this helped, it'll help someone else's family too.