FCI Pekin

If Pekin is the name on your designation paperwork, you are looking at a minimum-security women’s camp attached to a larger men’s institution in central Illinois, roughly 10 miles south of Peoria. Here is what BOP’s own current data confirms, and what to know before you or someone you love reports there.

What is the camp at FCI Pekin?

FCI Pekin is a federal complex with a main institution that holds men and an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp, opened in 1994, that currently houses women, per BOP’s own facility data. As a minimum-security camp, it has dormitory housing organized into two-person cubicles, a low staff-to-inmate ratio, and no perimeter fence, walls, or guard towers.

Worth knowing: the gender of the Pekin camp population has changed more than once. It housed women from 1994, was switched to house men in 2011 to make room for an in-house men’s drug-treatment program, and by the mid-2010s held women again, a period that included former Dixon comptroller Rita Crundwell, who served there from 2013 to 2021. The exact date it reverted is not clearly documented in public sources. BOP’s own live facility data, captured in July 2026, confirms the camp currently houses women. If your own paperwork or research says otherwise, that is a strong reason to confirm your specific designation directly with BOP or your case manager rather than relying on any single source, including this page.

What to expect at the camp

Documented programming has included GED preparation, ESL classes, inmate-taught adult continuing education, and a parenting program, alongside a Drug Education course, the Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program, and Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether the full Residential Drug Abuse Program is available to women at the Pekin camp is not something we could confirm against a primary BOP source and is described inconsistently elsewhere online, so ask your case manager directly rather than assuming either way. Vocational opportunity at the camp has historically been more limited than at the main institution. When the camp has housed women, inmates have frequently performed volunteer and community-service work in the surrounding area.

How does designation to Pekin work, and what should you prepare?

You do not choose your facility. The Bureau of Prisons designates it, generally aiming within about 500 driving miles of home, weighed against your security classification and bed space. If Illinois is far from your family, your attorney can ask the sentencing judge for a judicial recommendation toward a facility closer to home. Use the time before you report to handle the groundwork that matters everywhere: set up your commissary money, submit your visitor list early, and settle your phone and email contacts. Our guides, part of the Getting Ready hub, cover this in How BOP Designation Works for Women, Self-Surrender Day for Women, and Commissary and Money. See our facility directory for how Pekin compares to other camps on mixed complexes, including FCI Greenville and FCI Marianna.

How big is the camp, and who else is on this complex?

BOP’s own population report lists the women’s unit here as “Pekin-Camp F,” separate from the main institution, and the two numbers tell the story: 230 women in the camp the week of August 13, 2026, against 1,057 men in the medium beside it. When you read about “FCI Pekin” anywhere else, assume it is about the men’s medium unless it says otherwise. (bop.gov live facility directory and BOP weekly population report, both checked August 13, 2026.)

Two practical consequences follow from that split. First, the security level that governs her day is the camp’s, minimum, not the headline level of the institution next door, and anyone who tells you otherwise is reading the wrong number. Second, almost everything published about this facility, including news coverage and most prison-review sites, is describing the main men’s institution. Filter accordingly.

What to ask when you call

Before her report date, one phone call to 309-346-8588 answers more than an evening of searching. Ask about the camp by name when you call. “FCI Pekin” and “the camp at Pekin” get you different answers. Worth asking, in this order:

• What are the current visiting days and hours for the camp, and have they changed recently?
• How long is visitor-list approval taking right now?
• What is the correct mailing address and inmate-number format for mail to the camp?
• Which programs are actually running at the camp this year, including RDAP and First Step Act programming, rather than which ones are listed?

Write down who you spoke to and when. Schedules and program availability both change, and a name and a date is what lets you ask again without starting over.

A note for the family supporting her

If someone you love is heading to Pekin, confirm with her case manager that she has been designated to the camp and that the camp is currently housing women, given its history of switching populations. Get on the approved visitor list early, and verify the current visiting schedule directly with the facility rather than relying on any single source, including this page. Prisonpedia keeps a sourced reference entry on the camp’s history at FCI Pekin.

Preparing for FCI Pekin

The facility is only half of it. These are the guides that cover the parts nobody warns you about, from the day you report to the money on her books.

• Self-Surrender Day for Women, Step by Step (and What to Bring) Self-surrender to federal prison, walked through calmly for women: what the day looks like hour by hour, what to bring, what to leave home, and how to steady yourself and your family.
• What to Bring (and What Not to Bring) A verified packing guide for self-surrender: the very short list you actually carry in, why almost everything stays home, how commissary seeding works, and how to confirm the rules with your facility's handbook.
• Visitation Rules and Planning How to get on the visitor list, pre-approval timelines, what ID to bring, facility visit schedules, video visitation, and what to expect during a prison visit.
• Commissary and Money: How to Put Money on Her Books, and What It Really Costs How the federal prison commissary works, how to put money on her books, what phone and email cost, and how to correct the misinformation about all of it.
• Phone, CorrLinks, and Mail: Staying Connected How federal prison phones work, CorrLinks email basics, mail rules, tips for staying connected without triggering isolation, and honest numbers on what communication actually costs.
• How BOP Designation Works for Women (and How to Advocate for a Facility Near Home) You do not choose your prison, but you can advocate for one near home. How BOP designation and security scoring work for women, and how to make your case.
• Medical Intake and Continuing Your Healthcare What happens during health screening at intake, gynecological exams and witness rights, medication continuity, mental health assessment, and advocating for your healthcare inside.
• RDAP and First Step Act Credits for Women: Eligibility and the Real Math RDAP and First Step Act credits can take real months off a federal sentence. Here is who qualifies, what the PATTERN score is, and how the credits actually apply.

Frequently asked questions

Does FCI Pekin house women?

Yes, in its minimum-security satellite camp. As of BOP's own facility data, the camp continues to house women, with the main institution holding men. BOP lists the complex's overall population as mixed for this reason.

Is the camp the same as the main FCI Pekin?

No. The camp is a separate, minimum-security, dormitory setting for women, run apart from the men's institution next door. Confirm with the Bureau of Prisons or your case manager which unit you are actually designated to.