FCI Phoenix

If Phoenix is the name on your designation paperwork, you are looking at a minimum-security women’s camp attached to a larger men’s institution roughly 25 miles north of downtown Phoenix. 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 Phoenix?

FCI Phoenix, which opened in 1985, is a federal complex where the main institution is a medium-security prison for men and an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp houses women, per BOP’s own facility data. If you have been designated here, you are going to the camp, run as a separate population from the men’s institution, with its own housing, staff, and rules. FCI Phoenix is also one of BOP’s MINT sites, meaning it is designated to accommodate pregnant women. If pregnancy is part of your situation, read our pregnancy and MINT program guide before your report date.

What to expect at the camp

As a minimum-security camp, housing is dormitory-style rather than cell-based, with women assigned to shared cubicles and a personal locker. Programming has centered on the Residential Drug Abuse Program, the BOP’s roughly 500-hour intensive treatment track whose completion can earn eligible participants a meaningful reduction in time served, alongside non-residential drug programming, GED preparation, and ESL classes. Work assignments span food service, landscaping, and general maintenance, and Federal Prison Industries work is available. The camp has no perimeter fence, and in-house medical care is supplemented by outside hospital referral for serious needs. The Sonoran Desert setting means extreme summer heat is a real feature of daily life at the site, worth knowing if you are planning visits.

Some operational specifics reported elsewhere online, including exact visiting hours, phone-minute allotments, and specific work-assignment types, come from secondary consultant sources rather than BOP’s own published data, and we could not confirm them independently. Confirm anything time-sensitive directly with the facility or your case manager before you rely on it.

How does designation to Phoenix 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 Arizona 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 Phoenix compares to other camps on mixed complexes, including FCI Victorville, the nearest women’s camp on the West Coast.

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

The women’s camp held 188 people the week of August 13, 2026; the medium-security men’s institution on the same site held 863. Phoenix is also one of the Bureau’s MINT sites for pregnant women, which is a genuinely different reason to be designated here and is covered in our guide to the MINT program. (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 623-465-9757 answers more than an evening of searching. Ask about the camp specifically, and if pregnancy is part of your situation, ask about MINT by name. 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 Phoenix, confirm with her case manager that she has been designated to the camp and not to a different unit on the complex, since the men’s institution next door can cause confusion on paperwork and directions. If pregnancy is a factor, ask specifically how the MINT program works at this facility, since that is time-sensitive in a way other planning is not. 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. For a fuller, citation-backed reference on the facility, see Prisonpedia’s FCI Phoenix page.

Preparing for FCI Phoenix

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 Phoenix house women?

Yes, in its minimum-security satellite camp. The main institution at FCI Phoenix holds men at a higher security level; the adjacent camp is where women are housed, and BOP lists the complex's overall population as mixed for this reason.

Is FCI Phoenix a MINT site?

Yes. BOP's facility data flags FCI Phoenix as a MINT site, meaning it is equipped to house pregnant women. If pregnancy is part of your situation, this is worth knowing before you report; our pregnancy and MINT guide walks through what the program covers.