You don't have to face this alone.
Someone you love is heading to a women's federal prison, or you are. The fear is real, and you are not the first to walk this road. This site covers the federal system only, run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, not a state prison or county jail. What follows is clear guidance for every stage ahead. No spin, and no judgment about how you got here.
Built by and for the women who have lived it.We know your next step.
This road comes in stages, and each one carries its own particular fears and its own list of things nobody warned you about. Find the stage you're in right now. Read straight through, or skip ahead to whatever it is that's keeping you up tonight.
The Target Letter
You've been notified or you're under investigation. What a federal target letter means, the first moves to make, and how to steady yourself and your family.
Read the guide →Pre-Trial
From federal charges to a plea or trial to sentencing day: a plain-language guide to the PSR, the guidelines, and how federal sentencing really works for women.
Read the guide →Getting Ready to Go Away
From designation to self-surrender: what to handle before you report to a women's federal prison, for you and the family walking beside you.
Read the guide →Reentry
Federal prison reentry for women, explained: the halfway house, home confinement, supervised release, and the practical, hopeful work of rebuilding.
Read the guide →A calm, honest guide for a frightening time.
What is this website?
A free, plain-language guide for women facing a federal sentence, and for the people who love them. Federal is the key word. This site is about the system run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons under federal law, the one that follows a target letter, a federal indictment, or a federal conviction. It is not about state prison, county jail, or any state department of corrections, and the rules, the facilities, and the process below are all specific to federal cases. Most of what's out there assumes the person going in is a man, or it sits behind a paid consultation, or it's written so clinically that it manages to explain everything about the system and comfort no one at all. We wanted something different. This guide names the fear in one honest sentence and then hands you the next concrete thing to do, and every fact on it is checked against a primary source, whether that's BOP.gov, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, or the U.S. Code, and then cited right there on the page so you can trust what you're reading at two in the morning.
Who is it for?
Women at any point on this road. The day the target letter lands, the first years back home, and everything in between. It's just as much for the people standing beside them, so if you are the spouse, the partner, a mother or a sister or a friend who is holding the whole household together while quietly coming apart yourself, then a lot of what follows was written with you in mind. You count here too. Most guidance stops at a security level and a set of rules, but this one keeps reaching for the woman underneath all of that, the one lying awake worried about her kids, her health, and her dignity.
You are not the first family to walk this road.
A few of the national voices we respect most. We picked them for one reason: they do real, checked work for women and families caught up in this system. And none of them will ever charge you to reach out.
A New Way of Life Reentry Project 
Essie Justice Group 
National Council for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls 
The Fortune Society 
White Collar Support Group (WCSG) 
Lioness: Justice Impacted Women's Alliance (JIWA) 
Operation Restoration 
Women's Prison Association (WPA) Answers to what people ask first.
Is this about federal prison, or state prison?
Federal prison only. This entire site is about the federal system, run nationally by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons under federal law and federal sentencing rules, which is a completely separate system from any state prison or county jail. If your case was charged by a state prosecutor in state court, the facilities, rules, and process here will not match what you are facing, and you should look for state-specific resources instead. If your case involves a federal target letter, a federal indictment, or a federal judge, you are in the right place.
What is a women's federal prison like?
Quieter and far more ordinary than television makes it look. Most women in the federal system are held at a minimum-security camp or a low-security facility, where the day is built around a work assignment, programs, and the phone calls and visits that keep you tied to home. Women who have been through it tend to say the first couple of weeks are the hardest, the stretch where you are still learning where everything is and everyone is a stranger, and then, more gradually than you would expect, it settles into a routine. Orange Is the New Black is a TV show. The "Camp Cupcake" headlines are a punchline. Neither one is the day you will actually live, and knowing what is really coming is the thing that takes the sharpest edge off the fear.
Who is this website for?
Women facing a federal sentence at any stage, from a target letter through reentry, plus the families standing beside them. A large share of the people who read this are supporters, the spouse or partner or mother or sister or friend who is quietly holding everything together at home, and it is written just as much for you. It is free. It is not a sales funnel, and nobody here is going to ask you for a credit card.
Is this legal advice?
No. What you read here is general information, meant to help you understand the federal system and ask sharper questions, and it is not legal advice, so reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Every federal case turns on its own facts. The decisions about yours belong with a federal criminal defense attorney, and anything touching your children or your custody arrangements belongs with a family-law attorney.