What Kind of Federal Prison Is FCI Loretto? (What 'FCI' Means for Families)

“FCI” stands for Federal Correctional Institution. In the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), that’s one of the standard facility categories people can be designated to - alongside other types like penitentiaries, medical centers, camps, and detention centers. For families, the main takeaway is that “FCI” isn’t just a nickname for a prison; it’s a label the BOP uses to describe a particular kind of institution within its larger system.

It also helps to know you’re dealing with a large, centralized system. The BOP oversees a network of more than 122 institutions, and FCIs are one part of that. Many rules and processes are built to be consistent across the system, even though the details can still vary from one institution to another.

FCIs don't operate in isolation. The BOP has a layered structure: a Central Office, Regional Offices, the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC), and Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Offices. These matter because they shape who makes decisions - especially around housing assignments and sentence management.

For most people in BOP custody, the DSCC handles designations - the decision that determines whether someone goes to an FCI or another facility type - and calculates sentences. There's one major exception: if someone has specific medical needs, placement may come through the Office of Medical Designations and Transportation (OMDT) instead. That's why two people with similar charges can end up at very different facilities. Medical needs can change everything.

An FCI is one option among several federal facility types. The BOP also uses USP (United States Penitentiary), FMC (Federal Medical Center), FPC (Federal Prison Camp), FDC (Federal Detention Center), and ADX (Administrative Maximum Facility). Each label reflects a different mission - security level, detention status, or medical specialization. And not everyone ends up in a BOP-run institution: some federal inmates are held in privately operated contract facilities under BOP oversight.

• ✓ FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) - a standard BOP institution type (the category FCI Loretto falls under).
• ✓ USP (United States Penitentiary) - a different BOP institution category than an FCI.
• ✓ FMC (Federal Medical Center) - a BOP facility type tied to medical care needs.
• ✓ FPC (Federal Prison Camp) - a separate “camp” facility type within the BOP.
• ✓ FDC (Federal Detention Center) - a detention-center facility type, distinct from an FCI.
• ✓ ADX (Administrative Maximum Facility) - a separate facility type used for a different mission.
• ✓ Contract facility - privately operated housing used for some federal inmates instead of a BOP-run institution like an FCI.

For families, the

1. Start with the BOP’s information for FCI Loretto - look for the official institution details and any current notices that affect families.
2. Use the right office for placement questions - for most designation and sentence-computation questions, the DSCC is the office that handles designations for the majority of inmates.
3. Ask specifically about medical designation if that’s in play - if your loved one has specific medical needs, placement may be assigned through OMDT instead of the usual DSCC process.