How FCI Williamsburg fits in the Federal Bureau of Prisons — what 'FCI' means and how designation works

“FCI” stands for Federal Correctional Institution. In the BOP system, an FCI is one of the standard institution types used to house people in federal custody, and FCI Williamsburg is an example of that FCI category.

The BOP uses several institution types to place people based on their situation and needs. You’ll often see acronyms like USP, FMC, FPC, FDC, and ADX alongside FCI - those are Bureau-level labels for different kinds of facilities within the federal system.

FCI Williamsburg is part of a much bigger structure that’s run centrally by the Bureau of Prisons. At the Bureau level, the BOP includes a Central Office, Regional Offices, and specialized offices that handle key functions - like the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) for placements, plus Residential Reentry Management (RRM) offices that oversee Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) and home confinement programs. In plain terms: the institution is where your loved one lives day-to-day, but major decisions about placement and broader policy flow through this larger BOP system.

When people say “the BOP decided where he’s going,” the office doing that work is often the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC). The DSCC designates federal inmates to appropriate facilities within the federal prison system. So if you’re trying to make sense of why someone landed at a particular institution type - like an FCI - this is the part of the Bureau that handles designations.

There’s also a separate lane for medical-related placements. The Office of Medical Designations and Transportation (OMDT), overseen by the BOP’s Health Services Division, designates inmates who have specific medical needs. If a person’s health situation is driving where they’re housed, OMDT is the office tied to that decision.

In BOP language, “designation” simply means assigning someone to a particular facility in the federal system - like placing them at an FCI. “Sentence computation” is the BOP’s process for calculating a federal sentence using the information from the sentencing court, along with federal laws and Bureau policy. The same office that makes designations - the DSCC - also does this sentence computation work.

Most families think of the BOP as “where sentenced federal inmates go,” and that’s a big part of it. The BOP is responsible for the custody and care of sentenced federal inmates, and it also houses a significant number of pretrial defendants and pre-sentence inmates on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. That’s why you may hear different terms (pretrial, pre-sentence, sentenced) even within the same federal system.

The BOP’s custody responsibilities also extend beyond people sentenced in federal court. The Bureau has custodial responsibility for District of Columbia (D.C.) felons sentenced to terms of imprisonment, and it may house state and military inmates on a contractual basis.

One point that clears up a lot of confusion: at the time the BOP Legal Resource Guide was published, no federal inmates were designated to serve their sentences in private (non-BOP) facilities. So when you’re thinking about “where the BOP can send someone,” the Guide frames designation as placement within the BOP’s own facility types.

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• ✓ Learn the BOP’s basic structure (Central Office, Regional Offices, DSCC, and RRM offices) so you know which level handles what
• ✓ Keep “designation” (facility placement) separate from “sentence computation” (how the BOP calculates sentence dates) when you’re trying to troubleshoot a question
• ✓ If medical needs are part of the placement conversation, look for references to OMDT rather than assuming it’s a standard DSCC designation
• ✓ Use official BOP reference material for these definitions and roles - third-party summaries often mix up the offices and acronyms

One last timing detail: the statutes, regulations, case law, and Program Statements referenced in the BOP’s Legal Resource Guide are current as of April 2025. If you’re relying on the Guide to understand designation or sentence computation, make sure you’re looking at the most recent version available.