Attorney Visits & Legal Access at FDC Philadelphia (Including Tuesday Attorney‑Only Policy)

Tuesdays at FDC Philadelphia are attorney-only. If you're a family member or friend, don't try to schedule a social visit that day. The facility runs on a rotating monthly schedule that assigns each unit a specific visiting day. When planning a regular visit, check the current monthly unit schedule - and skip Tuesdays entirely, since they're blocked off for legal visits.

The Bureau of Prisons publishes a Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook that applies to adults in Bureau pretrial custody until sentencing. If your loved one is being held pretrial, this handbook explains how legal access is supposed to work. FDC Philadelphia is specifically listed as a covered facility. That's useful - it gives you and counsel a shared reference point when sorting out legal visiting and communication options.

The handbook covers the main ways someone in pretrial custody can reach their defense team: legal visitation (both in-person and virtual) and attorney communication, including phone calls. One detail worth noting: "access to your attorney" includes access to legal assistants on the defense team. Investigators, paralegals, and other legal staff fall under that umbrella.

If your loved one (or their attorney) doesn’t know the local procedure for legal access at the facility, the handbook gives a straightforward next step: the inmate can submit a written legal access request to their Unit Team. That’s the formal way to ask, “What’s the process here?” and get directed to the right local procedure.

The Unit Team includes the Unit Manager, Counselor, Case Manager, and Unit Secretary. They can help with process questions and routing - but they can't give legal advice. Use them to clarify logistics: how to request legal access, where to submit paperwork, what the local steps look like. Keep case strategy and legal questions between the inmate and their defense team.

Practical Tip Confirm

• ✓ Have counsel review the Bureau’s Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook (it applies to adults in Bureau pretrial custody until sentencing) and confirm it covers FDC Philadelphia.
• ✓ Confirm the local visiting rules from the FDC Philadelphia visiting procedures, including that all visits (except for 3‑South) are prescheduled.
• ✓ Schedule visits by email: send the request to PHL-VisitingScheduler-S@bop.gov and include inmate name, inmate registration number, inmate’s assigned unit, visitor name, visitor address, visitor phone number, and visitor date of birth.
• ✓ Plan around the visitor limits: inmates are allowed up to three visitors during the allotted visiting time frame, and visitors cannot be swapped during the visiting period.

1. Start with the written rules - Have counsel work from the Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook and the FDC Philadelphia visiting procedures.
2. Submit a written legal-access request if anything is unclear - The inmate can ask their Unit Team, in writing, for the local legal-access procedure.
3. Follow up for logistics, not legal advice - The Unit Team (Unit Manager, Counselor, Case Manager, and Unit Secretary) can help with process, but they can’t advise on legal strategy or the case itself.