Federal Medical Center, Butner
United States federal prison in North Carolina
The Federal Medical Center, Butner (FMC Butner), is a United States federal prison opened in 1995 in North Carolina for male inmates of all security levels who have special health needs. It is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Complex and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum-security male inmates.
It is located in Mangum Township, Durham County, North Carolina, near Butner.
FMC Butner is located near the Research Triangle area of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.
Facility and programs
FMC Butner has a full hospital facility specializing in oncology and behavioral science. Many medical and surgical specialties hold clinics and perform procedures at the FMC. It has the only residential program devoted to the treatment of individuals convicted of sexual offenses in the federal prison system.
In 2009 Philip Fornaci, the director of the DC Prisoners' Project, stated that FMC Butner, along with FMC Carswell and FMC Rochester, "are clearly the 'gold standard' in terms of what BOP facilities can achieve in providing medical care" and that they had provided "excellent medical care, sometimes for extremely complex medical needs." However, in 2021, the Bureau of Prison's accreditation from the Joint Commission lapsed, raising concerns of a decline in the quality of medical care.
A 2023 NPR investigation found that from 2009–2020, roughly a quarter of all deaths in federal prisons occurred at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex. Due to bureaucratic delays in diagnoses and referrals, prisoners often arrive at FMC Butner with terminal conditions, only eligible for palliative care and compassionate release, despite the 1976 US Supreme Court case Estelle v.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Federal Medical Center, Butner” is united States federal prison in North Carolina. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Federal, Medical and Center, not as a finished interpretation.
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