Federal Medical Center, Rochester

The Federal Medical Center, Rochester (FMC Rochester) is a United States federal prison in Minnesota for male inmates requiring specialized or long-term medical or mental health care. It is designated as an administrative facility, which means it holds inmates of all security classifications. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

Federal Medical Center, Rochester
(FMC Rochester)

Location	Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Status	Operational
Security class	Medical
Population	786 (as of July 13, 2024 (2024-07-13))
Opened	1984 (1984)
Managed by	Federal Bureau of Prisons
Warden	Jared Rardin
Website	www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/rch/

FMC Rochester is located in southeastern Minnesota, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of downtown Rochester.^[1]

Facility

FMC Rochester is one of six medical referral centers within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Health Services staff at FMC include physicians, a dentist, dental assistants, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, a radiological technician, physical therapists, laboratory technologists and a respiratory therapist. Mental Health Services through the Psychiatry and Psychology Departments are available to all inmates. These include educational groups, therapy groups, individual therapy, intensive diagnosis/assessment, and inpatient treatment. In addition, outpatient substance abuse treatment services are available.^[2]

In 2009, Philip Fornaci, the director of the DC Prisoners' Project, stated that Rochester, along with FMC Butner and FMC Carswell, "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."^[3]

Notable incidents

In July 2009, Richard Torres, a correction officer at FMC Rochester, was indicted for smuggling contraband into the facility for an inmate in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes. The contraband included cellular telephones, tobacco and creatine powder. Torres was terminated. Two months later, he pleaded guilty to soliciting a bribe and he was sentenced to one year in federal prison.^[4][5]

Notable inmates

Current

Inmate Name	Register Number	Photo	Status	Details
Jared Lee Loughner	15213-196[permanent dead link]		Serving 7 life sentences without parole plus 140 years.	Perpetrator of the 2011 Tucson shooting in Arizona; pleaded guilty in 2012 to the attempted assassination of U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and the murder of six people, including U.S. District Judge John Roll.[6][7]
Luke Helder	36460-048[permanent dead link]		Currently being held indefinitely.	Planted homemade pipe bombs in mailboxes in five Midwestern states in 2002; ruled incompetent to stand trial in 2004.[8][9][10]
Ray Holmberg	84357-510		Serving a 10-year sentence.	Former North Dakota state senator and longest-serving state legislator in the United States; plead guilty to charges related to child sex tourism in 2024.[11]
Yonathan Melaku	79418-083		Serving a 25-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2028.	Perpetrator of the Northern Virginia military shootings.[12]
Ming Sen Shiue	00499-041		Serving a life sentence (with the possibility of parole).	Kidnapped Mary Stauffer and her daughter Elizabeth. Also serving a 40-year sentence on state murder charges for killing a 6-year-old boy who witnessed the crime. Shiue was detained indefinitely as a dangerous sexual predator in 2010.[13]
Brian Kolfage	26978-017		Serving 4 years and 4 months (started July 25, 2023).	Pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, filing false tax returns in connection with the We Build the Wall Scam.

Former

Inmate Name	Register Number	Photo	Status	Details
Jim Bakker	07407-058[permanent dead link]		Released from custody in 1994; served 5 years.	Founder of Praise the Lord (PTL) Ministries; convicted of fraud in 1989 for stealing millions of dollars in donations from his members.[14][15]
Sol Wachtler	32571-054[permanent dead link]		Released from custody in 1994; served 11 months.[16]	Former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals; pleaded guilty in 1992 to sending messages to his ex-mistress threatening to kidnap her 14-year-old daughter in retaliation for her ending their affair.[17]
Lyndon LaRouche	15204-083[permanent dead link]		Released from custody in 1994; served 5 years.	Three-time presidential candidate; convicted in 1988 of scheming to defraud the IRS and deliberately defaulting on more than $30 million in loans from his supporters.[18]
Miles J. Jones	20907-045[permanent dead link]		Released from custody in 2010; served 18 months.	Forensic pathologist-physician convicted of income-tax evasion[19]
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman[20]	34892-054		Transferred to FMC Butner, where he died in February 2017	Egyptian Muslim leader, convicted of seditious conspiracy after investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
Dennis Hastert	47991-424[permanent dead link]		Entered prison June 2016; Released from custody in 2017; served 13 months out of a 15-month sentence.	Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, convicted of breaking financial rules in hush money aimed at covering up sexual abuse of teenagers.[21]
Leo Earl Sharp Sr.	46394-039[permanent dead link]		Entered prison May 2014; Compassionate release granted in June 2015; served 13 months of a 3-year sentence. Died December, 2016.	Drug courier for Sinaloa Cartel, and inspiration for Clint Eastwood movie The Mule.[22]
Gregory Scarpa	30880-053[permanent dead link]		Deceased in custody in 1994.	Colombo crime family hitman and FBI informant.
Keith E. Anderson	63025-004[permanent dead link]		Served a 20-year sentence; released in 2019.	Owner of Anderson's Ark & Associates tax preparation company; extradited from Costa Rica in 2002; convicted in 2004 of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for assisting over 2,000 clients in five countries evade taxes on millions of dollars of income.[23][24]
Melvin Mayes	09891-000[permanent dead link]		Sentenced to three life sentences; Released in February 2022 on compassionate release due to a terminal illness.[25]	Lieutenant for El Rukn street gang leader Jeff Fort; convicted in absentia in 1987 of racketeering, drug trafficking and conspiring to commit terrorist attacks in the US on behalf of the Libyan government; captured in 1995 after eight years as a fugitive.[26]

See also

• United States portal
• Politics portal

• List of United States federal prisons
• Federal Bureau of Prisons
• Incarceration in the United States