Federal Medical Center, Rochester

Federal Medical Center, Rochester
(FMC Rochester)
Interactive map of Federal Medical Center, Rochester
(FMC Rochester)
Location
StatusOperational
Security classMedical
Population786 (July 13, 2024 (2024-07-13))
Opened1984 (1984)
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
WardenJared Rardin
Websitewww.bop.gov/locations/institutions/rch/

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.

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

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.

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."

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.

Notable inmates

Current

Inmate Name Register Number Photo Status Details
Jared Lee Loughner 15213-196 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.
Luke Helder 36460-048 Currently being held indefinitely. Accused of planting homemade pipe bombs in mailboxes in five Midwestern states in 2002; ruled incompetent to stand trial in 2004.
Ray Holmberg 84357-510
Serving a 10-year sentence; set to be released on January 23, 2033. Former North Dakota state senator and longest-serving state legislator in the United States; pleaded guilty to charges related to child sex tourism in 2024.
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.

Former

Inmate Name Register Number Photo Status Details
Jim Bakker 07407-058 Served 5 years; released from custody on December 1, 1994. Founder of Praise the Lord (PTL) Ministries; convicted of fraud in 1989 for stealing millions of dollars in donations from his members.
Sol Wachtler 32571-054 Served 11 months; released from custody on October 26, 1994. 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.
Lyndon LaRouche 15204-083 Served 5 years; released from custody on January 26, 1994. 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.
Miles J. Jones 20907-045 Served 18 months; released from custody on August 26, 2010. Forensic pathologist-physician convicted of income-tax evasion.
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman 34892-054 Transferred to FMC Butner, where he died on February 18, 2017. Muslim cleric convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Dennis Hastert 47991-424 Served 13 months of a 15-month sentence; released from custody on August 16, 2017. Former Republican Speaker of the House; convicted of bank fraud in paying hush money to a victim to cover up his serial molestation of teenage boys.
Leo Earl Sharp Sr. 46394-039 Served 13 months of a 3-year sentence; granted compassionate release on June 25, 2015. Drug courier for Sinaloa Cartel and inspiration for Clint Eastwood movie The Mule.
Gregory Scarpa 30880-053 Died in custody on June 8, 1994. Colombo crime family hitman and FBI informant; convicted in 1993 of racketeering and three murders.
Keith E. Anderson 63025-004 Served 20 years; released on July 19, 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.
Melvin Mayes 09891-000 Sentenced to 3 life sentences; granted compassionate release on February 15, 2022. 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.
Yonathan Melaku 79418-083 Transferred to Baltimore Residential Reentry Management.

Serving a 25-year sentence; set to be released on January 12, 2028.

 Perpetrator of the Northern Virginia military shootings.
Brian Kolfage 26978-017 Released from custody on March 6, 2026. Pleaded 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. Kolfage was sentenced to 51 months in prison in April 2023.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "FMC Rochester". Bop.gov. 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  2. ↑ "Admission and Orientation Handbook" (PDF). Bop.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  3. ↑ Fornaci, Philip (Director of the DC Prisoners' Project). "Federal Bureau of Prisons Oversight Hearing Archived 2016-09-07 at the Wayback Machine" (Archive). Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. July 21, 2009. Retrieved on February 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Rochester prison guard charged with smuggling contraband | Minnesota Public Radio News". Minnesota.publicradio.org. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  5. ↑ "Prison guard sentenced for smuggling contraband | Minnesota Public Radio News". Minnesota.publicradio.org. 2010-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  6. ↑ "Jared Lee Loughner Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges in Tucson Shooting". Federal Bureau of Investigation. August 7, 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Jacques Billeaud; Brian Skoloff (November 8, 2012). "Jared Loughner Sentenced To Life In Prison For Arizona Shooting That Wounded Gabrielle Giffords". Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  8. ↑ "Federal charges brought against accused mailbox bomber". CNN. 2002-05-10. Archived from the original on September 24, 2012.
  9. ↑ Van Hyfte, Vanessa (2004). "Helder not fit to stand trial". WQAD Report. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  10. ↑ "Experts say mailbox bomb suspect unlikely to be freed soon". WQAD Report. 2004-04-06. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  11. ↑ Beach, Amy Dalrymple, Jeff (2025-03-26). "Former ND Sen. Ray Holmberg sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex crime • North Dakota Monitor". North Dakota Monitor. Retrieved 2025-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Judge says killer-rapist Ming Sen Shiue can be held indefinitely". Twin Cities. 2010-09-29. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
  13. ↑ "Bakker Begins Tests to Evaluate His Mental State". Los Angeles Times. 1989-09-02.
  14. ↑ "Jim Bakker arrives – PostBulletin.com: Home". PostBulletin.com. 1989-11-03. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  15. ↑ Van Gelder, Lawrence (August 27, 1994). "Ex-Judge Wachtler to Move From Prison to Halfway House". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  16. ↑ Seeking Leniency, Wachtler Blames Adversaries, The New York Times, September 5, 1993
  17. ↑ "Larouche Receives 15-Year Sentence". The New York Times. 1989-01-28.
  18. ↑ "John F. Wood : FORMER LIBERTY PATHOLOGIST SENTENCED FOR FAILING TO FILE TAX RETURNS" (PDF). Justice.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  19. ↑ "Blind Sheik – Former Rochester Federal Prison Inmate – Has Died". KROC (AM). Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  20. ↑ Preston, Julia (18 February 2017). "Omar Abdel Rahman, Blind Cleric Found Guilty of Plot to Wage 'War of Urban Terrorism,' Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  21. ↑ Michael Tarm, Ex-Speaker Hastert enters prison: now Inmate No. 47991-424 Archived 2016-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press (June 22, 2016).
  22. ↑ "Prosecutors detail sex abuse allegations against Dennis Hastert". PBS. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  23. ↑ "Michigan Drug 'Mule' Leo Sharp Gets 3 Years on 90th Birthday". NBC News.
  24. ↑ Raab, Selwyn (20 November 1994). "The Mobster Was a Mole for the F.B.I.; Tangled Life of a Mafia Figure Who Died of AIDS Is Exposed". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  25. ↑ "10 Are Charged in Tax Evasion Case Said to Involve 2,000". The New York Times. 2002-12-12.
  26. ↑ "#210: 04-22-05 FOUR DEFENDANTS SENTENCED IN $120 MILLION INTERNATIONAL TAX SHELTER CASE". Justice.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  27. ↑ Meisner, Jason (21 January 2022). "El Rukn general at center of bizarre Libyan terror plot to be released from prison". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  28. ↑ "El Rukn Member Gets 3 Life Terms In Racketeering Case". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  29. ↑ "Yonathan Melaku, who fired at Pentagon and other military facilities, sentenced to 25 years in prison". Washington Post. January 11, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
  30. ↑ "Two Sentenced To Prison For 'We Build The Wall' Online Fundraising Fraud Scheme". www.justice.gov. Retrieved 30 July 2026.

44°01′27.36″N 92°26′10.65″W / 44.0242667°N 92.4362917°W / 44.0242667; -92.4362917