FCC Butner occupies land that was once Camp Butner, a World War II-era Army training installation established in 1942 near Durham, North Carolina. The Bureau of Prisons began building on the site decades later, opening the first medium-security unit in 1976, with additional facilities — including a low-security institution and the Federal Medical Center — following in 1995. Today the complex functions as a full campus of separate prisons under one federal umbrella, housing around 5,000 men across different security levels, and it's home to the BOP's largest medical facility, known for cancer treatment, mental health services, and specialized long-term care. That medical mission has made Butner a landing spot for well-known inmates needing serious healthcare, most famously Bernie Madoff, who served his sentence and died there in 2021; other notable individuals convicted of major fraud, espionage, and terrorism-related offenses have also passed through over the years. For families, it's worth knowing which specific unit within the complex a loved one is assigned to, since Butner isn't a single building but several distinct facilities with different security levels and purposes.