• FPC Montgomery (AL): Inmates can work outside the camp on the military base as gardeners and landscapers. They can also take correspondence courses from Troy State Univ. in business, psychology, art, music, and foreign language.

• FPC Pensacola (FL): Also on a military base ( Pensacola Naval Air Station) so inmates can work outside the camp. Activities include movie nights, intramural sports, racquetball, and bocce ball.

• FPC Yankton (SD): Inmates go into the community by volunteering for local nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity. Inside the camp, inmates can play sports, take art lessons, or play instruments in the music room. It also has a big library.

• FCI Morgantown (W. VA): Apprenticeships are available in commercial photography, computer technology, and plumbing. And foosball, pingpong, and bumper-pool tables.

• FPC Alderson (W.VA): For females, think Martha Stewart, inmates can swim in the pool and participate in talent and game shows. They can also play volleyball, softball, basketball, tennis, racquetball, basketball, or go roller skating.

• FCI and FPC Otisville (NY): Really good for Jewish inmates. There’s a full-time rabbi, religious furloughs and (I'll add, since I've had clients there) special food for many Jewish holidays.

• FCI Sheridan (OR): Nice visiting facilities and variety of organized sports, such as flag football, soccer, and volleyball. There's also training in construction, personal fitness training, and landscape design.

• FCI Sandstone (MN): Inmates have a craft center for leather craft, can paint and make stained glass. There are intramural or extramural sports, a pool table, and religious services for many faiths — including Catholic, Jewish, Native American, and Muslim.

• FPC Lewisburg (Adjacent to FPC Lewisburg in PA): Good staff (that's it?)

• FCI Butner (NC): Has a Medical Center, Alan says it is viewed as the “crown jewel of the Bureau of Prisons.”

• FCI Taft (CA): Privately run, has good visiting facilities for kids and clean bathrooms

• FCI Dublin (CA): For women. The staff have "progressive attitudes." (According to BOP, it also offers instruction in computer graphics (i.e., Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects) and business applications and training leading to a Certified Forklift Operator’s License. There are also apprenticeships in bakery, dental assistant, and carpentry fields.

Not mentioned is the Federal Prison Camp at Leavenworth which has an organic and self-sustaining farm as part of the prison’s Therapy and Mentoring Horticulture Program. Or FCC Coleman which has a Culinary Arts program.

Here's the 2009 State of the Bureau report.