While someone is pretrial here, only immediate family can go on the visiting list, and the visiting day is set by their housing unit rather than published. Connect with your loved one in minutes.
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Two things make visiting here harder than the hours suggest. The first is that pretrial visiting lists are restricted to immediate family, which rules out friends, cousins, aunts and uncles entirely while a case is live. The second is that the Bureau of Prisons sets each housing unit its own visiting day and time, and states openly that it will not tell a visitor what that is. The person inside has to tell you, and until they do there is nothing to plan around.
The restriction here is tighter than at a federal prison and it surprises people.
While someone is pretrial or in holdover status, the visiting list is immediate family only. The Bureau defines that as mother, father, stepparent, foster parent, brother, sister, spouse and children.
Not a cousin. Not an aunt or uncle. Not a friend, however long standing.
One documented exception. A cohabiting partner of a pretrial person who has no legal spouse may be approved where the relationship is spousal in nature and documented, with a lease in both names, children’s birth certificates, or a shared address on a driving licence. New York does not recognise common-law marriage, and the facility’s own supplement says so, so that argument does not work on its own.
Sentenced and designated people get more room: immediate family plus up to four other relatives or friends.
The list caps at eight people, rising by two after six months of clear conduct, and can be amended every 90 days.
The form is BP-A0629, the Visitor Information Form.
The process runs through the person inside, not through you:
MDC Brooklyn also uses an internal Request for Visitor Approval form and a Visitor Information Sheet with a release authorisation. Every visitor additionally signs form BP-A0224, Notification to Visitor, on each visit.
If a visit is denied at the door, it is documented on a Visit Denial Memorandum. A positive reading on the ion spectrometry scanner comes with form BP-A0732, which carries appeal instructions.
Two official documents disagree, and rather than pick one, here is both.
The November 2025 attorney guide gives:
| Visit type | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Social | Monday to Friday | 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, and 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM |
| Attorney | Monday to Friday | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM |
The May 2017 visiting supplement gives the same weekday social hours, and adds weekends, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
The attorney guide is the newer document, but it is written for attorneys, so the absent weekend block may be an omission rather than a cancellation. Call 718-840-4200 and confirm weekend visiting before travelling for one. Do not rely on either document alone.
This is the single most important sentence on this page, and it is the Bureau’s own:
Each housing unit has a set day and time for social visits, the person in custody must tell their family what it is, and the institution will not provide that information to visitors.
So there is no number to ring that will answer it. If your person has not told you their unit’s visiting day, you cannot find it out from the outside.
The 2017 supplement published a rotation, which is the only unit schedule the Bureau has ever put in writing. It alternated a person between afternoon and evening visiting each month by the fifth digit of their register number, with odd months reversing even ones, and assigned days by building and floor. Treat that as a 2017 pattern rather than a current fact.
Identification. Everyone over 16 needs a valid photo ID: a driving licence, a school ID, or a state or federal picture ID. Anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian signature to be processed, and anyone under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Almost nothing, and the list is specific.
Everything else goes in a lobby locker: phone, wallet, keys, tissues. No packages, no gifts, nothing handed over during the visit. The person you are visiting cannot use the vending machines, though you can.
Written out in the visiting supplement, and stricter than most.
Not permitted: outerwear such as coats; open-toe shoes, sandals or wheeled shoes, so closed-toe with at least a heel strap; holes in shirts or trousers; khaki, tan, beige or unidentified military clothing; sweatpants; hooded shirts; swimwear, tube tops, midriff tops, low-cut tops; lycra, spandex, yoga pants or jeggings; anything see-through; hats, visors, scarves, sunglasses or long hair picks, with religious headwear permitted; sleeveless tops unless covered by a sleeved sweater or blazer that stays on throughout.
Skirts, dresses and shorts must be no shorter than three inches above the knee, slits included.
Blazers, jackets and cardigans are fine as the covering layer; it is outerwear in the coat sense that is excluded. An underwire bra that sets off the detector is cleared with a hand wand, and the Bureau’s guidance states visitors are never asked to remove undergarments.
Attorney visits run seven days a week, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and do not count against the personal visit allowance.
By subway, the Bureau’s own direction is the R train to 25th Street.
By car, take the 39th Street exit off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, eastbound or westbound.
Parking is not published anywhere in any official Bureau document for this facility. Plan on the subway rather than assuming there is somewhere to leave a car in Sunset Park on a weekday afternoon.
6 of 9 questions
No. While a person is pretrial or in holdover status at MDC Brooklyn, the visiting list is restricted to immediate family: mother, father, stepparent, foster parent, brother, sister, spouse and children. Friends and extended family can only be added once someone is sentenced and designated, and then only up to four of them.
VisitationPossibly, as a documented exception. A cohabiting partner of a pretrial person who has no legal spouse may be approved where the relationship is spousal in nature, evidenced by a lease in both names, children's birth certificates or a shared address on a licence. New York does not recognise common-law marriage, and the facility says so, so the claim alone is not enough.
VisitationBP-A0629, the Visitor Information Form. The person inside starts it and posts it out to you, you complete it and post it back to them rather than to the facility, and they submit it to their Unit Team. A criminal history check follows. You also sign form BP-A0224 at each visit.
VisitationThat depends on the housing unit, and the Bureau will not tell you. Its guidance states that each unit has a set day and time, that the person in custody must tell their family, and that the institution will not provide it to visitors. Ask them directly. Social visiting hours themselves are weekdays 12:00 to 3:00 PM and 5:00 to 7:30 PM.
VisitationThe documents disagree. A 2017 visiting supplement lists weekends 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The November 2025 attorney guide gives only weekday social hours and does not mention weekends. Because the newer document is written for attorneys, the omission may not be a cancellation. Call 718-840-4200 and confirm before travelling.
VisitationProcessing opens 30 minutes before the window, and nobody is processed within one hour of the end of visiting. Weekday and holiday entry closes at 6:30 PM and weekend entry at 2:00 PM. Once you leave the visiting room the visit is finished for the day.
VisitationOne clear plastic container no bigger than 4 by 7 inches, up to $30 in ones and fives, two diapers, one small receiving blanket and one bottle of formula. Everything else goes in a lobby locker. You can use the vending machines; the person you are visiting cannot.
VisitationPretrial and holdover people get one hour a week, which covers most people held here. Four visitors at once, one visit a day, and children four and under on a lap do not count toward the four. One embrace and one brief kiss at the start and end.
VisitationThe Bureau's own directions are the R train to 25th Street, or the 39th Street exit off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway if you drive. No official document publishes anything about parking at this facility, so plan on the subway rather than assuming there is somewhere to leave a car.
VisitationThe Marshals hold them first, so the locator lags an arrest.
View ArticleDes Moines, not Brooklyn, and the register number without its dash.
View ArticleFifteen minutes a call, 300 a month, and you cannot call in.
View ArticlePhotocopied, original destroyed, and white paper only.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 15, 2026.