Mt. Mcgregor, Medium And Minimum Camp

[Manzanita]

thanls BFs GF!

This is the only facility I've ever dealt with but it seems it's pretty chill compared to what I've heard about visiting at other facilities.
The camp is now closed.
You check in at the bottom of the mountain and drive up the mountain to the parking lot. They will write down your plate #, ask for picture ID, and ask who you are visiting. Max is 3 visitors unless you have special permission for more.
The first lot is for visitors, the closer lot is for CO parking. There are a couple signs but it's not very well marked so make sure you don't park in the CO's lot. Walk through the CO's lot and up the stairs (about 25) and to the left is the admin building, check in there. If it's crowded, you may have to wait across the way, about 100 feet from the building. There is handicapped parking right up by the admin building, just follow the road to get up there instead of turning into the parking lot.
First time visiting you have to fill out two forms, just one green form after that when you visit. You will also need to sign into the visitors book for every visit. All the ID we ever needed was our license.
Go through the metal detectors, get your hand stamped, and then wait in the hall until the CO has a group to take to the visiting room. You will get grief if the detectors go off a lot so wear appropriate clothing. We saw quite a few people have issues with that. The CO's at the front desk are pretty civil as long as you're civil with them. They are pretty strict on clothing - nothing too short and nothing showing too much skin. We had to go back to the car to change a couple times and we're not sure why but keep that in mind. Don't wear an underwire bra, you will have to walk across the lot to another building, take it off and put it back on inside, a pain! And no flip flops, sandals, etc. Don't walk in there chewing gum, you will get a lecture.
You can leave commissary money at the front desk, they will put it in a lock box. Carry your packages downstairs and put them in the mail bin - you will need to fill out slips at the front desk to put in the package with his name and DIN if the packages aren't already marked.
Then you go outside, walk down a little, then into the visiting room. Give them your green slip at the CO's desk and they will assign you a table. The inmate has to sit facing the CO's desk, you will sit across the table but they are small tables. If there are more people with you they will put you at a table with 4 seats and you can sit next to him, otherwise you will be at a 2 seat table sitting across from him.
Vending machine prices are pretty reasonable. $2 - $2.50 for burgers, pizza, wings, sandwiches. Candy bars .85, chips .75 I think. Pop, water, milk, gatorade $1.15. There are microwaves. Get as much food as you think you'll need as soon as you get there - if it's busy the machines empty quick. Don't count on the change machines working, they often were out of order. You can buy tix for pictures from the vending machines also. I think they were $2.50. Take them to the CO's desk when you buy them and they will call you up later by table #. The inmate cannot go to the vending machines or microwaves.
You can take playing cards in with you, don't have to be sealed. There is a kids room with some toys and games that they can bring out to the table. I believe there is a TV in the kids room also.
There are lockers if you need them for a quarter.
Visits are 8:30 - 2:30 weekends only, and holidays of course. No A-Z visiting, you can visit both Saturday and Sunday. I seem to recall something about a 2 visit limit in 7 days but I'm not positive about that so you might not be able to visit 2 weekends in a row. We drove 5 hours to get there so there wasn't a chance of us exceeding that.
They won't let you up the mountain before 8am so you'll have to wait at the bottom if you're there before that, unless that's different for buses/vans.
There is a restaurant not far from the facility just off of interstate 87, Scotty's, which is a truck stop, where you can stop and change if necessary. And good food!
Sometimes it gets pretty crowded but it was never so crowded that they asked people to leave. Waiting to get in is about 1/2 hour from the bottom of the mountain to the visiting room so no need to get there early to beat the crowds, there are no crowds.
The CO's are pretty laid back in the visiting room and pretty much leave everyone alone as long as everyone is doing what they're supposed to do.
The package room person will come out during the visit and let you know if there's anything in your package that he can't have and you can take it with you at the end of the visit. A the end of the visit, all of you get up and walk to the CO's desk. They will give you the green slip back and another slip if you're taking package items back. Wait by the door and a CO will come and give you your package items and escort you back to the admin building. Give them the green slip back at the admin building and sign out in the visitors book.
There are bathrooms in the visiting room and a changing room for babies. The inmate needs permission to use the bathroom but visitors don't.
The visiting room is air-conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter but can still be a little chilly in the winter. Jackets, sweatshirts, hoodies are allowed but they will search them when you check in at the admin building.
As far as packages, you can send him 35lbs a month in no more than 2 packages. No limit on non-food packages. Can't remember specifics on what colors were allowed.
They have an ion scanner but we only saw 2 people get pulled aside in our 19 months of visiting.