Authorities are holding disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Butner.

Robert Sylvester Kelly, 56, will continue to serve his 30-year term at the Federal Correctional Institution Butner Medium I on Old North Carolina Highway 75.

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Kelly, who transferred into the facility last Wednesday, has been convicted of several child sex crimes as well as sex trafficking. Before, Kelly was serving time at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) Chicago, according to Benjamin O'Cone, a spokesperson from the Federal Bureau of Prisons' public affairs office.

Butner is known for its medical facilities, especially its cancer-treatment programs. It’s not clear why Kelly was transferred or whether he has a medical condition that will be treated in Butner.

Justin Paperny, a former federal inmate who now helps others prepare mentally and physically to make their way through the criminal justice system, noted that Kelly could have a life outside after his sentence.

“If R. Kelly makes it thru this journey -- and he should -- and if he is healthy enough he will serve time on the other side of prison boundaries,” Paperny said.

The medium security prison in Butner has 771 inmates, according to its website.

“When you move up to mediums, you are dealing with cell living, higher controlled movements, dealing with people in for murder, very violent type crimes,” Paperny said.

Kelly joins a long list of notable inmates who have served time at the facility.

“He has to adjust differently and learn to lay low,” Paperny said of Kelly.

Notable inmates at FMC Burner:

Bernie Madoff

In April 2021, Madoff died at FMC Butner while serving a 150-year sentence. He was 82.

Madoff was the infamous architect of a Ponzi scheme that burned thousands of investors and outfoxed regulators.

In 2020, Madoff’s lawyers filed court papers to try to get him released from prison during the coronavirus pandemic, saying he had suffered from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions. The request was denied.

Theodore John Kaczynski

Also known as the “Unabomber,” Kaczynski died in 2023 after committing suicide while serving his prison sentence at Butner.

Kaczynski earned his infamous nickname for his series of package bombs and an anti-technology manifesto published in the Washington Post.

In December 2021, authorities moved Kaczynski to Butner. Previously, authorities were holding Kaczynski at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Kaczynski was serving eight life sentences after pleading guilty to charges of illegally transporting, mailing and using bombs. He was linked to the deaths of three people, and his bombs are alleged to have injured 23 more over a period of almost two decades.

John Hinckley Jr.

Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C. Court documents show on April 2, 1981, Chief Judge William B. Bryant issued an order for an examination to determine Hinckley's competency to stand trial, and mental condition and legal responsibility for his actions.

Bryant's order prompted authorities to commit Hinckley to Butner, where he underwent physical, psychiatric and a battery of psychological examinations. The examination was completed and a report submitted to the Court on July 29, 1981.

In 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He remained under institutional psychiatric care for decades.

In 2022, Hinckley was granted conditional release.

Joe Exotic

The former Oklahoma zookeeper known as the “Tiger King” is serving a 21-year sentence and scheduled for a 2036 release. In November 2021, authorities moved the Netflix star to Butner. It came after he revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2021.

In November 2022, Exotic got transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta.

Joe Exotic — whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin.