The Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca (FCI Waseca) is a low-security United States

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...

for female offenders in Minnesota. It is operated by the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

, a division of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

. The site, located 75 miles from Minneapolis, was converted into a prison in 1992 after formerly serving as a

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

campus.

History

FCI Waseca opened in 1995 as an all-male facility. It used many of the buildings from the former college. In 2006, FCI Waseca received its most high-profile prisoner when

Jeffrey Skilling Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventual ...

, CEO of the now defunct

Enron Corporation Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. B ...

was sent there after he was convicted of insider trading, securities fraud and other charges for making a $60 million profit by selling company stock in anticipation of the company's 2001 collapse. Skilling was transferred to

FCI Englewood The Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood (FCI Englewood) is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Colorado. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a division of the United States Department of Just ...

, another low-security facility in Colorado, after FCI Waseca was converted into an all-female prison in 2008.

Notable incidents

The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

was called in to investigate an act of violence at FCI Waseca in June 2011. Felicia Thomas, a 45-year-old inmate serving a sentence for

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

, allegedly attempted to strangle another inmate with a rope taken from a laundry bag. Thomas pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon on January 11, 2013 and was subsequently sentenced to an additional 41 months in prison. She is currently scheduled for release in 2021.

Notable inmates (current and former)

References

External links

FCI Waseca
from

{{Women's prisons in the United States Prisons in Minnesota Waseca Buildings and structures in Waseca County, Minnesota 1995 establishments in Minnesota

History

Notable incidents

Notable inmates (current and former)

See also

References

Further reading

External links