# Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca

The Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca (FCI Waseca) is a low-security United States federal prison for female offenders in Minnesota. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The site, located 75 miles (121 km) from Minneapolis, was converted into a prison in 1992 after formerly serving as a University of Minnesota 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, CEO of the now defunct Enron Corporation 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, another low-security facility in Colorado, after FCI Waseca was converted into an all-female prison in 2008.

## Notable incidents

The FBI was called in to investigate an act of violence at FCI Waseca in June 2011. Felecia Thomas, a 45-year-old inmate serving a sentence for arson, 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 was scheduled to be released in 2021.

## Notable inmates (current and former)

| Inmate Name | Register Number | Status | Details |
| Holly Ann Grigsby | 42508-086 | Serving a life sentence. | White supremacist. Convicted of helping her boyfriend, David Joseph Pedersen, murder 4 people across the Pacific Northwest in 2011. |
| Catherine Greig | 57820-112 | Originally sentenced to 21 months; extended following disciplinary action & was released July 2020; served over 8 years total. | Girlfriend of former FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive and Irish Mob figure James "Whitey" Bulger; pleaded guilty in 2012 to harboring a fugitive and identity fraud for illegally obtaining Social Security numbers, licenses and birth certificates in order to assist Bulger evade capture. |
| Angela Johnson | 08337-029 | Serving a life sentence; currently at FCI Aliceville. | The first woman sentenced to death by a United States federal jury since the 1950s. She was sentenced to death for her role in the murders of five people in 1993. She was re-sentenced to life without parole in December 2014. Her accomplice, Dustin Honken, was sentenced to death and executed on July 17, 2020. |
| Shelley Shannon | 59755-065 | Was serving a 20-year sentence under her real name, Rachelle Shannon; released in 2018. | Member of the extremist group Army of God; served 10 years in state prison for the attempted murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller in 1993; pleaded guilty in 1995 to firebombing six abortion clinics in California, Nevada and Oregon. |
| Lisa Biron | 12775-049 | Sentenced to 40 years, scheduled for release on June 17, 2047 | Transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of children |