FCI Mendota is a fairly new addition to the federal prison system, located in California's Central Valley about 36 miles west of Fresno, near the small town of Mendota. The project was first funded and construction began around 2007, but it took years of additional federal funding delays before the medium-security institution for male inmates finally opened in January 2012, at a total cost of roughly $235 million. Like many FCIs, it was built with an attached minimum-security satellite camp for nonviolent offenders alongside the main compound. As one of the newer facilities in the system, Mendota doesn't carry the kind of long or dramatic institutional history that older federal prisons do; its story so far is mostly about the extended construction and funding process that delayed its opening for years after ground was first broken. For families, its Central Valley location places it within reach of the Fresno area, which has more travel and lodging options than some of the more remote federal prisons scattered around rural parts of the country, though it's still a drive from the coastal population centers of California.