FCI Waseca is a low-security federal prison for women in Waseca, Minnesota, about 75 miles south of Minneapolis. Its site has an unusual backstory: the grounds originally belonged to a University of Minnesota satellite campus that operated for about two decades before closing in the early 1990s. The Bureau of Prisons acquired the property and opened it as a federal prison in 1995, initially housing male inmates. In 2008 it was converted specifically into a women's facility, and it has held only female offenders ever since, typically several hundred to around eight hundred women depending on the year. Because the campus buildings were repurposed rather than built from scratch as a prison, the layout has a somewhat different feel from newer BOP facilities. Over the years Waseca has held a few inmates who drew national attention, including business executives and others convicted in high-profile federal cases, though the population is overwhelmingly made up of ordinary offenders serving lower-security sentences. For families, Waseca is generally considered one of the more manageable low-security women's camps in the system in terms of programming and day-to-day conditions, though as with any facility conditions can vary year to year.