FCI Yazoo City Low is a low-security federal prison for men and the original institution around which the larger Yazoo City complex grew, located about 36 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi. It was built in the mid-1990s and began receiving inmates in March 1997, making it the oldest facility on the Yazoo City grounds; the complex's camp, medium-security prison, and high-security penitentiary were all added in phases afterward, between 2001 and 2014. As a low-security facility, it generally houses inmates considered lower risk than those at the complex's medium and high-security units, with dormitory-style housing rather than the more restrictive setups found at higher-security prisons. Its establishment was part of a broader wave of federal prison construction in Mississippi and the rest of the Southeast during the 1990s, when the Bureau of Prisons was adding capacity nationwide. For families, it's important to distinguish this facility from the similarly named Yazoo City Low II, which is a separate institution on the same complex with its own mailing address and visiting schedule, since mail and packages sent to the wrong one can cause delays.