Federal Correctional Institution Waseca Inmate Search

Federal Correctional Institution Waseca Overview

Federal Correctional Institution Waseca, often shortened to FCI Waseca, is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Its official address is 1000 University Drive SW, Waseca, MN 56093, and its main phone number is (507) 835-8972. The facility is physically in Waseca County, but it is not part of the Waseca County Jail system. It does not use the county jail roster, is not licensed as a Minnesota county jail, and should not be described as Minnesota DOC custody.

The BOP and the DOJ Office of the Inspector General describe FCI Waseca as a low-security federal correctional institution for sentenced female inmates. The OIG inspection describes it as about 80 miles south of Minneapolis and says it is Medical Care Level 2 and Mental Health Care Level 2, generally serving people with stable outpatient medical or mental-health needs. The institution includes general population housing and a Special Housing Unit.

The official BOP facility page is the primary source for current facility identity, contact information, inmate mail address, and links to federal visiting and communication resources. The BOP page for FCI Waseca ties federal custody records to the correct agency system.

Use that BOP source for current federal notices and facility-specific updates, because county jail pages do not control federal prison visiting, custody records, commissary, or mail processing.

FCI Waseca Capacity and Population

The highest-authority capacity and conditions source in the research is the DOJ OIG 2023 inspection report. It states that FCI Waseca had a rated capacity of 712 and housed 806 female inmates on February 1, 2023. The OIG calculated that as about 13 percent over rated capacity. The report also says the institution had five general population housing units and one Special Housing Unit.

Those federal figures should not be mixed into Waseca County Jail capacity. The county jail had 24 approved secure beds and 19 operational beds in the 2026 Minnesota DOC inspection, while FCI Waseca had hundreds of sentenced federal inmates in the OIG report. A simple "Waseca inmate search" can confuse the two because both facilities sit in the same county, but they answer to different agencies and use different public lookup systems.

How to Look Up an Inmate at FCI Waseca

Use the official Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator for FCI Waseca. The BOP locator covers federal inmates incarcerated from 1982 to the present and can search by number or by name. It is the correct system for sentenced federal inmates at FCI Waseca. Do not use the Waseca County Jail Roster Report for this federal prison, and do not use the Minnesota DOC public viewer unless the person is in state custody rather than BOP custody.

1. Open the BOP inmate locator and choose number search or name search.
2. For number search, use a BOP Register Number, DCDC Number, FBI Number, or INS Number when available.
3. For name search, enter at least the last name and narrow with first name, middle name, race, sex, or age if needed.
4. Read the result fields for name, register number, age, race, sex, release date, and location, then confirm the location lists FCI Waseca.

Federal pretrial custody can involve the U.S. Marshals Service rather than BOP sentenced custody. Waseca County is in the U.S. Marshals District of Minnesota; the research found district office numbers for Minneapolis, Duluth, and St. Paul but no Waseca County-specific USMS jail contract. Immigration detention is another separate channel. If a person is in ICE custody, use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System rather than the county roster or BOP locator.

Federal Correctional Institution Waseca Address and Contact

Contact FCI Waseca for facility-specific federal prison questions such as visiting procedures, mail addressing, and local institutional rules. The BOP page is the official source for current notices. County sheriff staff cannot control federal visiting lists, federal release dates, BOP commissary, TRULINCS messaging, or inmate-location records for people housed at FCI Waseca.

Visiting Someone at FCI Waseca

Visitation at FCI Waseca is governed by BOP facility rules, not Waseca County Jail rules. The FCI Waseca visiting regulations PDF says visitors must be approved and on the inmate's visiting list. The institution limits visits to five people at one time, using any combination of adults and children, unless the inmate's Unit Team approves an exception. Visiting can be limited because of overcrowding or inclement weather.

The visiting rules also include processing cutoffs. Visitors arriving after 7:30 p.m. on Fridays or after 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, or federal holidays may be told the inmate is unavailable. On weekends and federal holidays, visitors are not processed during the 10:00 a.m. count period, with the research noting a count-related processing pause from about 9:15 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. or until count clears. Confirm current visiting days, special notices, and approval status through BOP before traveling.

Mail, Phone, and Money at FCI Waseca

FCI Waseca uses federal prison systems for mail, money, phones, commissary, and electronic messaging. The BOP facility materials list inmate mail at P.O. Box 1731, Waseca, MN 56093. Mail should include the inmate's committed name and register number, and current BOP guidance should be checked before sending packages, books, photographs, legal mail, or anything that could be rejected. Federal mail handling is separate from Waseca County Jail property rules.

Money and communication also follow BOP channels. Federal prison money deposits, commissary purchases, telephone access, and TRULINCS-style email are BOP systems, not Waseca County systems. The research did not locate a county fee or county vendor that applies to FCI Waseca inmates. Before sending money, confirm the inmate is currently listed at FCI Waseca in the BOP locator and follow BOP's current deposit instructions rather than a county jail cash drop-off rule.

Federal Intake and Custody at FCI Waseca

FCI Waseca should be described as a sentenced federal prison, not a street-arrest booking jail. A person usually reaches BOP custody after federal prosecution, sentencing, designation, and transfer. The BOP locator may then show the person's register number, location, and release date. Federal court case information and U.S. Marshals custody questions are separate from BOP facility housing and are not answered by the Waseca County Jail roster.

The OIG report gives useful institutional context. FCI Waseca was originally built as a university campus, purchased by BOP in 1993, opened as a male institution in 1995, and converted to a female institution between 2008 and 2009. Its low-security designation, care levels, housing units, and population figures are federal oversight facts. They do not make the facility a county jail, and they do not make its inmates part of Minnesota DOC custody.

About Federal Correctional Institution Waseca

The DOJ OIG inspection found FCI Waseca generally well run, and many staff and inmates reported feeling safe. The same report identified significant issues that matter for families and researchers trying to understand conditions. Those issues included overcapacity, staffing vacancies, roof and water damage, blind spots and camera concerns, medical appointment delays, and limits tied to psychology and substance-use program staffing.

FCI Waseca's local presence can distort Waseca County correctional descriptions because it is much larger than the county jail and houses a different population. The county jail is a sheriff-run local detention facility with a public PDF roster. FCI Waseca is a BOP prison for sentenced female federal inmates searched through the BOP locator. Minnesota DOC state prisoners are searched through the Minnesota DOC public viewer and may be housed in state facilities outside Waseca County. Keeping those systems separate prevents the most common lookup error.