The Free Press, Mankato, MN - Waseca set to welcome infamous inmate

Mon, Nov 23 2009

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Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling is to report Tuesday to the Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca.
/ Associated Press

Mayor Roy Srp said the national buzz about former Enron executive Jeff Skilling serving a 24-year prison term in Waseca is good for the city. The federal correctional institution, which once served as a University of Minnesota campus, is a community asset, he added.
John Cross / The Free Press

Waseca set to welcome infamous inmate

Convicted Enron exec causing buzz in community

By Dan Nienaber
The Free Press

What were dorms are now used for housing inmates, it’s just more crowded than it used to be, Tippy said. Rooms that were once home to two students now hold up to four inmates each. Inmates are also required to work, if able, at a factory inside the facility or by doing various prison support jobs.

Felicia Ponce, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson in Washington D.C., said there are about 1,070 inmates at the Waseca prison. Most of the offenders are there for drug related offenses, she said.

Long before finding out Skilling was going to be assigned to the Waseca prison, Srp was paying attention to the Enron scandal. It’s one of few examples where a high-ranking and extremely wealthy white collar criminal has gotten a sentence he deserved, Srp said.

“I have put myself in the position of what it must be like to be out there free like he was and what he must be thinking now,” he said. “That would make you feel pretty sick, I would bet.”

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