The director of the DC Prisoners' Project stated in 2009 that Carswell, along with FMC Butner and FMC Rochester, "are clearly the "gold standard" in terms of what BOP facilities can achieve in providing medical care," and that they had provided "excellent medical care, sometimes for extremely complex medical needs."[4] The prison has seen media coverage due to incidents of abuses of inmates by prison staff, as well as the presence of several high-profile prisoners. Significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Carswell has had one of the highest rates of infection among all federal prisons in the United States, with hundreds of prisoners contracting the virus[5] and at least four dying.[6]
History
Prior to the facility's opening, women went to a federal prison hospital in Kentucky that also served male prisoners. FMC Carswell opened in 1994. The facility previously served as the medical center for Carswell Air Force Base.[7]
Although most inmates at this facility have some form of medical condition requiring treatment, there is also a general population of inmates at FMC Carswell who do not. Carswell housed the last woman who was under a federal death sentence, Lisa Marie Montgomery, who had murdered a young pregnant woman and then cut the woman's unborn fetus from her womb.[9][10] Montgomery was scheduled to be executed via lethal injection on December 8, 2020;[11] however, this was rescheduled for January 12, 2021, as her attorneys contracted COVID-19. She was executed on January 13, 2021.[10]
FMC Carswell has an administrative high security unit,[12] which houses women in the BOP system who are classified as "special management concerns" due to violence and/or escape attempts.[13] The unit has a capacity of 20 women;[14] according to a report published on July 6, 2018, there were 10 women confined in the unit.[15]
Notable incidents
Articles criticizing FMC Carswell have appeared in various media outlets relating to various forms of prisoner abuse. These articles focus on allegations of medical malpractice, neglect, and sexual abuse of inmates by staff.[16] Over a seven-year period, seven FMC Carswell staff members were convicted of sexual abuse of a prisoner.[17][18] In March 2000, a correction officer at FMC Carswell, Michael Lawrence Miller, raped a prisoner. The prisoner did not report the incident after it occurred, but kept a pair of sweatpants she wore during the incident as proof. As she was being released in September 2000, she gave the sweatpants to a prison administrator.[19] Implicated by this evidence, Miller was convicted, and in 2004 he was sentenced[20] to 150 months (12 years and 6 months) imprisonment.[21] He served out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Sandstone, and was released on March 19, 2015.[22]
In May 2008, Vincent Inametti, a Roman Catholic priest who worked as a chaplain at FMC Carswell, was sentenced to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine after pleading guilty in November 2007 to two counts of sexual abuse of two inmates.[23][24] Inametti, Register # 36889-177, was imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution, Butner Low in North Carolina and released in October 2011.[25]
Coronavirus pandemic
In April 2020, the BOP announced the first death of an inmate at FMC Carswell due to COVID-19. On April 1, doctors had performed an emergency Caesarean section to deliver the premature daughter of the inmate, who three days later tested positive, making her the only inmate to contract coronavirus at FMC Carswell. The 30-year-old Native American Andrea Circle Bear (BOP# 18015-273), who was serving a two-year sentence on a drug-related charge, died on April 28.[1]
In July 2020, it was reported that 28-year-old inmate Reality Winner had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the prison's total of confirmed cases to more than 500. According to The Guardian, "Despite weeks of pleas for cleaning supplies and commissary privileges, attorneys, health providers and even the guard's union are all denouncing the rudimentary protocols inside FMC Carswell." In an email to her sister, Winner said guards were mocking infected prisoners.[26]
Serving a life sentence. (Originally sentenced to death on December 19, 2005 but commuted in December 2014)
Convicted in 2005 for her role in aiding her then-boyfriend, Dustin Honken, commit four drug-related homicides. Honken was also sentenced to death,[27][28] and was executed on July 17, 2020.[29]
Executed on January 13, 2021 in USP Terre Haute. (Sentenced to death on April 4, 2008)
Convicted in 2007 of murdering Bobbie Jo Stinnett, aged 23 and kidnapping her unborn baby from her womb in 2004.[30] Montgomery was transferred to USP Terre Haute and was scheduled to be executed via lethal injection on December 8, 2020.[11] On January 12, 2021[10] she was granted a stay in execution due to her execution being a possible violation of the Eighth Amendment[31] and was executed at 1:31 AM CST on January 13, 2021.[32]
Disbarred civil rights attorney; convicted in 2005 of providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy for assisting her incarcerated client, Omar Abdel Rahman, to communicate with his followers in violation of Special Administrative Measures prohibiting it.[35]
Served a 15-year sentence; released in April 2018.
Pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in connection with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart; Barzee's then-husband, Bryan David Mitchell, was sentenced to life.[36][37]
Transferred as part of plea deal to treat bulimia.[42] Released on June 2, 2021 and again on November 23, 2021.
Sentenced on August 23, 2018, to five years and three months in prison for releasing one Top Secret document exposing Russian attempted interference in the US 2016 Presidential election, thereby violating the Espionage Act.[43]
Released on compassionate release in July 2020 due to several medical issues including multiple strokes and a diagnosis of early Parkinson’s disease.[44]
On April 30, 1997, Gluzman was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted on a federal charge of interstate domestic violence for killing her husband.[45] After her sentencing, Gluzman appealed her sentence, claiming her conviction was unconstitutional. Her appeal was denied.
Serving an 18-year sentence; scheduled for release on November 18, 2028.
Former actress who pleaded guilty to sending letters containing ricin to President of the United StatesBarack Obama and Mayor of New York CityMichael Bloomberg in 2013. As part of her plea deal, she was ultimately convicted of "possessing and producing a biological toxin" and was sentenced to 18 years in prison and a $367,000 fine. Richardson had sent the letters in an attempt to frame her estranged husband. Before her conviction Richardson was a small-part actress who appeared in the television shows The Vampire Diaries and The Walking Dead. She is also a mother of six children.[46][47] On March 16, 2015, the Investigation Discovery channel aired episode 10 of season 6 of the television show Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? which featured Shannon Richardson's case as told by her ex-husband. The episode was titled "Poison Love".[48]
Former nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Massachusetts; convicted of murder in 2001 for deliberately injecting four patients with fatal doses of the heart stimulant epinephrine in 1995 and 1996.[49][50][51]
Marius (Marie) Mason is one of the first transgender individuals to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria and given hormone treatment with testosterone. He was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months. Plans are set to move Mason from the female prison to the men's prison later on throughout his transition.[54][55]
Serving an 86-year sentence; scheduled for release on June 30, 2082.
Pakistani neuroscientist; convicted in 2010 of attempting to murder US soldiers and FBI agents while in custody at a police station in Afghanistan after she was arrested on suspicion of being an Al-Qaeda operative in 2008.[56]
Former leader of the Aryan Republican Army; convicted in 1997 of committing bank robberies using firearms and bombs in order to raise money to finance efforts to overthrow the US government and murder millions of Jewish people across the country.[58][59]
^Schuppe, Jon. "Tsarnaev Joins A Death Row With Many Members, And Few Executions." NBC News. June 25, 2015. Retrieved on February 15, 2016. "the one woman on death row, Lisa Montgomery, who killed a pregnant woman and cut her unborn baby out of her womb, is serving her remaining days in the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas."
This list template only include facilities for post-trial long-term confinement of adult females and juvenile females sentenced as adults, of one or two years or more (referred to as "prisons" in the United States, while the word "jail" normally refers to short-term confinement facilities)
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