Federal Medical Center, Carswell

Federal Medical Center, Carswell
Map
LocationFort Worth, Texas
Coordinates32°47′06″N 97°25′03″W / 32.78500°N 97.41750°W / 32.78500; -97.41750
StatusOperational
Security classAll security levels (with minimum-security prison camp)
Population1,206 [928 at the USP, 278 in prison camp] (April 2022)
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
WardenMichael Smith

The Federal Medical Center, Carswell (FMC Carswell) is a United States federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for female inmates of all security levels, primarily with special medical and mental health needs. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has a prison camp for minimum-security female inmates.

As of April 2020, 1,625 women were confined at FMC Carswell.[1] The facility is located in the northeast corner of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly known as Carswell Air Force Base.[2][3] It lies in the northwest part of the city of Fort Worth, near the southeast corner of Lake Worth.

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]

  1. ^ Shepherd, Katie (April 29, 2020). "Coronavirus kills its first female federal inmate weeks after she had an emergency C-section". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  2. ^ "FMC Carswell". Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  3. ^ "BOP: Statistics". Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  4. ^ Fornaci, Philip (Director of the DC Prisoners' Project). "Federal Bureau of Prisons Oversight Hearing" (Archive). Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. July 21, 2009. Retrieved on February 5, 2016.
  5. ^ Johnson, Kaley; Dent, Mark (3 September 2020). "Women fight for release from Fort Worth prison. Some with COVID-19 died while waiting". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  6. ^ Johnson, Kaley (6 August 2020). "44-year-old woman dies from coronavirus at women's medical prison in Fort Worth". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved 5 October 2020.