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Federal Medical Center, Carswell

Coordinates: 32°47′02.88″N 97°25′09.03″W / 32.7841333°N 97.4191750°W / 32.7841333; -97.4191750
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Federal Medical Center, Carswell
Map
LocationFort Worth, Texas
StatusOperational
Security classAll security levels (with minimum-security prison camp)
Population1,380 (280 in prison camp)
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
WardenJody R. Upton

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

FMC Carswell is located in the northeast corner of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly known as Carswell Air Force Base.[1][2] It lies in the northwest part of the city of Fort Worth, near the southeast corner of Lake Worth.

As of 2015 the sole woman with a federal death sentence is incarcerated at FMC Carswell.[3]

History

Prior to the facility's opening, women went to a federal prison hospital in Kentucky that also served male prisoners. The Kentucky facility closed and FMC Carswell opened in 1994. The facility previously served as the medical center for Carswell Air Force Base.[4]

Facility and programs

FMC Carswell is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the American Correctional Association.[citation needed] It is the only medical facility for women in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[5]

The main five story building has a capacity of 600 prisoners. The minimum security prisoners live in barracks outside of the main compound.[4]

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 houses the single woman who is currently under federal death sentences. FMC Carswell has an administrative high security unit,[6] which houses women in the BOP system who are classified as "special management concerns" due to violence and/or escape attempts.[7] The unit has a capacity of 20 women.[8]

There is a Federal Prison Industries UNICOR program at Carswell i.e. a Call Center, which employs inmates on 411-type directory assistance inquiries. The prison has undergone various changes since 1995: the parking lot formerly situated at the south end has been moved to the northwest end, which is overlooked by a large water-tower standing just outside the razor wire perimeter. A running track and a baseball field surrounded by trees have been constructed at the southwest corner. The main facility itself is a large structure of interconnecting buildings, typical of a hospital complex.

The prison is surrounded by two separate fences with a gap of approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) between them. Measuring approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) high, each chain-link fence is reinforced with multiple coils of long-barb razor wire fixed at the top and bottom.

The prison's main entrance is on the northwest end, and there is a second entrance on the south end, which contains a guard post and two gates. Finally, there is a third entrance in the north which contains two gates. Outside the razor-wire perimeter in the south are two large buildings which are either warehouses or vehicle storage areas.

Security systems include door control, telephone, LAN radio, intercom/paging, video surveillance, nurse call, intrusion detection, perimeter security and master-antenna-television.

In 2009 Philip Fornaci, the director of the DC Prisoners' Project, stated 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."[9]

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.[10] Over a seven-year period, seven FMC Carswell staff members were convicted of sexual abuse of a prisoner.[11][12] 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.[13] Implicated by this evidence, Miller was convicted, and in 2004 he was sentenced[14] to 150 months (12 years and 6 months) imprisonment.[15] He served out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Sandstone, and was released on March 19, 2015.[16]

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.[17][18] Inametti, Register # 36889-177, was imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution, Butner Low in North Carolina and released in October 2011.[19]

Notable inmates (current and former)

Death row

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Lisa M. Montgomery 11072-031 Sentenced to death in 2008. Convicted in 2007 of murdering Bobbie Jo Stinnett and kidnapping her unborn baby from her womb in 2004.[20]

Former death row

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Angela Johnson 08337-029 Department of Justice announced that it would seek the death penalty again, but she was resentenced to life in prison. Montgomery is currently being held at Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca. Convicted in 2005 for her role in aiding her then-boyfriend, Dustin Honken, commit four drug-related homicides. Honken was also sentenced to death.[21][22]

Non-death row

High-profile inmates

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Lynne Stewart 53504-054 Released on compassionate grounds in December 2013 due to terminal cancer.[23] 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.[24]
Wanda Barzee 16650-081 Serving a 15-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2016. 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.[25][26]
Lynette Fromme 06075-180 Released from custody in 2009 after serving 34 years. Follower of incarcerated cult leader and serial killer Charles Manson; convicted in 1975 of attempting to assassinate US President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975.[27][28]
Marion Jones 84868-054 Released from custody in 2008 after serving 5 months. Member of the US Olympic Track and Field Team during the 2000 Summer Olympics; pleaded guilty in 2007 to lying to federal investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs during athletic events.[29][30]

Other notable inmates

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Kristen Gilbert 90371-038 Serving a life sentence. 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.[31][32][33]
Ana Montes 25037-016 Serving a 25-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2023. Former senior analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency; pleaded guilty to espionage in 2002 for passing classified information to Cuban intelligence over a 16-year period, including the identities of four US spies.[34][35]
Marie Mason 04672-061 Serving a 22-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2027. Member of the radical, clandestine environmentalist group Earth Liberation Front; pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy and arson for committing a 1999 arson attack at Michigan State University’s Agriculture Hall that caused $1 million in damage.[36][37]
Aafia Siddiqui 90279-054 Serving an 86-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2083. 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.[38]
Bernetta Willis 11880-002 Serving a 43-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2043. Convicted in 2007 of masterminding a large-scale conspiracy involving the filing of false claims and theft of federal funds intended for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief; received the longest sentence ever for Hurricane Katrina fraud.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/crw/index.jsp
  2. ^ http://www.bop.gov/locations/weekly_report.jsp
  3. ^ 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. "
  4. ^ a b Brink, Betty. "Death by Indifference." Fort Worth Weekly. April 18, 2012. Retrieved on January 29, 2016.
  5. ^ Brink, Betty. "Carswell Loses in Court." Fort Worth Weekly. Wednesday June 23, 2010. Retrieved on October 14, 2010.
  6. ^ Bosworth, Mary. The U.S. Federal Prison System. SAGE, 2002. 105-106. Retrieved from Google Books on October 14, 2010. ISBN 0-7619-2304-7, ISBN 978-0-7619-2304-6.
  7. ^ Bosworth, Mary. The U.S. Federal Prison System. SAGE, 2002. 108. Retrieved from Google Books on October 14, 2010. ISBN 0-7619-2304-7, ISBN 978-0-7619-2304-6.
  8. ^ Popkin, Jim. "A most dangerous spy." The Japan Times. May 1, 2013. Retrieved on January 28, 2014.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "A Crack in the Carswell Wall", January 31, 2007, Fort Worth Weekly
  11. ^ The Federal Bureau of Prisons Semiannual Report to Congress, October 1, 2003–March 31, 2004
  12. ^ "Another Carswell Conviction", February 18, 2004, Betty Brink, Fort Worth Weekly
  13. ^ Hess, Amanda. "We Know the Way to End Prison Rape. Is It Too Expensive?" Washington City Paper. April 27, 2010. Retrieved on July 5, 2010.
  14. ^ "Ex-correction officer is sentenced for rape." Fort Worth Star-Telegram. July 3, 2004. 1B Metro. Retrieved on July 5, 2010.
  15. ^ "No. 07-501." (http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2007/0responses/2007-0501.resp.pdf PDF]) United States Department of Justice. Retrieved on July 5, 2010.
  16. ^ "Michael Lawrence Miller." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on July 5, 2010.
  17. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/PressRel07/inametti_ple_pr.html
  18. ^ http://cbs11tv.com/local/vincent.inametti.sex.2.716410.html
  19. ^ "Find an inmate." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on February 27, 2014.
  20. ^ "Woman gets death sentence in fetus-snatching murder". CNN. April 4, 2008.
  21. ^ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/judge_removes_1_of_2_women_from_federal_death_row/
  22. ^ http://globegazette.com/news/local/judge-vacates-iowa-angela-johnson-s-death-sentence/article_34777a36-7505-11e1-be5a-0019bb2963f4.html
  23. ^ Lorenzo Ferrigno; Ray Sanchez (January 1, 2014). "Dying defense lawyer Lynne Stewart released from jail". CNN. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  24. ^ http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/July10/stewartlynneresentencingpr.pdf
  25. ^ "Wanda Barzee, Elizabeth Smart Kidnapper, To Be Sentenced". Huffington Post. May 21, 2010.
  26. ^ http://www.fbi.gov/saltlakecity/press-releases/2009/slc111709a.htm
  27. ^ http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/squeaky-fromme-sentenced-to-life
  28. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/MansonMurders/story?id=8327414&page=1#.UDveDlLAHyI
  29. ^ "Track star Marion Jones sentenced to 6 months". CNN. January 11, 2008.
  30. ^ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/12116-marion-jones-reports-to-federal-medical-prison-four-days-early
  31. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93840&page=1
  32. ^ CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-281605.html. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93723&page=1
  34. ^ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/montes-guilty.htm
  35. ^ http://www.dhra.mil/perserec/osg/spystory/montes.htm
  36. ^ White, Ed (September 11, 2008). "Woman pleads guilty in 1999 Michigan State arson". USA Today.
  37. ^ Ensha, Azadeh (February 6, 2009). "Eco-Arsonist Sentenced to Nearly 22 Years". The New York Times.
  38. ^ Schmitt, Eric. The New York Times http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/aafia_siddiqui/index.html. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  39. ^ "HURRICANE KATRINA FRAUDSTER TO BE SENTENCED TO 43 YEARS IN A FEDERAL PRISON" (PDF). US Department of Justice.
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