As a winter storm wreaked havoc on Texas, about 1,000 women at the federal medical prison in Fort Worth were left without heat in freezing temperatures, according to women in the prison and family members of women incarcerated there.
Winter storm Uri left hundreds of thousands without power in Dallas-Fort Worth and damaged electric lines across the state. While FMC Carswell retained electricity, the heat never kicked on and only cold water was available from Sunday to Monday evening, women at the prison said. The prison is the only federal medical facility for women in the country, and most people incarcerated there have medical problems. As of Tuesday, 31 women officially still had COVID-19, according to BOP data, although many more were still sick from the virus, family members and women at the prison said.
Three family members of those inside Carswell emailed the Star-Telegram to say they were concerned about the conditions at the prison. Those people did not want to speak on the record out of fear of retaliation for their loved ones. Four women in the prison described conditions to the Star-Telegram over email or over the phone.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Bureau of Prisons had not responded to an email regarding the conditions at Carswell.
On Tuesday, a temperature gauge inside Unit 2 South read 51 degrees, Faith Blake told the Star-Telegram over the phone. As she spoke, she said her hands were shaking and her fingers were blue from the cold despite the hot water bottle she hugged to her chest.
“We’re in a cinder block building with no insulation,” she said. “We have to go outside to get our meals, and it’s snow and icy everywhere and we’re freezing.”
Blake, who is the primary plaintiff on a lawsuit filed against FMC Carswell in July over the prison’s response to COVID-19, said each woman is issued a blanket and two sheets. To keep warm, women in the main building of the prison wore coats and covered their hands with socks. She and many other women are anemic, making them more susceptible to the cold. Correctional officers faced the cold as well, donning winter coats and hats as they worked inside the prison.
“They knew the storm was coming,” she said. “And they didn’t think that fixing the heater would be a good idea? Or making sure water pipes would be secured? Or at least a back-up generator.”
The medical portion of the prison appeared to have heat, Blake said. According to the BOP, 1,288 women are incarcerated at the prison. About 1,000 of those live in units at the main section of the facility, while 216 live in a satellite camp.
The cold weather caused pipes to freeze across the state. At Carswell, the hot water went out on Saturday night and women had to take cold showers. Shelly Mixon, another woman incarcerated in unit 2 South, said women’s skin hurt for hours after showering because of the frigid water.
A pipe burst in one of the units, 2 North, and filled a bathroom and some rooms with sewage water, two women incarcerated at the prison said via email.
“If they can’t house us properly then they should release us,” Holli Wrice, who lives in unit 2 North, said wrote in an email. “The way this unit is now it should be compassionate release for everyone. We are subjected to feces, cross contamination, poor living conditions, still inmates sick with covid, (but they been told they are recovered), no heat. It’s awful.”
By Monday night, the prison was able to get the hot water working again.
However, the facility was still without heat as of Tuesday afternoon, the women said.
At the men’s federal prison in Fort Worth, the electricity went out Monday night and some of the generators did not kick in, said Gregory Watts, a correctional officer and union president at the prison. The water and some electricity was still working.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 2:51 PM.
