FMC Carswell (minimum-security camp)

FMC Carswell. Public domain photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.

FMC Carswell is a minimum-security satellite camp for women in Fort Worth, Texas, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It held about 136 people as of November 2025. The institution's main number is 817-782-4000.

FEMALE

Gender

MINIMUM

Security Level

136

Population (Nov. 2025)

RDAP

Location

Physical location: FORT WORTH, TX 76114

Mailing address: NAVAL AIR STATION, FORT WORTH, TX 76114

Visitation

There are many specific rules and procedures to be aware of when you're considering visiting the institution. Read more on our Visitation Guide.

For full, current visiting rules and scheduling, always check the institution's official page on the Bureau of Prisons website: Official BOP Page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does FMC Carswell allow conjugal visits?

No. FMC Carswell does not allow conjugal visits. The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not permit conjugal visits at any facility regardless of security level. This includes all minimum-security federal prison camps, low-security FCIs, medium-security facilities, and high-security USPs. Only four state prison systems (California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington) allow conjugal visits for state prisoners. Federal inmates have no access to conjugal or extended family visits anywhere in the BOP system.

Q: What types of visitation are allowed at FMC Carswell?

FMC Carswell allows contact visits during designated visiting hours, typically on weekends and holidays. Contact visits permit brief embraces at the start and end of visits, but prolonged physical contact is not allowed. All visits occur in supervised visiting rooms. Visitors must be pre-approved through a background check process and must follow dress code requirements. For full details, see the Visiting Policies and Procedures page.

Daily life and programs

Federal Medical Center Carswell sits in the northeast corner of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (the former Carswell Air Force Base). Opened in 1994, it serves as the Bureau of Prisons' only medical and psychiatric referral center for women. The institution features two distinct parts that are easy to conflate. The primary section is an administrative-security main center located within a five-story hospital-style building, housing roughly 600 to 1,000+ women of all security levels who require special medical or mental-health needs. Adjacent to this main center operates a minimum-security Satellite Prison Camp, which is the specific facility described here. The camp population fluctuates; sources put it around 135 women in 2025 but about 278 in April 2022. Furthermore, per BOP and multiple prison-consultant descriptions, 'the minimum security prisoners live in barracks, outside of the main compound.' Housing follows a dormitory-style layout containing two-person bunk beds alongside four- and eight-person cubicles. The facility provides an individual locker per inmate, with locks bought at commissary. Camp women maintain minimum-custody status, an assignment characterized by nonviolent offenses, low points, and often being close to release. Accordingly, camp labor typically runs food service, groundskeeping, orderly and facilities work for the larger institution.

Programs at Carswell feature the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), a voluntary, roughly 9-month and 500-hour treatment track that can yield up to 12 months of sentence reduction along with scheduled halfway house time. Furthermore, the facility provides First Step Act (FSA) earned-time credit eligibility, adult education and GED programs, ACE (inmate-taught) classes, and various vocational offerings. Institutional work pays the standard grade scale of about $0.12 to $0.40 per hour, while the commissary spending cap is approximately $360 per month. Approved communications run through TRULINCS email, monitored phones, and standard mail. The presence of UNICOR, also known as Federal Prison Industries, at Carswell remains uncertain in the public record. Some sources state that the facility lacks a UNICOR factory, whereas others describe a UNICOR call center and directory assistance, or '411', operation that employs inmates; this discrepancy should be confirmed with the BOP before publishing as fact. Finally, Reddit accounts shared by former Carswell women repeatedly observe that contraband cell phones were essentially absent behind the fence, although some report that phones circulate more prominently at BOP camps generally.

When detailing notable inmates, an important distinction must be made: nearly every famous name associated with 'FMC Carswell' was held in the main medical center or the Administrative Unit for disruptive prisoners, not in the minimum-security camp. The roster of individuals who belong to the hospital/administrative side and should never be presented as camp inmates includes Lisa Montgomery (housed on federal death row and executed in 2021), Aafia Siddiqui, Reality Winner, Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, Wanda Barzee, Lynne Stewart, nurse-killer Kristen Gilbert, Cuban-spy Ana Montes, Emma Coronel Aispuro (the wife of 'El Chapo'), Angela Johnson, Shannon Richardson, and Linda Weston. Olympic sprinter Marion Jones served six months at FMC Carswell in 2008 for a nonviolent perjury/check-fraud matter, fitting a profile consistent with minimum custody. A former inmate corroborates on Reddit that she was 'in Carswell FMC with Marion Jones' in 2008; however, whether Jones was specifically in the satellite camp versus the main compound is not independently confirmed. Finally, addressing a separate common assumption to avoid, Jan-6 defendant Jenna Ryan served her 60 days at FPC Bryan, not Carswell.

As an institution, Carswell carries a heavy controversy record that mostly attaches to the medical center rather than the camp, though it remains relevant context. Over a roughly seven-year span, seven staff members were convicted of sexually abusing prisoners. These individuals included correctional officer Michael Lawrence Miller, who was convicted of rape in 2004 and sentenced to 150 months, and Catholic chaplain Vincent Inametti, who was sentenced in 2008 to 48 months for abusing two inmates. The facility has also been the subject of investigative reporting by Just Detention International and others. During COVID-19, Carswell had one of the highest federal infection rates. In April 2020, 30-year-old Andrea Circle Bear died after an emergency C-section, marking the first BOP inmate COVID death, and Reality Winner was among hundreds infected. More recently, the 2023 death of Gwen Rider drew scrutiny; it was reported as a suicide after alleged failures to manage her epilepsy and place her on suicide watch. Furthermore, 2025 litigation over transgender women's placement at Carswell has kept the facility in the news. These incidents center on the medical/administrative population, whereas the camp is comparatively low-profile and lightly documented.

First-hand accounts

First-person accounts and reporting about life at this facility. Experiences are individual and may not reflect current conditions.

• 'Do female prisoners have less access to the ...', first-person: five years at FMC Carswell, notes camp phone access — Reddit. A woman who served about five years at FMC Carswell says she 'didn't see a single phone' behind the fence, and adds that it is 'sometimes different at camps, some of those girls get phones', a direct camp-vs-compound observation from someone who was there.
• 'Women's prison', first-person: released from Carswell last year, offering to answer questions — Reddit. A former Carswell inmate ('I just got out from there last year', 'I was in Carswell Ft. Worth, Tx.') fields questions from a woman about to self-surrender, covering what you can bring in (cross necklace, prescription glasses), FSA eligibility, and reassurance about doing the time.
• 'How are the federal camps and low-security federal ...', first-person camp-level account (FCI Carswell + FPC Bryan) — Reddit. A woman who spent four years across FCI Carswell and FPC Bryan describes camp-level life: 'the folks at the camp level just want to go home,' and says she never witnessed a physical altercation, useful firsthand color on the minimum-security camp environment.
• 'Why would a non-medical prisoner go to a federal ...', first-person on camp-eligibility vs. being placed behind the fence at Carswell — Reddit. A former inmate explains being sent to FCI Carswell 'when I was Camp eligible' and put 'behind the fence' because she'd had same-year state time, a firsthand explanation of how women land at the main compound versus the satellite camp.
• 'Any ex-cons ...', first-person corroboration of Marion Jones at Carswell (2008) — Reddit. A former inmate writes '2008 I was in Carswell FMC with Marion Jones', firsthand corroboration that the Olympic sprinter served at Carswell, though the comment says FMC rather than specifying the camp.
• 'Did anyone give you food/swole/chow etc. when you ...', first-person on arriving at Carswell — Reddit. A 51-year-old former inmate recalls that when she 'first landed in Carswell FCI I was absolutely taken care of,' others covering her needs until her money transferred from the prior facility, firsthand detail on intake culture.

See also

• FMC Carswell: a practical guide for women facing a medical designation (womensfederalprison.com)