Jonathan Franklin for BuzzFlash: No Compassion for Political Prisoners. Courageous NSA Whistle Blower Reality Winner and Hundreds Infected in Texas Prison With Almost No Treatment

July 27th 2020

Reality Winner (US government)

By Jonathan Franklin

NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner was jailed for leaking documents to the press about Russian 2016 election interference. Now her 5 year sentence looks increasing grim as Winner and an estimated 500 other prisoners at FMC Carswell, the Fort Worth all-women’s prison have become stricken by Covid-19.

Confirmed cases at FMC Carswell have skyrocketed and two prisoners have died including Andrea Circle Bear who was infected while pregnant, had her child by emergency caesarean, then died four weeks after her baby was born.

Winner, who is serving a 63-month sentence, has repeatedly denounced the inadequate cleaning and isolation practices in FMC Carswell, the US Federal government’s only specialized medical prison for female prisoners with underlying health conditions. “They allowed someone positive from our unit to go to a hospital unit where dialysis and chemo patients live, starting the infection spread down there,” Winner wrote to her sister.

Winner has been battling for months for a compassionate release and a chance to serve out her last year of prison at home or with her family, instead she is often sent to solitary. When she tested positive last week, prison guards mocked her. “The officer went out of her way to come to my room and say, ‘I just wanted to congratulate you on your positive results.’ Winner wrote in an email sent last week to her sister Brittany.  

“She has had bronchial problems and some issues with bulimia and we know that she is considered to be medically vulnerable,” said Alison Grinter, a civil rights attorney based in Dallas, Texas working on behalf of Dallas area prisons where Covid is rampant.  

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. Cloth face masks were given to the prisoners weeks ago but crowded four to a cell, the virus spread rapidly through a population of prisoners considered to be high risk with medical conditions including cancer and chronic illnesses including diabetes. Food at the prison has often been reduced to cold sandwiches served in paper bags. Visitation rights have been suspended since March and local reporters note that the computers are so worn that keys are falling off the keyboard.

“They are all sitting together in a concrete room facing the real possibility of dying hundreds of miles away from their family. That is a shared experience that is terrifying,” said Allen, one of the defense lawyers working the case.  

Allen described primitive conditions inside the prison. “They are so dependent on treatment from the prison officials and they can’t take care of each other they can but there is nothing they can do pray and bring wet washcloths.” When asked why prisoners were using wet washcloths, Allen explained “a few months ago they gave each inmate cloth facemasks which they wash in the sink. At this point they are all positive in the unit. The facemasks are just decorative. Sort of a relic from better times.”

In a recent letter from prison Winner promised to keep up her fight “I am fine,” she wrote. “I am a witness to this. I will not stand by complicit in the suffering of others. We will prevail and change this nation for the better after this.”

“Reality is concerned that she is going to die in there. Her concern before was that she would test positive, which she just did and now she is concerned that she is going to get sick and they are not going to be able to do anything to help her,” said her sister Brittany Winter in an interview from Virginia. “She qualifies for compassionate release.  We applied. She is appealing. It’s like a race against time to get her out of there before she gets sick. And before it is too late.”

“Reality wants the world to know she won’t be silenced and no matter what they do to her,” said her sister Brittany. “She has seen lots of injustice happen in real time. The completely disenfranchised, disempowered people at FMC Carswell are being treated like dirt and she wants to make sure that the world is watching and that FMC Carswell knows the world is watching. And that we won’t let this happen in silence or in the dark.”