Two years into the pandemic, federal prisons — including one in Fort Worth — still do not have COVID-19 under control.

Executive staff at federal prisons are failing to follow the Bureau of Prisons’ COVID-19 response plan, according to a federal report. FMC Carswell, a women’s medical prison in Fort Worth, does not have a facility-specific plan, employee union representatives said.

Women incarcerated at the facility described chaos and confusion throughout January as COVID-19 cases once again ran through the prison walls. As of Sunday, 248 women had confirmed COVID-19 cases and 46 staff members had the virus. Carswell had the third highest COVID-19 numbers of any federal prison facility in the country as of Friday.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, eight women have died from COVID-19 at Carswell.

“It’s been pure chaos,” Holli Wrice, who is incarcerated at the prison, said. “Carswell is still without a plan.”

The BOP developed a detailed, agency-wide pandemic response plan that all facilities are supposed to follow. However, a report from the Government Accountability Office found staff at facilities reported confusion on how to implement the plan’s procedures.

Jennifer Howard, union president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1006 representing more than 400 staff members at FMC Carswell, said executive staff leave union representatives out of the loop on COVID-19 discussions and safety plans.

During the most recent meeting between union...

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