SHOCKER: 65% of all federal prison Covid cases are in Texarkana

A major outbreak of Covid-19 at a federal prison in Texarkana, Texas, is causing concern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons as one local institution accounts for almost two-thirds of all cases of covid in US federal prisons.

Around 12.4% of inmates at FCI Texarkana have tested positive for Covid-19. The minimum security prison and camp on Leopard Drive houses approximately 1098 inmates.

That number of infected, 136 as of July 22, 2021, is the largest in the nation by a wide margin. The next most infected institution is FDC Houston with 15. In all federal prison facilities in the USA, 208 people are infected.

FCI Texarkana also has the highest number of infected staff members of all federal prisons in the United States - with 7 employees testing positive. The next highest is MDC Brooklyn in New York.

Prison numbers are not counted in the Covid-19 numbers released by the Joint Operations Center of the Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas metro area.

On July 21, 2021, FCI Texarkana had 134 cases of Covid-19, with a total of 200 prisoners testing positive nationwide. That means Texarkana had more than 2/3 of all federal Covid-19 infections (67%) on Wednesday, July 21.  Two more cases were reported at 2 pm (CST) on Thursday, July 22, 2021. 

An FCI Texarkana insider said the situation was "not good" in what might be the understatement of the year. 

FCI Texarkana is a low-security prison with 922 inmates that also houses an adjacent minimum security camp with 176 inmates.

The news that Texarkana has the dubious distinction of being the Covid-19 capital for the nation's prison system has not been widely publicized. 

However, Covid-19 cases have increasingly risen in the Texarkana metro area, and local hospitals have, in many cases, reached capacity.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson visited Texarkana last week to urge people to be vaccinated.

Stay tuned to TexarkanaNews.com for updated coverage of the Covid-19 crisis at FCI Texarkana.