When James Giannetta first called his brother Russ to tell him that the coronavirus had begun to spread in his Texas federal prison, Russ could hear the fear in his voice. “This place is exploding,” James warned.
Russ soon received another call: James, a 65-year-old resident with diabetes and HIV, had positive tests for the virus itself. Within days, he was taken to a hospital because his oxygen level dropped. A few weeks later, after his condition deteriorated and he was placed on a ventilator, he died.
Because coronavirus has spread rapidly through prisons and jails across the country in recent months, the Texas lockup where Giannetta spent his last days has emerged as the hardest-hit federal prison in the United States.
More than 1,300 of the roughly 1,750 inmates at the FCI Seagoville prison and camp have tested positive for the virus, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons – a whopping three out of every four inmates.
So far, three inmates in the prison, including Giannetta, have died from Covid-19.
Five Seagoville residents told CNN in behind-the-scenes phone interviews that they feared for their lives as the virus swept through the Dallas area prison, and that the plight of circumstances made it all but impossible for them to remain social.
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