Convicted National Security Agency leaker Reality Winner is one of hundreds of women to have contracted the coronavirus while in federal lockup in Texas.
Winner’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, revealed to CNN this week that her 28-year-old daughter was among more than 500 inmates and staff at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, to contract the respiratory illness. Winner was arrested in 2017 after leaking a classified intelligence report on Russian election interference.
Winner-Davis said that her daughter has remained asymptomatic but expressed concerns about her safety in the virus-plagued facility which has reported nearly 40% of its inmates are infected.
“This could happen to any one of us. Just because someone is an inmate in a prison doesn’t mean that they are less than human. They are still loved,” said Winner-Davis. “Reality, like many other nonviolent first offenders, doesn’t deserve this. This is torture. This could possibly even be a death sentence.”
In April, Winner asked a federal judge to let her serve the remainder of her five-year prison sentence from home confinement, but the request was denied. She told the judge that she suffers from bulimia and a respiratory illness that could make the coronavirus more dangerous for her. Her attorneys have appealed the decision.
The United States is quickly approaching 4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has tallied some 142,000 deaths since the pandemic began in central China late last year.
