THE DRUG LORD KNOWN AS EL CHAPO, WHO HAS AN PARALLELED RECORD OF JAIL BREAKS, IS LIKELY HEADED TO THE ‘ALCATRAZ OF THE ROCKIES.’ THE SUPERMAX PRISON IN COLORADO HOLDS AMERICA’S MOST VIOLENT OFFENDERS.
‘High-tech version of hell,’ ex-inmate says
NEW YORK • His tunnelling out of prison cells and safe-houses has earned him almost mythical status. So there is little doubt that when Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” is sentenced in June he will be sent to the most secure jail in the United States.
Guzman, the 61-year-old crime kingpin convicted in a U.S. federal court of drug-trafficking, is almost certain to be sent to the Colorado “Supermax” prison, in the desert outside Florence, two hours from Denver. It is a facility so secure it is known as “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
The complex is guarded by gun towers, armed patrols, razor-wire fences and attack dogs.
The 400 inmates — who are kept in concrete cells for 23 hours a day — include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring to kill U.S. citizens in the 9/11 attacks. Abu Hamza, the British hate preacher who has been held there since 2015, took legal action in an attempt to be returned to Britain after claiming conditions in the prison were too harsh.
The typical cell is a concrete box measuring 2.1-by3.7 metres with fixed furnishings made of reinforced concrete. Prisoners are allowed newspapers, but Guzman may be restricted to old issues. Inmates usually have an hour of each day together in a small caged-in yard, but Bob Hood, a former warden, said Guzman may be denied even that.
“He’s such a high-profile person that, in my opinion, he’ll never be allowed on the yard with other prisoners,” he said.
Most inmates are given a television, but their only actual view of the outside world is a four-inch window. The window’s design prevents them from even determining where they are housed in the facility. Human interaction is minimal. Prisoners eat all meals in the solitude of their own cells, within feet of their toilets.
Inmates are separated from visitors by a wall of thick Perspex, and often go days “with only a few words spoken to them,” Amnesty International found.
One former prisoner described it as a “high-tech version of hell, designed to shut down all sensory perception.”
The U.S. authorities are less concerned about Guzman tunnelling out — believed to be impossible — or bribing guards, than they are about him winning over fellow inmates or ordering hits on witnesses who testified against him.
For that reason, he may be placed in the most isolated area, Range 13.
“If ever there were an escape-proof prison, it’s the facility at Florence,” said Burl Cain, a former prison warden. “It’s the prison of all prisons.”