USP Florence ADMAX

The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) is an American federal prison that uniquely provides a higher level of custody than a maximum security prison. It is classed as a Supermax, or ‘control unit prison’, where the safety of inmates and staff is paramount. Located in Fremont County, CO, and opened in 1994, it is known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons had declared a need for a unit designed specifically for the secure housing of those prisoners most liable to murder staff or other inmates. Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in single, soundproof cells with facilities made of poured concrete to deter self-harm, and 24-hour supervision carried out intensively with high staff-inmate ratios. Phones are generally banned and only limited broadcast entertainment permitted. After a 3-year sentence, prisoners may be transferred to a less restrictive prison. The aim is to encourage “reasonably peaceful behavior” from the most violent career prisoners.

It houses the male inmates in the federal prison system who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control, including prisoners whose escape would pose a serious threat to national security. ADX also includes an adjacent minimum-security camp that, as of March 2014, houses more prisoners than the supermax unit.

The BOP does not have a designated "supermax" facility for women. Women in the BOP system who are classified as "special management concerns" due to violence or escape attempts are confined in the administrative unit of Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

The supermax unit at ADX Florence houses about 410 male inmates, each assigned to one of six security levels.

The facility is best known for housing inmates who have been deemed too dangerous, too high-profile, or too great a national security risk for even a maximum-security prison. These include the leaders of violent gangs who had continued to issue orders to their members from lower-security facilities: Naser Jason Abdo, the former U.S. Army private who refused to deploy to Afghanistan and went AWOL; convicted in 2012 of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction for plotting to detonate a bomb at a restaurant near Fort Hood in Killeen, TX, when it was filled with soldiers in 2011 Jose Padilla, serving 21 year sentence for being an Al-Qaeda operative and one of the first U.S. citizens to be designated as an enemy combatant after the September 11th attacks; convicted in 2007 of terrorism conspiracy for traveling overseas to attend an Al-Qaeda training camp in order to murder citizens of a foreign country.. Larry Hoover of the Gangster Disciples (serving 6 life sentences), and Tyler Bingham of the Aryan Brotherhood. ADX also houses foreign terrorists, including Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in civilian court of the September 11 attacks; Faisal Shahzad, the perpetrator of the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt; and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; as well as domestic terrorists, such as Ted Kaczynski (who died at FMC Butner on June 10, 2023) and Eric Rudolph. Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was housed at ADX before he was sentenced to death in 1997 and transferred to the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, which houses most federal death row inmates and is where Federal death sentences are carried out. McVeigh's co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, is serving 161 life sentences at ADX. Robert Hanssen, the former FBI agent who betrayed several spies to the Soviet Union and Russia, is serving 15 life sentences at ADX for his crimes. Richard Reid, a British national who became an Al-Qaeda operative; pleaded guilty in 2002 to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with his 2001 attempt to detonate explosive devices hidden in his shoes on a plane traveling from Paris to Miami - known as the "Shoe Bomber" is in ADMAX serving 3 life sentences. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombings, was transferred here from another prison in the Florence complex on July 17, 2015. The prison also houses inmates who are a high escape risk, including Richard McNair, who escaped from a county jail and two other prisons before being sent to ADX.

However, the majority of inmates have been sent there because they have an extensive history of committing violent crimes against corrections officers and fellow inmates in other prisons, up to and including murder. These inmates are kept in administrative segregation. They are confined in a specifically designed single-person cell for 23 hours a day. They are removed under restraint (handcuffed, shackled or both), on a 24-hour clock (i.e., their one-hour time out of their cell may occur at any time of the day or night). The hour outside of the cell is for showering, exercise, and with privileges, a phone call. Their diet is restricted to ensure that the foods they are served (in their cell) can't be used to harm themselves or to create unhygienic conditions in their cell.

ADX Florence is a 37-acre, 490-bed complex at 5880 Highway 67, Florence, Colorado, about 100 miles south of Denver and 40 miles south of Colorado Springs. It is one part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex (FFCC) which comprises three correctional facilities, each with a different security rating.

The majority of the facility is above ground. The only part that is underground is a subterranean corridor that links cellblocks to the lobby. Inmates spend 23 hours a day locked in their cells and are escorted by a minimum of three officers for their five hours of private recreation per week. Each cell has a desk, a stool, and a bed, which are almost entirely made out of poured concrete, as well as a toilet that shuts off if blocked, a shower that runs on a timer to prevent flooding, and a sink lacking a potentially dangerous tap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light that can be shut off only remotely, a radio, and on rare occasions, a black-and-white television that shows recreational, educational, and religious programming. In addition, all cells are soundproofed to prevent prisoners from communicating with each other via Morse code.

The ¹⁄₃-by-4-foot windows are designed to prevent inmates from knowing their specific location within the complex because they can see only the sky and roof through them, making it virtually impossible to plan an escape. Inmates exercise in a concrete pit resembling an empty swimming pool, also designed to prevent them from knowing their location in the facility. The pit is only large enough for a prisoner to walk 10 steps in a straight line, or 31 steps in a circle. Telecommunication with the outside world is forbidden, and the food is hand-delivered by correction officers. However, inmates sent here from other prisons can potentially be allowed to eat in a shared dining room.  The prison as a whole contains a multitude of motion detectors and cameras and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors. Officers in the prison's control center monitor inmates 24 hours a day and can activate a "panic button" that instantly closes every door in the facility should an escape attempt be suspected. Pressure pads and 12-foot-tall razor wire fences surround the perimeter, which is patrolled by heavily armed officers. In the case of inmates who are deemed to be extreme security risks, the center of the prison houses an area known as the "Z-Unit". Each of the three Z-Unit cells is equipped with a full set of body restraints that are built directly into the concrete bed, as is true for every cell in the facility.

Admissions and Orientation (A&O) Handbook - This document provides general information about the institution, special rules, and regulations - USP Florence ADMAX Admissions & Orientation Handbook

Commissary List - prices of items sold at the commissary in USP Florence ADMAX