Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
July 17th, 2019, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to “life in prison plus thirty years” to be served at the most brutal prison in America–The ADX Florence. This supermax prison houses some of the most ruthless criminals on planet Earth. And now, it’s El Chapo’s new home. But how horrible is the ADX Florence? This is a full documentary on why The ADX Florence is called “A cleaner version of hell.”
This story does not glorify violence.
how difficult would it be for him to even try to escape? well no one has so far since 1994 when they opened ,but an El chapo type of consignement at the supermax, he will be in a cell about 23 hours a day.
july 17,th , 2019
joaquin El chapo Guzman was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years
to be served at the most brutal prison in america.
the ADX florence, the supermax prison houses some of the most ruthless criminals on the planet and now it’s El chapo’s new home.
but how horrible is the ADX florence?this is a full documentary on why
the ADX florence is called a ” cleaner version of hell”. the supermax is life after death , it edge punishment to the crime.
july 20th, 2019
El chapo was officially locked up at the ADX florence in the united states.
however , 6,756 days before this . he did something that made him a wanted man in almost every country.
escape means ocercoming layer after layer of impernetrable walls and an army of guards that outnumber the inmates almost two to one.
his first prison escape sounds like a scene from a fictional movie.when it comes to El chapo , anything is possible.
january 19th,2001
El chapo escaped one of the moste secure prisons in mexico, the crazy part is , he did it with the help of prison guards and workers.
one of them was a guy named fransisco ” el chito” camberos rivera.
el chapo had his prison escape all planned out .he greased a lot of palms to get everything arranged and when the hour caem for him to leave the prison . El chito electronically opened his cell door ,concelead him inside a laundry cart filled with dirty clothes and began wheeling El hbapo through the different doors and out of the cell.
and remember this was a maximum security prison and not a 100 -,meter corridor.wheeling el chapo through the many security checkpoints was obviously scary. even for a man like el chapo.
and to put into context how scary things got at one point, el chito was trying to convince a security guard to allow him through the gate, but in the process ,the laundry cart started rolling back. el chapo got terrified that the cart would spill over and he´d be sent right back to prison.
but the mother nature was on his side that day ,’cause the cart stopped and el chito was able to wheel him all the way out into the parking lot .
where he was transported into another car and out of the area.
El chapo’s first prison escape solidified him as one of the most dangerous men in the world.
it was at this point that the united states wanted him extradited
but El chapo knew that if he was extradited to the U.S there was no way he was ever making it out it would be goodbye to his cartel,hisnarcotics organization,and even his family.he obviously didn’t want any of these so he went into hiding.
however , once again, he made history in one of the most spectacular ways possible.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
This is the moment joaquin ” el chapo” Guzman make the mexican government look ridiculous, yes, that’s right.El chapo made the mexican government look stupid with his ridiculously amazing prison escape back in 2015.
like if El chapo’s life was a movie.it would definitely win an oscar!
from 2014, when the mexican government stormed his home and
arrested him.
to 2015 when he escaped prison for the second time through a tunnel dug beneath his prison cell. El chapo once again outsmarted everyone
and proved that hhere are only a few things money can’t buy.and as of now , one of those few things is freedom out of the toughest american prison the ADX florence.
just like i said at the beginning,El chapo is serving a life sentence but the questionthat’s on everyone’s mind is …
can El chapo escape fro mthis prison?! well, as much as there’s still a possibility for that let us tell you why i and so many other federal agents believe that’s impossible for him to do so.
October 22nd, 1983.
thomas silverstein and clayton fountain.
members of the Aryan Brotherhood, fatally stabbed correctional officers
merle clutts and robert hoffman
at the united states penitentiary i marion , in the first case, the inmate was walking down the hall with his hands cuffed in front of him
then in what seemed like a scene out of a matrix movie.he was able to suddenly turn and shove his cuffed hands into the cell of a friend who quickly unlocked the cuffs with a stolen key handed his friend a knife and the inmate turned around and killed a guard.
a few hours later something similar happened with another inmate, using the same tactic.
the united states penitentiary in marion used to be the go-to center for the worst criminals in the U.S. but , when this incident happened, it became clear that even among the most dangerous criminals, a few were worse than the rest and these guys needed a more secure prison facility.
just like that , the idea for ADX florence was proposed, the sole idea behind
creating the ADX florence was to build a prison facility for prisoners with no regard for human life. then ,the U.S government splashed a whooping 60 million dollar if not more ,to get all the high-tech facilities in place.
janury 10th , 1995
ADX florence opened its doors for the first rime. now , let’s narrow the story down to how bad living conditions at the ADX florence really are.
and how criminals lile El chapo are actually suffering.
HELL
this isn’t a prison that the inmates run ,the ADX run this prison.
the ADX florence is a a 37 -acre complex in florence ,Colorado, USA.
its part of the federal correction complex.florence also known as the FCC florence . which has three correctional facilities.Each eith a different security rating.
Now the majority of the facility is above ground.and the facility is designed to house a maximum of 460 inmates.
but for som reason it has never reached its full capacity …ever!
as of january 2023
the supermax prison houses 326 inmates , in six different units. every inmates in the ADX has been sent there for demonstrating signs of being too dangerous in normal prison.
El chapo for instance ,who has previously escape two maximum security prisons in mexico can’t be sent to any other normal prison.
it ‘ ll be silly to do so , and just like El chapo this inmates are confined in a single -person cell for 23 hours a day.
and when they’re sllowed to leave their cell they´re allowed into a slightly bigger cell area for just one hour. it could be at 1:00am ,4:00 PM , or any time.
or any time the correctional offices choose to let them out. the inmates have no idea what time it could be.cause they obbiously don’t have a clock
and their cells are built in a way that they can’t even see the sky!
also during their one -hour free time they are taken around in handcuffs , snackles, or even both.depending on how dangerous the inmate is.
for El chapo, he´s constantly in both.’cause they can’t risk letting him out of their sight for a second.
inmates are free to move around ,excerise or even meditate in an underground pit that looks like an empty pool. and yes , the pool is lrgre then their cell.
but it ‘s way smaller than you think.it’s so small , inmates can only walk 1o steps in a straight line.
or thirty -one steps in a circle.
that should give you a clear picture of how iny this so -called outdoor area is.
than ,the longer an inmate stays and the longer they demonsrate good behavior, the more outdoor time they get .
but,if an inmate proves to be incorrigible, they may spend their entire prison sentence behind the steeel doors of their cell
and when it comes to their food, and feeidng ,things just get worse.
food and afood packs served to the inmates are restricted.food and food packs served to the inmates are restricted. to ensure that they can’t be used to harm themselves or the correctional officers
and also to ensure that their cells are kept hygienic
inmates transferred from other prison facilities. are allowed to eat ina shared dining room.
but inmates as dangerous as El chapo.Get their meals delivered by correctional officersthen once El chapo is done eating.hid plastic food tray is inspected to make sure that he hasn´t broken any part of it to use as a potential weapon.
man:” some people who are just horrible spirits.people who just have no good in them whatsoever so, you know they got places for people like that.i guess ADX is one of them”
Each cell has a bed, a desk , and a stool ,all constructed urely out of concrete.
Then right beside the door is a toilet. this toilet toilet is designed to flush itself once clogged, meaning there aren’t any WC handles
El chap’s cell is one of the few cells that have shower within it . and this showe is on a scheduled timer.there is also a little sinkthat works without a potentially dangerous tap
some of this cells have steel mirrors that have been bolted to the walls and some have television sets.
El chapos cell in particular has a TV. but the program shown are moitored . he’s only allowed to watch recreational , eductional and religious shows.
he ‘s also handed some books and magazines if he wishes to read.but i highly doubt hell be doing any reading in there.
the next area is the wall of the cell.unlike other prison facilities.
the ADX florence only has a 4 – inch -by 4 -foot window.the windows are designed to restrict inmates from knowing their particular location in the prison complex.
so for an inmate like El chapo , it wll almost be impossible for him to escape when he or the people on the outside dont’t even have a clue about his exact location wtihin the prison.
Now outside the cell walls are a multitude of motion detectors, cameras
and 1,400 remote-control steel doors. doors.
correctional officers in the prison’s control center , monitor inmates twenty -four hours a day.
there’s also something known as a ” panic button,”which is basically a single button that once pushed.
immediately closes every door in the facility.in addition of this.
pressure pads and 12 -foot razor- wire fences surround the perimeter.
which is patrolled by heavily armed officers.
and finally ,there are 12 different gun towers.down the road leading to ADX florence
i mean , at this point the thought of escaping ADX florence is terrifying!
like how many men would El chapo have to pay off
or how many security guards will he bypass to exit the entire premises?!
but as terrifying as all these sound ,there are a few more things that make this place horrible.
ADX florence houses inmates at six different security levels.
one of the security levels is called the general population Unit.
and under that unit is a cell block simply knwon as ” H.”
This is the unit where our dear El chapo is kept. his cell is continually paroled , and according to his lawyers ,he doesn’t get any sleep ,
that’s why his wife went publicly to say this:” we are only asking the government to take care of him and to respect his basic rights. we are not asing anything else. we only want them to let him rest “
but as high -profile a criminal as El chapo is . he’s not the most dangerous criminal in ADX florence.
there is a unit knwon as range 13.this is the unit for inmates who need the thoughest control within the prison. and for inmates who are classified as ruthless , killing animals.
one of the inmates in range 13, is ramzi yousef.pakistani-born ramzi yousef was convicted in 1994
of terrorism conspiracy and other charges in connection
with the 1993 world trade center bombing.which killed 6 people and injured more than 1,000.
yousef was also convicted in 1996 of planning project bojinka.a foiled plot conceived by senior Al Qaeda member
Khalid sheikh mohammed .
to bomb 12 planes in 48 -hours period.
El chapo has done a lot of things,
but some might argue that ramzi’s crimes truly earn him a spot in range 13.
another inmates in this hell of a unit is thomas silverstein one of the two men behind the federal bureau of prisons’s idea
to build the ADX florence.
THE LOOPHOLE
However, there’s one last thing you need to know, and it’s the fact that in the ADX florence, there’s a loophole for El chapo to actually plan an escape.
that loophole is for him to be on hisbest behavior, but there’s more…
there are two units wtihing the ADX florence that actually that actually allows inmates to walk freely and interact with other inmates in their range.
this unit ,however ,is only open to inmates who have demonstrated good behavior over a certain period and if they continue displying this good behavior ,
then they might even be transfered out of ADX florence as a whole
so if El chapo somehow manages to make it out into a lesser prison, then he might be able to pull off one of his classical prison escapes.
another way is by exploiting the law and criticisms about the mental health issues with ADX florence causes.
Gill soffer:”he lost his trial , he lost on appeal, but this is a mecanism to say , despite all that , ” im still entitled to a reversal of my conviction and new trial.because my constitutional rights were violated”
Despite the strict measures put in plade so far to keep anyone from gtting out of ADX florence, there have been different murders within the facility.
April 21 st, 2005
two inmates , silvestre rivera and richard santiago were caught on tape brutaly beating and stomping a high- profile mexican mafia , manuel torres.within the prison facility .
manuel torres body was eventually found dead on the premises,just imagine criminals int the ADX florence still committing murder.
the next level was for them to be placed on death row, but for some inknown reason ,they remain incarcerated at ADX
apart from this incident ,there have been a total of eight suicides inside the facility
this rests on the fact that the condtions at the ADX florence are to harsh on these inmates, i mean , they are criminals but they’re still humans, right?!
and besides there are a few inmates who haven’t committed crimes as btutal as brutal as El chapo or ramzi yusef
also in 2012 , eleven inmates filed a federal class -action suit against the bureau of prisons ,the suit alleged chronic abuse and failure to properly diagnose, and failure to properly diagnose prisoners who are seriously mentally ill.
at the time of the lawsuit ,only six inmates had allegedely died by suicide
and what really opened up this loophole is the fact that in 2020
a british m magistrate refused to extradite julian assange, the founder of the non -profit organization ,WikiLeaks to the united states .
this was because the magistrate felt he would be subjected to solitary confinement and spceial administrative measures at ADX.
and luckily for assange, the united states and the high court of justice for england agreed to extradite him on the premise that he wouldn’t be subjected to special administrative measures of impresioned at ADX or imprisoned at ADX.
now El chapo is pushing for a retrial of his case.it is a pretty smart move and i’d really love to see how it plays out for him.
but in the end of the day ,ctitics forget the facts that this inmates weren’t forced to be in ADX , their actions , one way or another ,eld them here.
so ,do inmates like El chapo really deserve,the treatment given to them at ADX?
or , should the federal bureau of prisons decrease the special solitary measures administreted?
inmate: ” that system basicaly just depersonalized me and and made mie into a thing. and then what happens is…. you become an animal or you become your own worst enemy”