ADX Florence - Prison Facility

Prison Facility

ADX Florence is a 37-acre (15 ha), 490-bed complex at 5880 Highway 67, Florence, Colorado, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Denver. 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. 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 trap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light, a radio, and a black and white television that shows recreational, educational, and religious programming.

The 4 in (10 cm) by 4 ft (120 cm) 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. Telecommunication with the outside world is forbidden, and food is hand-delivered by correction officers. The prison as a whole contains a multitude of motion detectors and cameras, and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors. Pressure pads and twelve-foot-tall (3.7 m) razor wire fences surround the perimeter.

Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber, lamented in a series of 2006 letters to a Colorado Springs newspaper that the ADX is meant to "inflict misery and pain." Charles Harrelson, who was sent to ADX after a failed attempt to escape from a Georgia prison, said: "Part of the plan here is sensory deprivation...It could be infinitely worse." A former ADX warden described the place as "a cleaner version of Hell". There have been hundreds of "involuntary feedings" and four suicides. Most recently, in June 2009 Richard Reid, commonly known as the "shoe bomber," went on a hunger strike and was force-fed. Nonetheless, the prison has come under far less scorn than comparable facilities at the state level. Jamie Fellner of Human Rights Watch said after a tour of the facility, "The Bureau of Prisons has taken a harsh punitive model and implemented it as well as anybody I know."

In 2012, 11 inmates filed a federal class action suit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and officials who run ADX Florence (Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Civil Action 1:12-cv-01570). This suit alleged chronic abuse, failure to properly diagnose and neglect of prisoners who are seriously mentally ill.