ADX Florence

Administrative Maximum Security Florence or simply ADX Florence or Florence ADMAX, (aka "Supermax") is the only supermax prison operated by the federal government of the United States. Located in Florence, Colorado, it houses the most dangerous prisoners: serial killers and terrorists.

Related Topics:
Supermax prison - Federal government of the United States - Florence, Colorado - Serial killers - Terrorists

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Because of the danger they present to each other, to the guards, and to the general public, inmates at Florence are kept in soundproofed solitary confinement for at least 23 hours a day. The furniture is all made out of concrete and the plumbing has been designed to be sabotage-proof.

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ADX Florence is located at 5880 Highway 67, Florence, Colorado.

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Simon Reeve, author of a 1998 book about the terrorist mastermind Ramzi Yousef, has described conditions inside "Supermax" as follows:

Related Topics:
Simon Reeve - Ramzi Yousef

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:"It is probably the most secure jail ever built, and it needs to be, because the 490 men who live there are among the most violent and dangerous felons in the world. More than 22 per cent of the prisoners are men who have killed fellow inmates in other prisons. More than 35 per cent have led or participated in violent attacks on fellow inmates or prison guards. It is there, on the ultra high-security wing of the most secure prison in the world, that Ramzi Yousef will almost certainly spend the rest of his life.

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:"Every morning Yousef wakes in a 12ft by 7ft (3.5m by 2m) cell which contains a concrete slab and a thin mattress for a bed, a shower (with a timer to prevent flooding), a toilet, an electric light, an immovable concrete desk and stool, a polished steel mirror riveted to the concrete wall, a cigarette lighter and a 13-inch black and white television. Motion detectors, cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors and 12ft razor wire fences now guard Yousef. Cells are designed so inmates cannot see the ground outside: windows are set high up in the wall and angled pointing to the sky. This has the effect of discouraging dissent and break-outs, because prisoners are disorientated and unable to work-out where they are being held in the prison.

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:"'It will take Einstein?s genius and more than a little luck to get out of this baby,' said John Quest, the architect who designed the 37 acre complex, much of which is built into the side of a mountain. Laser beams, pressure pads and silent attack dogs, which can kill a man without barking, all guard the area between the prison walls and the surrounding razor wire, while visitors and prisoners enter down a heavily guarded road tunnel into the mountain, discouraging attack and making it difficult even for visitors to judge where they are in the prison." (The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism, Boston: NUP, 1999, pp. 252.)

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