Supermax

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El Chapo Would Like Judge to Grant Him a Favor

He wants to have his wife, kids visit

(Newser) - Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman would like to see his wife, once her own prison sentence is up. The Mexican drug lord is serving a life sentence plus 30 years at a Colorado supermax prison (where, he said earlier this year , he is experiencing "psychological torment") and, in...

'El Chapo' Sends 'SOS' to Mexico's President

Lawyers say drug lord is struggling with harsh conditions at 'Supermax' prison

(Newser) - Former drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman arrived in the US six years ago today after he was extradited from Mexico —and while he's apparently desperate to return to his homeland, a sentence of life plus 30 years in federal prison is standing in the way....

US Agrees to Let Assange Do Time in Australia

British court hears assurances about WikiLeaks founder's possible imprisonment

(Newser) - The US has tweaked its position on the potential imprisonment of Julian Assange in an effort to get a British court to allow his extradition. If he's convicted in the US, the WikiLeaks founder will be allowed to serve his sentence in an Australian prison, ABC Australia reports. The...

No Supermax for Assange, US Promises in Extradition Appeal

British court agrees to reconsider American case

(Newser) - In an effort to win the extradition of Julian Assange, the US has told Britain the WikiLeaks founder would not be sent to the Supermax prison in Colorado if convicted. Along with others, the assurance was part of an appeal of a ruling by a British judge in January blocking...

Boston Bomber Sues Feds After His Hat Is Taken Away

Tsarnaev says he is being mistreated at Supermax

(Newser) - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon in 2013 took the lives of three people and caused 17 others to lose limbs, is complaining about his hat being taken away. The Supermax inmate is suing the federal government for $250,000, alleging that mistreatment has contributed to his...

Guzman Likely Bound for 'Escape-Proof' Prison

'He'll never be allowed on the yard,' former warden says

(Newser) - Joaquin Guzman has a history of spectacular prison breaks—but this time, he's not going to be able to climb through an escape hatch in his shower and ride away on a motorbike. Experts say "El Chapo," who faces a mandatory life sentence after being found guilty...

Underwear Bomber Likens Treatment to 'Being Drowned'

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is suing over treatment in Supermax

(Newser) - The Nigerian man who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound jet with an underwear bomb is suing the US Justice Department, claiming he's been force-fed, punished for being Muslim, and held in solitary confinement inside Colorado's Supermax prison, all in violation of his constitutional rights. Upon his arrival...

Feds Eye Colorado for Gitmo Transfers

State lawmakers don't want 'world's worst terrorists' in their backyard

(Newser) - The Unabomber may be about to get some new neighbors. Department of Defense officials plan to visit Colorado to assess whether facilities including a medium-security prison adjacent to the ADX Florence "Supermax" prison could hold prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, which the administration wants to close, the Denver Post...

Dead Man Walking Nun to Testify at Tsarnaev Trial

As debate turns to what Boston bomber could expect at Colorado's Supermax

(Newser) - The nun and death-penalty foe behind Dead Man Walking is due to testify in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's sentencing trial today and defense attorneys hope she portrays the death penalty as an unjust punishment for the 21-year-old. Sister Helen Prejean, who developed a close relationship with Louisiana death row inmate Patrick...

Suit Exposes Horrors at Our Only Federal Supermax
Suit Exposes Horrors at
Our Only Federal Supermax
in case you missed it
Mar 29, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

Suit Exposes Horrors at Our Only Federal Supermax

Severe mental illness rampant at ADX: lawsuit

(Newser) - What goes on inside American's only federal supermax —the Administrative Maximum Facility, or ADX, in Florence, Colo., where inmates spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement—has largely been shielded from the rest of the world. An in-depth New York Times Magazine look into the prison changes...

Report: Conditions Inhuman at 'Alcatraz of Rockies'

Amnesty International: solitary confinement must be rolled back at ADX

(Newser) - At the nation's most restrictive prison, most inmates are allowed nearly zero social interaction—in one extreme case, a prisoner who killed a fellow inmate at another prison gets just one minute per day of contact with other people. In a report out today, Amnesty International says the Administrative...

Why 30K US Inmates Went on Hunger Strike

Solitary confinement drove alleged gang leaders to make a statement

(Newser) - Last summer, four prison inmates organized a hunger strike from their solitary-confinement cells and inspired 30,000 prisoners to join them —a stunning development that says a lot about US prisons, writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in New York . The four guys—allegedly leaders of white, black, and Latino gangs—were...

How 2 Killers Changed America's Prisons Forever

The Marion prison lockdown paved way for today's Supermax facilities

(Newser) - These days, nearly every state in America has a Supermax facility, places where killers and terrorists are kept in isolated cells almost constantly, in conditions that have sparked lawsuits and raised the ire of groups like Human Rights Watch. How did it get this way? It all started with two...

Millennium Bomber to Be Resentenced

Court rules 22-year prison term for LAX plotter was too soft

(Newser) - The 22-year sentence a Seattle judge gave a man who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the last day of 1999 is so soft it constitutes a procedural error, an appeals court ruled yesterday. The court ordered Algerian-born al-Qaeda member Ahmed Ressam to be resentenced by a...

Gitmo North: What's the Point?
 Gitmo North: What's the Point? 
OPINION
Dec 16, 2009 8:15 AM CST

Gitmo North: What's the Point?

The location was never the real problem, writes Glenn Greenwald

(Newser) - The president is making good on his promise to close Guantanamo in classic Obama style: by offering lofty rhetoric while continuing his predecessor's policies, writes Glenn Greenwald. The detainees being sent to Illinois won't be getting trials in real American courts and some will never be tried at all, meaning...

Republicans Decry Decision to Try 9/11 Planner in NYC

GOP slams AG's 'dangerous mentality'

(Newser) - Republican leaders are sharply criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court. John Boehner called the plan to try the confessed planner of the 9/11 attacks in New York "irresponsible” and accused AG Eric Holder of "reverting to a dangerous pre-9/11 mentality....

Obama Books Banned for Jailed Terrorist

(Newser) - Prison officials refused to let an al-Qaeda terrorist serving 30 years in Supermax, a prison in Colorado, read Barack Obama's books, the Daily Telegraph reports. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an American citizen convicted of conspiring to, among other things, assassinate then–President George W. Bush, was told that the books...

'Shoe-Bomber' on Hunger Strike in Colo. Prison

Supermax inmate force-fed, hydrated after refusing food

(Newser) - Convicted terrorist Richard Reid has been on hunger strike inside Colorado's Supermax prison since March, reports the Times of London. The British Muslim, sentenced to life after attempting to blow up a transatlantic jet with bombs hidden in his shoes, has refused 59 meals in recent month. Reid has been...

Colorado Town Would Welcome Gitmo Inmates

Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'

(Newser) - Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant,...

Supermax Neighbors Fear Gitmo Influx

Townspeople worry that transfer will make them a target for terrorists

(Newser) - People who live near some of America's most notorious killers fear closing Guantanamo Bay will wreck their neighborhood, the New York Times reports. Residents of Cañon City, Colo., close to the Florence "Supermax" prison, worry the detainees will be transferred there, making them a target for terrorists and...

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