Into The Weeds

The topic of the “supermax” prison in Florence, CO (wikipedia article) came up in discussion last week, so I figured I would expand on it a bit via the blogosphere.

USP Florence ADMAX (as it is officially called), is one of only two “supermax” federal prisons (the other one is in Marion, Illinois), and is the only federal prison built from the ground up originally as a locked-down “supermax”. It’s where the U.S. sends federal prisoners who are extremely dangerous, or at risk in some peculiar way. The federal bureau of prisons has a particularly neat website where you can search for information on any particular federal inmate — provided, of course, that you know the exact first and last name. What follows is a partial list of the “interesting” guests of the federal government that will be residing in Florence for the remainder of their natural lives:

• Richard Reid — 24079-038. The guy who tried to blow up an airplane with a bomb in his shoe, and is forever to be known as the “shoe bomber.”
• Ted Kaczynski — 04475-046. The “unabomber”.
• Robert Hanssen — 48551-083. FBI agent, spied for the USSR. His revelations to the enemy resulted in several covert agents and spies being outed and probably killed, and is guilty of violating U.S. code title 18 section 794. The content of which has been drilled into my head by a certain previous employer of mine, but that’s for another blog entry.
• Terry Nichols — 08157-031. Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator. His partner in crime, Timothy McVeigh also served his time at ADMAX Florence, before his execution.
• Eric Rudolph — 18282-058.1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber, bomber of multiple abortion clinics, and longtime fugitive. There’s an interesting and lively discussion on wikipedia about whether he should be referred to as a “Christian Terrorist.” But that’s beyond the scope of this blog.
• Ramzi Yousef — 03911-000. “Mastermind” and perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• Mohammad Salameh — 34338-054. Another perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was supposedly arrested while trying to collect the deposit on the van that they blew up.
• Zacarias Moussaoui — 51427-054. Terrorist and possible would-be-participant in September 11th attacks.

Also supposedly present at Florence are: Charles Harrelson (Woody Harrelson’s father), Brink’s Heist robber Richard Scutari, and Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. Here’s a more complete list.

There’s just something oddly fascinating and vaguely dangerous about all of these people being at the same place, but I suppose that concentration at a single supermax facility is probably the best way to do these types of things. The people of Florence are apparently not happy about staffing levels at the facility, and worry that the place now known as “terrorist central” might actually be a terrorist target.