What awaits Dzhokhar Tsarnaev when he is sent to supermax prison?

Unveiling the Supermax Prison: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's New Home

In the United States, inmates spend an astounding 23 hours a day in tiny cells, devoid of views to the outside world. Supermax prisons, like the America's Maximum Administrative Prison Facility in Florence, Colorado, are a grim reality for many convicts. A former guard in this notorious prison called it "worse than death."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old sentenced to death for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings, will soon find out where he'll be serving his time other than the rope. The United States Attorney General Carmen Ortiz announced that the decision over whether Tsarnaev will be werehoused in the ADX or the death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, will be made after the trial concludes.

The harshest prisons in the vast American prison network transport inmates to ADX, often using buses, specialized vehicles, and even Black Hawk helicopters. The facility is heavily guarded, its immense complex creating an imposing sight with a fortress of 12-story towers casting shadows on the low buildings below.

As inmates walk through the doors, a shift occurs in their expressions. "As soon as they step through that door, you can see it in their faces," said Robert Hood, a former ADX guard. "You can see it in the background, looking out at the beautiful Rocky Mountains. When they walk in, it's the last time they'll see it."

"Supermax is a life after death," said Hood, who served as ADX's administrator from 2002 to 2005. "It's long-term." ... I believe it's worse than death.

Architecture as Control

The majority of ADX's inmates spend up to 23 hours each day confined in 7 feet by 12 feet concrete cells, where their meals are slid through tiny openings in the door. The beds consist of a slab of steel with a thin mattress and a blanket. Even a window measuring 42 inches tall and 4 inches wide allows only dim, natural light to enter, with bars preventing a view from the cell.

The walls, reinforced and composed of steel, isolate inmates from other prisoners and limit their ability to communicate or see one another.

"The structure of the building is all about control," said Hood.

"They plan it so that the inmates can't see the sky. Deliberately. They plant wire, so the helicopters can't land."

Beyond guards and prison personnel, inmates have minimal contact with the outside world. They must be restrained and handcuffed, shackled, and wearing a belly chain whenever they leave their cells, under the escort of wardens. A solitary hour of recreation is permitted in a small, cage-like enclosure, where one can only see the sky.

"As the metal doors slide open and shut, you pass through hundreds of cameras," said Hood.

Life in Block H

Some cells are equipped with radios and black-and-white TVs, offering religious, educational, and general programs. During Tsarnaev's trial, John Oliver, the current director of ADX, was put on the spot, as his emails and conversations were continuously monitored. Oliver suggested that inmates may eventually find jobs performing tasks like cleaningshowers or integration into the general population.

However, the level of freedom granted to inmates like Tsarnaev is determined not by prison staff, but by the Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies investigating and prosecuting him.

Tsarnaev will join other terrorists within the Special Security Forces, nicknamed 'H Force.' These cells are reserved for inmates requiring special management policies aimed at completely limiting communication with the outside world.

Only an inmate's legal team and immediate family members are permitted to visit. The inmate sits on the other side of the glass, and they speak over the phone. All private conversations are monitored, while legal consultations and communication with attorneys are considered privileged and confidential.

Earning the "Right to Supermax"

"ADX itself has largely become just another segregation unit, where inmates spend most of their time locked up in isolated cells for a couple of hours each week," reported Amnesty International in 2014, with the title "Buried: Segregated Federal Prisons in the United States System."

Supermax prisons house the most violent inmates in the prison system, as well as convicted terrorists.

"They've gone to prison. They've gone to prison. They've killed guards. 'They've killed a visitor,' said Hood. "They've earned the right to go to Supermax if they want to." ... They're terrorists. They're destructive gang members. They're spies.

In a lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons from 2012, it was claimed that "long-term isolation without direct, unrestricted contact with other people" had led some ADX inmates – particularly those with severe psychological disorders – to "essentially lose even basic social skills and abilities." Adaptive behavior. "They're prone to paranoia regarding the motives and intent of others."

"Prisoners – even those without psychological disorders – experience extreme stress when they're exposed to other potentially faulty and paranoid individuals," the lawsuit claims. "Attacks and stabbings are commonplace."

Many ADX inmates "tear their clothes off, scream, and scream with endless fear on their cell walls," according to the lawsuit. "Some mutilate themselves with razors, glass shards, sharpen pencils, and any other sharp object they can find. Many swallow razor blades, nail clippers, radio and television components, glass shards, and other dangerous materials."

Coming to Terms – or Self-Destruction?

Some inmates engage in hallucinatory conversations with voices they hear in their heads, while others spread feces, human waste, and bodily fluids around their cells or hurl them at wardens.

"When someone walks in who's naked and flings feces at the guard, is that then a sign of a mental illness? Is it a self-destructive behavior on its own?" said Hood.

In the lawsuit, it was mentioned that since ADX's opening in 1994, at least six inmates have committed suicide by hanging themselves with bed sheets.

Thomas Silverstein, who spent more than 30 years in solitary confinement, including nine years in ADX, was quoted by Amnesty International as saying, "Though I know I want to live and survive, I often wish I was dead."

Laura Rovner, a professor at the University of Denver's School of Law, who represents ADX inmates, said, "Reports comparing conditions in the infamous Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba to those in ADX suggest that life there is far more tolerable."

"For many people, being isolated in the ADX is essentially the equivalent of a life sentence, stripping away everything around them," she said. "Everything is confined to the four walls of this tiny cell, and for the most part, that's it."

Rovner noted that inmates with psychological disorders and younger inmates are particularly vulnerable.

"This person will be vulnerable, and the isolation will only exacerbate that," she said of Tsarnaev. "He'll likely spend many more years isolated. It's almost unimaginable."

According to Amnesty International, inmates within Building H have infrequent access to less restrictive areas within the general population. In 2008, the prison introduced a de-escalation plan for Building H, consisting of three phases lasting at least one year each, and offering gradually increased privileges.

"When I met the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, I thought he was quite talented," said Hood, referring to the notorious domestic terrorist. "But many inmates lack the ability to cope." If we're speaking of someone who can't read, who can't manage a legal case, there's no way out; it's probably the inmate who flings feces at you."

Defense attorneys have documented that certain inmates spent long periods in Building H without progressing to the next stages, even when they exhibited good behavior, as management protocols were not changed, despite this.

Terrorists of the World Trade Center

Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to two life sentences and 240 years for his role in two terror attacks, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which left six people dead. He has spent over 15 years in solitary confinement. According to Amnesty International, he was held under special administrative measures within Building H and spent more than two years in the second phase of the de-escalation program.

Yusuf, who has exhibited good behavior for at least five years, worked as a nurse, which allowed him to leave his cell for several hours a week to clean the cells of other inmates. However, his access to the third stage was denied, and his special administrative measures were renewed every year, according to Human Rights Watch.

Hood described Yusef as polite but not particularly sympathetic compared to notorious mobster "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.

"Whenever you first meet this guy, you really like him," Hood said about Gravano, a former high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family in New York. "You don't like what he did. But you find him sympathetic, someone you'd want to be your neighbor."

Regarding Yusef, Hood said, "Regardless of the crime he committed, or what role he played in it, he was well-educated. He was very disciplined. Even if I were the guard, I'd be his enemy. But we also have a form of politeness." I wanted to say good morning. When the trial against Tsarnaev began, Oliver, now ADX's director, presented the facility in the best possible light, describing how inmates in the security unit wrote letters, trained in their cells, and sometimes spoke on the phone for up to 30 hours a month or even wrote books.