The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (USP Florence ADMAX) is an American federal prison which provides a higher level of custody than a maximum security prison. It is classed as a supermax or "control unit" prison, where the safety of inmates and staff is paramount. It is located in Fremont County, Colorado and opened in 1994, and it is informally known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies".

The Federal Bureau of Prisons needed a unit designed specifically for the secure housing of those prisoners most capable of violence toward staff or other inmates. Prisoners spend 23 hours per day in single, sound-proof cells with facilities made of poured concrete to deter self-harm, and 24-hour supervision, carried out intensively with high staff-inmate ratios. Phones are generally banned and only limited broadcast entertainment is permitted. After three years in maximum confinement, some prisoners may be transferred to a less restrictive prison. The aim is to encourage "reasonably peaceful behavior" from the most violent "career" prisoners.

The high standard of security has been noted by many, though there is some concern about the impact of extended confinement and isolation on mental health.

The institution is unofficially known as ADX Florence, or the "Alcatraz of the Rockies".^[2] It is part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, which is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a division of the United States Department of Justice. The complex also includes an adjacent minimum-security camp that, as of February 2019, houses more prisoners than the supermax unit.

ADX Florence houses male inmates in the federal prison system who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control, including prisoners whose escape would pose a serious threat to national security. The BOP does not have a designated "supermax" facility for women. Women in the BOP system who are classified as "special management concerns" due to violence or escape attempts are confined in the administrative unit of Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.^[3]

The current warden of ADX Florence is David Berkebile.^[4][5]

In 1983, members of the Aryan Brotherhood stabbed two federal correction officers to death at the United States Penitentiary, Marion. The stabbings were blamed on inadequate prison design.^[6] Federal Bureau of Prisons director Norman Carlson argued for the creation of a new type of facility where the most dangerous, uncontrollable inmates could be isolated from correction officers and other prisoners for security and safety. Marion Penitentiary went into "permanent lockdown" following the 1983 murders and became a model for the construction of ADX, designed as a control unit prison.^[7] Carlson said that such a prison would hold criminals desperate enough to murder corrections officers or other inmates in the hopes of being sentenced to death.^[6]

ADX opened in November 1994,^[8] and the residents of Fremont County, Colorado^[9] welcomed it as a source of employment. The county already had nine prisons, but the lure of 750 to 900 permanent jobs (plus temporary jobs during the prison's construction) led residents to raise $160,000 to purchase 600 acres (240 ha) for the new prison. Hundreds of people attended the groundbreaking for the facility, which was designed by two leading architecture firms in Colorado Springs and cost $60 million to build.^[10]

The supermax unit at ADX Florence houses about 400 male inmates, each assigned to one of six security levels.^[11] It is designed for 490 inmates but has never been at full capacity.^[12] The facility is best known for housing inmates who have been deemed too dangerous, too high-profile, or too great a national security risk for even a maximum-security prison. The majority of current inmates, however, have been placed there because they have an extensive history of committing violent crimes against corrections officers and fellow inmates in other prisons, including murder. These inmates are kept in administrative segregation. They are confined in a single-person cell for 23 hours a day and are removed under restraint (handcuffed, shackled, or both); their one hour out of their cell may occur at any time of the day or night. The hour outside of the cell is for exercise and a phone call if they have earned the privilege. Their diet is restricted to ensure that the food cannot be used to harm themselves or to create unhygienic conditions in their cell. Some cells have showers which reduces the amount of handling that guards need to do.^[12]

Inmates are then gradually allowed out for longer periods after at least one year, depending on their conduct. The long-term goal is to keep them at ADX for three years, then transfer them to a less restrictive prison to serve out the remainder of their sentences. According to a 1998 report in the San Francisco Chronicle, ADX Florence's main purpose is to "try and extract reasonably peaceful behavior from extremely violent career prisoners".^[13]

ADX Florence is a 37-acre (15 ha) complex located at 5880 Highway 67, Florence, Colorado, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Denver and 40 miles (64 km) south of Colorado Springs.^[14] It is part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex (FFCC) which consists of three correctional facilities, each with a different security rating.^[15]

The majority of the facility is above ground, with the exception of a subterranean corridor which links cellblocks to the lobby. Each cell has a desk, stool, and 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 tap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light that can be shut off only remotely, a radio, and a black-and-white television that shows recreational, educational, and religious programming.^[16] All cells are sound-proofed to prevent prisoners from communicating with each other.

The 1⁄3 by 4 feet (0.10 by 1.22 m) windows are designed to prevent inmates from knowing their specific location within the complex. They can see only the sky and roof through them, so it is 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.^[17] The pit is only large enough for a prisoner to walk 10 steps in a straight line or 31 steps in a circle. Correction officers deliver food to the cells, although inmates sent to ADX from other prisons can potentially be allowed to eat in a shared dining room.^[13] The prison as a whole contains a multitude of motion detectors and cameras and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors. Officers in the prison's control center monitor inmates 24 hours a day and can activate a "panic button" which instantly closes every door in the facility should an escape attempt be suspected. Pressure pads and 12-foot-tall (3.7 m) razor wire fences surround the perimeter, which is patrolled by heavily armed officers. The center of the prison houses an area known as the "Z-Unit" for inmates who are deemed extreme security risks. Each of the three Z-Unit cells is equipped with a full set of body restraints that are built directly into the concrete bed.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons allowed the media to take a guided tour of ADX on September 14, 2007. Attending reporters remarked on "an astonishing and eerie quiet" within the prison as well as a sense of safety due to the rigorous security measures.^[18] 60 Minutes producer Henry Schuster said, "A few minutes inside that cell and two hours inside Supermax were enough to remind me why I left high school a year early. The walls close in very fast."^[19]

The prison has come under far less criticism than comparable facilities at the state level, which tend to suffer from over-population, low staff-to-inmate ratios, and security issues. 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."^[13] In 2012, 11 inmates filed a federal class-action suit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and officials who run ADX Florence in Cunningham v. Federal Bureau of Prisons.^[20][21] The suit alleged chronic abuse and failure to properly diagnose prisoners who are seriously mentally ill.^[22] Critics believe that the use of extended confinement in solitary cells adversely affects prisoners' mental health. As of March 2015, settlement negotiations were underway with the help of a federal magistrate and some improvements had been made by the Bureau of Prisons.^[23][24]

This list contains foreign citizens who committed or attempted to commit terrorist attacks against United States citizens and interests. All sentences are without parole.

This list contains U.S. citizens regardless of origin who committed or attempted to commit terrorist attacks against United States citizens and interests.