Super-Max Prison Now Only Somewhat-Max, According To Arbitrator
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Posted to Etcetera on Fri Nov 24, 2006 at 10:55:09 PM EST (promoted by 1fastdog). RSS.
The USP Florence holds the worst of the worst of the worst. However, when corrections officers felt that the security did not match the level of danger created by the inmates, they filed for (and won) an arbitrators ruling forcing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to boost security.
The facility is located in a remote part of Colorado, holding inmates in poured concrete, sound-proofed cells for 23 hours a day or more. The doors are secured steel and covered with a grate. Any exercise time is carried out in a special concrete chamber, alone. The prisoners have little human contact, and even the windows (tiny to begin with) are pointed up at the sky so the inmates cannot even identify which part of the complex their cells are located in. Perimeter security is tight, with attack dogs between the 12 foot high razor wire fences and wall, and pressure sensors and laser beams to detect any possible escape.
While structural security was high, the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals 1302, claimed that due to funding cuts, staffing levels at the prison were cut to the bone in 2005. From an original number of 220 guards, staffing was cut to 170; meaning that 3,147 "critical" shifts were left unfilled. Within months since the cuts occured, 2 inmates were murdered in a prison which had no incidents since its founding a decade earlier.
In a major union victory, the arbitrator found entire housing units were left unstaffed (when a force of 3 officers is required), cells were not being searched at regular intervals, a drug kingpin was able to keep running his gang through the mail, and convicted terrorists did not have their correspondence monitored per policy.
State Rep. Buffie McFayden (D-Pueblo) is calling for an investigation and says that while the physical structures of the prison make escape almost impossible it is not unlikely that terrorists will be able to free their colleagues due to the lack of manpower to prevent an attack. She is calling for funding to build an exterior wall around the entire property, where currently the only protection against a vehicle crashing through is an anti-cow barrier.
The union and Rep. McFayden do not blame the warden at the supermax facility, but rather Congress and the Bureau of Prisons for letting the funding levels fall so low. They said they have requested more guards, guard towers, and walls before but have been denied. Some wonder if funding levels are so low at the most dangerous facilities like USP Florence, what does it say about other prisons that do not hold terrorists, traitors, and mass-murderers?
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