SuperMax prison

The SuperMax prison in Florence, CO is supposed to be the nation’s most secure correctional facility, housing only the highest risk, serious offenders. Such as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Ramzi Yousef, as well as several gang leaders. But recent discoveries show there may be a serious flaw in the security at SuperMax.

Mexican mafia leader Reuben Catsro was indicted on charges of conspiracy for continuing to run his gangs drugs sales in Los Angeles from his cell. Two leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were indicted on charges of conspiracy for inciting a murderous race war at a Pennsylvania prison though messages smuggled out of their SuperMax cells. Colorado State Democratic Rep. Buffie McFayden says that terrorists inside the SuperMax could be plotting another major attack on the United States from within this prison.

A justice department investigation was initiated when Spanish authorities found that inmate Mohammed Salameh, who rented the Ryder truck in the 1993 world trade center bombing, had been sending letters to a terror cell with links to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

The justice department report found that the SuperMax staff had failed to monitor at least half of all the inmates’ telephone conversations for the last year. So what is causing these lax conditions at a so called “Super” maximum security prison? The heart of the problem seems to be centered on budget, and low staffing. The prison employees’ union says the staffing of SuperMax has fallen well below its original staffing level of when the facility opened a dozen years ago, and has now fallen below the established minimum staff levels allowed.

A federal arbitrator recently said that because of the low levels of staffing at SuperMax; entire cell blocks were left without staffing for an entire shift on several occasions. He also discovered that inmate cells were no longer being searched on a regular basis.

An inspector general’s report found that at times, the special investigation staff whose job is to read inmate mail were pulled from their duties to fill vacancies in cell block staff. This may be a key contributor to the secret messages that have been discovered leaving the prison and giving the gang leaders behind bars the power to still run their criminal activities.

I think in light of the recent discoveries of a total lapse in security at the SuperMax prison, it’s almost more of a joke than an accurate name. One would expect that a super maximum security prison would be a top priority as far as budget is concerned. In order to get these prisons back to their intended use, we must allocate the necessary funds to them. We should not blame the staff entirely for the lapse in security, it seems as though they are just stretched thin and they can’t oversee all the requirements to maintain such a high level of security all at the same time.