How Insane is El Chapo's Prison Cell Security?

after escaping twice and after several years on the run joseph guzman the mexican drug lord most popularly known as el chapo was captured and locked behind one of the world's most secure prisons adx florence but how can we be sure he won't escape again and what makes this prison so secure that the authorities feel certain they found a permanent home for the drug lord the notorious inmates of adx florence adx florence is home to the worst of the worst the ones we call society's monsters and while el chapo might have been the most ruthless drug lord in recent memory there are criminals in this world criminals who are not interested in money or power criminals who just want to watch the world burn these criminals match the atrocities of el chapo committed and then some i mean how many people do you know who are as twisted as john kasinski in 1966 john kasinski was a math professor from harvard university before he randomly mailed 16 homemade bombs to people killing three of them in the process when he was caught and tried the only place that made sense to keep his murderous tendencies at bay was a place as secure as adx florence or what about another wild card the international terrorist known as umar abdul muttalab back in 2009 umar became known as the underwear suicide bomber when he tried and failed to take down a plane that was on its way to detroit from amsterdam the plane was carrying 289 people today he's spending multiple life sentences behind adx florence's concrete walls then there is the notorious michael swango a man so evil they had to nickname him doctor death this diabolical villain used his medical license to poison patients and colleagues the medical serial killer murdered more than 60 people through his bloody reign and there is no way on earth anyone would want that man or any of the men i just mentioned in a regular prison which is what makes adx florence their perfect home but what is so special about this supermax and what sets it apart from your regular maximum security facility the structure of adx florence adx florence supermax occupies 49 acres of land on the outskirts of a small rural town in colorado originally built to house 490 inmates this impenetrable facility has never been full and currently houses 343 of the most high profile criminals the world has ever seen or heard of it is divided into six different security levels that vary in their levels of restriction general population the special housing unit the special security unit or h unit the control unit intermediate or transitional units and range 13 general population is the least restrictive unit all inmates within this unit are subject to 23 hour lockdowns with just an hour of recess each day they are also given phone call privileges that they have to earn their one hour of freedom is spent in an indoor swimming pool like concrete pit that is built in such a way inmates won't have an idea where in the prison facility they are as restrictive as this sounds el chapo isn't in this unit the h unit houses criminals that have been deemed terrorist groups by the department of justice notorious individuals like umar abdul muttalav stay in this unit and one of the defining features of this unit is the fact that the cells there don't have a shower rather prisoners are escorted to a shower by god several days a week again el chapo is not in this unit the unit the drug lord resides in is the most restrictive and is called range 13. range 13 is a special four-cell wing within the special housing unit before el chapo only two other criminals have been publicly thrown into range 13 thomas silverstein the most violent criminal in the history of the united states and ramsey yusuf responsible for the 1993 world trade center bombing the reason why el chapo is sharing a prison wing with the worst criminals in history is because of his own history with maximum security facilities i've published some videos on el chapo's mastery in the art of prison escape so why don't we compare his old prison escapes with a design at adx florence and see if he could pull off a scofield here adx florence versus el chapo's first prison escape before adx florence el chapo has been in and out of two mac security prisons in mexico and no he didn't finish his time he escaped in the most dramatic way possible the first prison he spent time in was puente grande maximum security prison outside the city of guadalajara arrested in 1995 for a bloody shootout in guadalajara airport two years prior el chapo lived like a king in that prison enjoying everything that he had enjoyed while he was free good food women sports and running his drug trade with ease but the mexican government caught wind of the corruption and decided to extradite him to the us as long as he wouldn't be given the death penalty el chapo knew what an american prison meant so he planned a ridiculously simple escape plan on the 19th of january 2001 el chapo was wheeled out of the prison in a laundry basket by a god in the prison in adx florence that would be impossible because gods are not allowed to interact with the inmates under any circumstances but maybe we have this all wrong everyone knows that most escapes come from corrupt bribable prison officials so could el chapo corrupt a god who would help him plan his escape the answer to that question is extremely unlikely any god he tries to bribe would have already gone through a rigorous vetting process i don't want to use the word incorruptible for the gods but it would be extremely difficult to bribe them because both the gods and inmates are constantly rotated and closely watched and beyond that anyone scheming to free inmates of this facility some of whom are considered enemies of the state may as well consider themselves a dead man it's not a wise thing to go against the united states of america okay now that we know that it is unlikely that el chapo will escape adx florence the way he staged his first escape let's consider his second adx florence versus el chapo's second prison escape after el chapo's first escape another 13 years passed before the drug lord was once again captured this time it took a joint effort between the u.s drug enforcement administration the dea and mexican marines the date of his capture was the 22nd of february 2014 and this time everyone went to great lengths to ensure that it would be difficult if not impossible to escape his cell had no windows inmates were not allowed to talk to each other and they were not allowed to reach out to family members either el chapo spent 23 hours in solitary confinement in a cell that had one bed one shower and a single toilet any visitations by family had to first be approved by a judge and the only luxury he was afforded was 48 for personal hygiene products yes no one was taking any chances this time but even with all these restrictions a little over a year later el chapo escaped once again he had found a blind spot for the security cameras in the cell bathroom and after months of communicating with his men el chapo walked into that shower stall and disappeared but how this is where it gets more insane it turns out that el chapo's men led by his wife had been digging a mile-long tunnel for four months that lay directly underneath the shower with the help of a smart watch that someone had smuggled in he was able to pinpoint his exact location for his criminal tunnels again there is no way he would be able to escape using this way in adx florence and some of the reasons el chapo was able to get his gang members to build a tunnel underneath the second prison he escaped from was because one he had bought the land around the prison there in mexico two he had gotten another corrupt guard to smuggle a smartwatch in for him and three the prison had a blind spot adx florence has no blind spots it is a fortress that costs 60 million dollars to build it is surrounded by rocks on all sides and there is an army base fort carson just a couple of miles away from the prison for extra measure there is no way on god's green earth that el chapo will buy land around a prison that the federal government owns his men would find it difficult if not impossible to drill a tunnel in that region and who is going to smuggle a watch for him i've already covered how difficult it is to corrupt the gods the only way out for the man is in a body bag but that's not even the most terrifying part of the super max prison there are some experiences far more horrifying than death and adx florence has a 5 star rating in that department i'm talking about the unbearable living conditions of the range 13 cells that el chapo and other unfortunate inmates like him have to endure life in range 13 life in range 13 is so bad that former gods have disavowed the prison calling it inhumane and it's not inhumane for the reasons you think the only kind of torture in adx florence is isolation and deafening silence the prison is the way the worst of the worst go in adx inmates are locked up 23 hours a day in a 7 by 12 foot cell that features a desk stool and bed each of these pieces of furniture is made from the same material that the cell is made from poured concrete the cells are also soundproofed so inmates can't communicate with anybody except their own imagination it's also constructed to be so deliberately disorienting that the prisoners never know where in the prison they are inmates will find it hard to hurt themselves in this cell even if they tried the sinks come without taps so that they can't be turned into weapons the toilets shut off if clogged and the showers run on a scheduled timer entertainment in the cells is reduced to a black and white tv that plays repeated educational and religious recordings daily even the food they eat is monitored it is hand delivered by the gods so that inmates won't have an opportunity to meet one another there's a small window in each cell but it only gives them a view of the sky and every cell is fitted with pressure pads that allow the gods to know where the prisoner is within their cell at any given time the entire facility is also surrounded by motion detectors cameras and thick steel doors for extra protection and yes everything is controlled remotely from a control room the entire facility can be shut down with a single panic button in the event of an emergency already you can get a feeling of how impossible it would be for el chapo to escape adx florence but let's humor ourselves a little let's imagine that el chapo found a way to escape his cell get past all the sensors cameras and steel doors he would still have a 12 foot tall razor wire fence to deal with and we're not even talking about the countless heavily armed guards that patrol the facility 24 7 and their highly trained dogs and the fact that fort carson which is just down the road is equipped with a 4th infantry division 10th special forces group a few hundred combat vehicles and 74 combat helicopters there is a reason adx florence supermax is called the alcatraz of the rockies no inmate in the 2018 history of the facility has ever escaped and from the way things look el chapo's case will be no different he might have escaped twice in the past but this time it's safe to say that those days are over

Channel: The Fugitive

Views: 8,791,453

Keywords: allegations

Id: fPft1z_YyOk

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022