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Interactive graphic shows the whereabouts of the ADX Florence supermax prison, with diagram of the cell El Chapo will occupy if sent there.
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CRIME

El Chapo gets life in U.S. supermax prison - interactive

By Ben Mullins

July 18, 2019 - Following his conviction for drug smuggling, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.

Drug kingpin Guzman previously escaped two high-security Mexican prisons before he was captured and extradited to the United States.

He is now looking at spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison.

The U.S. has one supermax prison in Florence, Colorado (ADX for “administrative maximum”). The compound is secure, remote and austere, earning itself the moniker “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.

Located outside an old mining town two hours south of Denver, ADX’s hardened concrete buildings house the nation’s most violent offenders, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols.

The 400 inmates are held alone for 23 hours a day in 2.1m by 3.7m cells, with fixed furnishings made of concrete.

Most inmates have a television offering limited programming, with their only real view of the outside world coming from a 10cm-wide window designed to prevent them from determining where they are housed in the facility. Human interaction is kept to the minimum, with prisoners even eating their meals in solitude – right beside their stainless steel toilets.

Guzman will be sentenced on June 25, for smuggling narcotics into the U.S. and for having a hand in dozens of murders.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 18/07/2019; STORY: Graphic News
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