Inside ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’ prison where ‘El Chapo’ is locked up for life as wife Emma Coronel Aispuro gets an early release after just two years in jail

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will spend his days in a prison known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” and a “high-tech version of hell” after he was given a life sentence in 2019 on human trafficking charges.

However, his wife, former model Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released from federal custody in Los Angeles after serving three years for her role in her husband’s criminal empire.

The man known as El Chapo is believed to be the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and has been in US custody since 2016. He was sentenced to life in New York in 2019 for a series of crimes, a sentence he said was “tainted.”

In 2015, Aispuro was convicted of helping her husband escape from a Mexican prison by smuggling him into a GPS watch disguised as food.

The prison where El Chapo now resides is officially called ADX Florence. Opened in 1994, built 5,000 feet above sea level, it has housed other high-profile prisoners such as shoe bomber Richard Reid, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnev and 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

The facility is spread over nearly 50 acres in Fremont County, Colorado, close to the community of Florence, just over 100 miles south of Denver. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the safest prison in the world.

The section of the prison where El Chapo is housed is specifically designed for inmates who are considered a threat to other inmates or staff, including those convicted of extremely heinous crimes. The drug lord lives with 325 other prisoners.

Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in their 7-by-12 reinforced concrete cells, which are completely soundproof and designed to limit the risk of self-harm, although one prisoner committed suicide in 2013 after hanging himself with a bed sheet.

An unnamed former inmate at ADX related it Vice in 2019 that prisoners routinely attempt to harm themselves in order to have human contact with doctors and nurses.

The cell is furnished with a concrete stool that cannot be moved, a concrete desk, a concrete bed with a ding-foam mattress, and a combination sink and toilet.

The staff-to-inmate ratio is higher than most U.S. prisons. Staffing takes place six times a day. Meals for the prisoners are pushed through holes in the steel doors.

They are allowed to shower three times a week and are allowed to make 15 minutes of monthly phone calls to relatives, while letters to loved ones are limited in length.

Visitors must be approved by the U.S. Attorney General’s office. These visits can be traumatic for everyone involved.

‘You should see your family chained up, like Hannibal Lecter or something. They have to look at you in pain and writhe,” said a former inmate The guard in 2002.

El Chapo’s lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, has repeatedly said his client is deeply unhappy with prison conditions, citing the lack of sun exposure as one of his main grievances.

The one window in his cell prevents the prisoners from seeing any movement outside.

In August, a leaked letter from the gangster saw him complain about his treatment by prison guards, reports say ABC Chicago. El Chapo said he believed the reason for this was his record of prison escapes.

No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence.

“It is very well designed for its purpose: to hold the most dangerous offenders in the federal prison system,” said Martin Horn, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction, to Reuters. in 2019.

“During his previous two escapes, Guzman has shown that he is a greater risk of escape than almost anyone else. That makes ADX Florence a suitable place for him.’

The hour prisoners are allowed outside is spent in a small cage surrounded by high walls covered in barbed wire and turrets, wearing leg irons, handcuffs and belly chains.

“The ADX is a much grimmer environment than any prison I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to every federal prison. When I call it a clean version of hell, I mean it’s spotless and quiet because everyone is locked up there. It is a very abnormal environment,” said a former director the Boston Globe in 2015.

“No one can go through that experience without being scarred. It kills you emotionally. You have to withdraw like a turtle in a shell,” convicted domestic terrorist Raymond Luc Levasseur told the Globe.

He also called it a ‘high-tech version of hell.’

The warden told the newspaper that officials use TV as a way to force prisoners to obey the rules. Inmates may purchase a device through the prison commissary, with access to basic cable.

The commissary sells limited items, toothbrushes and candy. There is also a library cart that travels through the halls. Prisoners are allowed to attend religious services.

The Globe report notes that the prison was “designed as a place to change the behavior of inmates who committed violence in other prisons.”

In theory, inmates’ behavior can lead to them earning more privileges or a transfer, but few prisoners achieve this status.

As of this writing, no prisoner has ever escaped from prison.

Outside the supermax section, the high-security area houses 754 prisoners, while the medium and minimum units house about 1,300.

Guzman’s first escape occurred in 2001, allegedly in a laundry cart and with the help of prison officials he had corrupted. His second escape, via the tunnel, came 14 years later.

Horn said ADX Florence is “literally built into the side of a mountain, with a robust security infrastructure.”

Could Guzman penetrate that? “I would never say never,” he said, “but it’s highly unlikely.”