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With so many well-known American television shows centered around themes of organized crime and prison escape, you’re likely intrigued by whether those stories could happen in real life.
You don’t have to look far to find dramatic, real-world stories of crime bosses and their notorious criminal activities.
One such story is that of the Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the ex-leader of the Sinaloa Carte.
The U.S. Department of Justice describes Sinaloa Cartel as one of the most “prolific, violent, and powerful” drug trafficking organizations worldwide.
El Chapo was charged with various crimes in Mexico and the United States (U.S.), including federal charges in California, New York, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, Florida, and New Hampshire.
In July 2019, a year after El Chapo’s trial began in New York, the federal court handed the drug cartel leader a life sentence plus 30 years.
Whether you’re a true crime enthusiast or just doing casual research about trending criminal cases, you likely wonder about the prison where he serves his sentence.
You might also want to know the specifics about El Chapo’s criminal activities and prison conditions.
LookUpInmate.org is your free, go-to online resource for inmates, correctional institutions, and the criminal justice system in the United States of America.
This article narrates El Chapo’s real-life criminal exploits and eventual capture and incarceration.
Read to learn more about the Mexican drug lord’s current legal situation.
El Chapo Is Serving a Life Sentence
As mentioned, El Chapo is currently serving a life sentence after his conviction in 2019. The former Mexican drug lord and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel is now housed in Supermax, a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.
Supermax holds other high-profile inmates, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols.
The prison is so remote, austere, and secure that many call it the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Begins Life Prison Term in Colorado Supermax Prison
On July 19, 2019, Guzman, then 62, arrived at the Administrative Maximum United States Penitentiary, or ADX (Administrative Maximum), in Florence two days after receiving a life-plus-30-year prison sentence.
The “Supermax” prison is located 115 miles (185 kilometers) south of Denver. According to Reuters, no escape has ever occurred there.
The Federal District Court in Brooklyn ordered the life term due to the severity of Guzman’s crimes. The kingpin was convicted of murder, drug, and money laundering following a three-month trial.
What It’s Like Inside El Chapo’s Prison Cell
ADX inmates spend around 23 hours daily in solitary confinement.
The ADX can house 500 prisoners in its eight units. Inmates live their days in 12-by-7-foot cells made of thick concrete walls with double sliding metal doors.
These cells also have solid exteriors that prevent occupants from seeing one another.
Each cell includes an automatic shower and a sink-toilet combo. Moreover, prisoners sleep on thin mattresses on concrete slabs.
Most cells also have televisions with built-in radios. Inmates can access periodicals, books, and specific arts-and-crafts materials.
Generally, the facility allows prisoners a maximum of 10 hours of exercise weekly outside their cells.
They alternate between solo trips to an indoor “gym” (a windowless cell with a chin-up bar) and group visits to the outdoor recreation yard where prisoners remain confined to their respective cages.
Meals come through slots in the cell’s interior door. The slot also facilitates an inmate’s face-to-face interaction (for example, with a guard, chaplain, psychiatrist, and imam).
Amnesty, a non-profit organization, reported that ADX prisoners routinely spend days with only a few words spoken to them.
What Is a Supermax Prison?
This prison type is a special, super-maximum unit or facility. Supermax prisoners often spend their days and nights locked in small, sometimes windowless, cells enclosed with solid steel doors.
Officers let out prisoners a few times weekly for showers and solitary exercise.
In addition, supermax inmates have nearly no access to recreational or educational resources or other mentally stimulating activities. They’re usually handcuffed and escorted by two or three correctional officers whenever they leave their cells.
Supermax housing assignments are typically indefinite and may last for many years.
While supermax facilities exist specifically to hold incorrigibly violent or dangerous inmates, they also confine many inmates who do not meet these criteria.
ADX Florence Has a Reputation for Being “Escape Proof”
No one has escaped the ADX since it opened in 1994. The facility is located in the high desert south of Denver.
Inmates stay in small, soundproof cells for 23 hours daily in permanent lockdown. They have no contact with fellow inmates.
Staff members are thoroughly screened and have little direct contact with those they supervise.
The ADX may be the only prison designed to keep occupants in near-total solitary confinement.
ADX Florence Was Born After the Killing of Two Correctional Officers
ADX Florence was established after tragic incidents struck other federal prisons.
For example, in 1983, there were two incidents where correction officers were stabbed to death in Marion United States Penitentiary.
These prisoner attacks made high-level security prisons necessary.
In November 1994, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) opened the ADX in Florence, Colorado. Modeled after Marion, this facility intensifies repressive techniques, such as sensory deprivation and isolation.
“Worse Than Death”
Robert Hood, the ADX Florence warden from 2002 to 2005, described the prison as “a clean version of hell.” He added that the facility is “far much worse than death.”
The psychological impacts of isolation are profoundly negative. As early as 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that prolonged solitary confinement was an “infamous punishment” and severely impairs mental health.
The American Journal of Psychiatry noted that anxiety attacks, hallucinations, impulse control issues, and self-harm can develop due to solitary confinement.
It Holds Many High-Profile Inmates
As mentioned, El Chapo’s inmates include high-profile individuals.
Here are other notable prisoners at the ADX facility where El Chapo currently resides, including their criminal activities:
- Ramzi Yousef was convicted in two trials: first, in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that left three dead and 1,000 injured, and a deadly 1994 Philippine Airlines flight bombing.
Yousef reportedly declared that he was proud of being a terrorist after receiving a life sentence in 1998.
- From 1979 to 2001, Robert Hanssen, a former FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) supervisory special agent, provided substantial national security information of “incalculable value” to Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies.
Hanssen pleaded guilty to espionage crimes in 2001 in an attempt to avoid the death penalty. Instead of capital punishment, he got a life sentence.
- Richard Reid, an al Qaeda operative who is also known as the “shoe bomber, attempted to set off a bomb he had hidden in his shoes while on a flight with American Airlines in December 2001.
The plane landed safely in Boston due to the passengers overpowering Reid.
The British citizen pleaded guilty in federal court to terrorism charges in 2003 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Eric Rudolph, dubbed the “Olympic Park bomber,” was responsible for the July 1996 deadly bombing that occurred during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Rudolph also carried out a series of bombings targeting a gay nightclub and women’s clinics between 1996 and 1998.
The Olympic Park bomber confessed that the legalization of abortion motivated his criminal acts.
He apologized before being sentenced to life imprisonment, saying, “I would do anything to take that night back.
Guzman’s Dark Past and Previous Prison Escapes
Mexico announced the Guzman’s first capture in Guatemala on June 10, 1993.
However, Guzman could still maintain his operations while staying in a Mexican prison.
The Puente Grande maximum security prison, where El Chapo was transferred in 1995, became his new operation hub.
In January 2001, Guzman escaped the top-security facility with the help of bribed guards. Francisco Camberos, one of these bribed officers, opened the door to the drug lord’s cell and helped him climb a laundry cart.
The two moved through the unguarded hallways and unlocked electronic doors until they reached the inner parking lot, where only one officer was on duty.
El Chapo exited the cart and hopped into a Chevrolet Monte Carlo trunk.
On February 22, 2014, law enforcement agents captured El Chapo in Mazatlan, where he hid in tunnels for days. They considered it a huge win, especially because Guzman became notorious for being the “most powerful drug trafficker” worldwide.
In July 2015, El Chapo would again escape the maximum security facility via a tunnel. Authorities re-captured him in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, almost a year after his escape.
In May 2016, authorities moved Guzman from the Altiplano maximum security prison near Mexico City to the Cefereso No. 9 facility in Ciudad Juarez.
Officials Worry El Chapo Is Preparing for Another Escape, According to His Letter
El Chapo sent a letter to the Chicago-born U.S. judge overseeing his case. Chapo says prison officials deny him access to attorney documents for new court motions.
The crime boss said the officers always use the excuse Guzman escaped a Mexican prison.
Life in Prison Amid a Pandemic
COVID-19 impacted the U.S. prison system significantly.
In 2020, CNN, citing a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research, reported that the pandemic caused the death and infection rates in prisons to increase by 5.5 times higher than the general U.S. population.
Guzman’s lawyer said that their client’s prison condition worsened amid the pandemic.
During the trial, Guzman complained about his experience at the Metropolitan Correction Center, a federal facility in Manhattan, where he stayed before being transferred to Colorado.
At the time, Guzman’s defense counsel filed requests for improved prison conditions at MCC. They claimed their client has spent over two years in the U.S. without access to fresh air or natural light.
They also noted that his MCC conditions were psychologically scarring.
Guzman’s lawyer raised similar concerns regarding his confinement in Colorado.
El Chapo Requests Judge to Allow His Family to Visit Him in Supermax Jail
El Chapo asked the federal judge who oversaw his case to grant permission for his family to visit him in the ADX Florence.
The letter, filed on Friday, requested the judge to “authorize a visit from my wife and bring the girls as well.”
No Chance at All of Ever Getting Out
As mentioned, Joaquin Guzman-Loera had escaped prison several times. But he is likely not going to jailbreak while in the ADX Florence.
Martin Horn, a former commissioner at the New York City Department of Correction and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, commented that the ADX is very well-designed to hold the most dangerous criminals in the federal prison system.
Given Guzman’s previous two escapes, he added that the crime lord is a greater flight risk than anyone else. This situation makes ADX an appropriate place for the Mexican drug lord.
El Chapo’s Wife, Emma Coronel, Was Released in the U.S
In September 2023, Guzman’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released from a U.S. prison after serving nearly two years for money laundering and drug trafficking charges.
In November 2021, Aispuro was given a three-year prison sentence after she pleaded guilty to charges related to her husband’s narcotics empire.
Aispuro’s sentence also included four years of supervised release and a forfeiture of $1.5 million.
References
- Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Fast Facts
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/world/joaqun-el-chapo-guzmn-fast-facts/index.html - ‘El Chapo’ was sentenced to life in prison after calling his trial unjust and slamming his prison conditions
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/17/us/el-chapo-sentencing/index.html - The Story of “El Chapo” and Why the Drug War Will Never End
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/el-chapo-noah-hurowitz-interview/ - Convicted drug lord “El Chapo” sends “SOS” message to Mexico’s president from U.S. prison
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-chapo-sos-message-mexico-president-from-us-prison-psychological-torment/ - Colorado’s Supermax prison now occupied by El Chapo is “worse than death,” ex-warden says
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/27/supermax-el-chapo-escape-mentally-ill/ - Inside America’s Toughest Federal Prison
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/inside-americas-toughest-federal-prison.html - Supermax Prisons: An Overview
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/supermax/Sprmx002.htm - Florence, Colorado: The Proposed Nightmare Becomes a Reality
https://people.umass.edu/~kastor/walking-steel-95/ws-florence.html - Timeline of El Chapo’s Major Escapes and Captures
https://time.com/4173454/el-chapo-capture-escape-timeline/ - ‘El Chapo’ transferred to new Mexican prison near the U.S. border
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/el-chapo-transferred-to-new-mexican-prison-near-the-u-s-border - Joaquin Guzman-Loera (Captured)
https://www.state.gov/narcotics-rewards-program-target-information-brought-to-justice/joaquin-guzman-loera-captured/