What would Dzhokhar Tsarnaev face in Supermax prison? [View all]

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(CNN)It's home to Ramzi Yousef, who plotted the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center; 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui; "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski; and Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber."

When inmates arrive at the United States Penitentiary Administrative-Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, it immediately becomes clear -- ADX, the the nation's most secure Supermax prison, is built to cut them off from the world.

If Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, is sentenced to life in prison, he's likely to spend it in the ADX complex. If sentenced to death, he could be sent to the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, with other death row inmates. A federal jury in Boston will soon decide which sentence he gets.

The worst of the worst in America's vast prison network are delivered to ADX, the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," in buses, special vehicles, even Black Hawk helicopters.

Heavily armed patrols cruise the sprawling complex. A dozen imposing gun towers rise above squat brick buildings. Walls topped with razor wire partially block the snow-capped mountains.

"As soon as they come through the door ... you see it in their faces," former ADX warden Robert Hood said. "That's when it really hits you. You're looking at the beauty of the Rocky Mountains in the backdrop. When you get inside, that is the last time you will ever see it."

"The Supermax is life after death," said Hood, who served as ADX warden from 2002 to 2005. "It's long term. ... In my opinion, it's far much worse than death."

'The architecture is the control'

Many of the more than 400 inmates spend as much as 23 hours a day alone in 7-by-12-foot concrete cells. Meals are slid through small holes in the doors. Bed is a concrete slab dressed with a thin mattress and blankets.

A single window about 42 inches high and 4 inches wide allows some natural light but is made so prisoners cannot see beyond the building. Cells have unmovable stools and desks made of concrete. Solid walls prevent prisoners from seeing other cells or having direct contact with other inmates.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/us/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-supermax-prison/index.html