Today El Chapo spends 23 hours of every day in a cell.
He has escaped from two prisons before, but his room in this supermax prison is completely
impenetrable.
What is El Chapo’s prison cell actually like?
Let’s find out.
While in the maximum security prison of Puente Grande in Mexico, El Chapo would hold parties
in his cell, and conduct business out of the facility.
Clearly this was not a place that took the threats El Chapo posed seriously.
Even though he was living a lavish life in Puente Grande, El Chapo wanted to go back
to the no rules lifestyle he enjoyed out of prison.
To return to the outside world El Chapo snuck out of Puente Grande in a laundry basket in
2001.
El Chapo continued his reign of chaos and narcotics trafficking for over a decade before
he was captured a second time in 2014.
This time he was sent to Altiplano Prison, which was supposedly more secure than the
previous facility.
At Altiplano El Chapo was not allowed to have parties, and had limited access to the outside
world and his cartel.
So, he did the only thing he could.
He escaped a second time.
This time El Chapo had his associates dig a tunnel under the prison and create an opening
in the shower floor of his cell.
By the time the guards realized what was happening El Chapo had descended down a ladder, hopped
on a motorcycle that was waiting for him in the tunnel, and rode it a mile underground
to a house on the outskirts of the prison where he made his escape.
After he was captured for the third and final time in a heroic raid by Mexican authorities
in 2015, El Chapo would be locked up for good.
The Mexican government put 24 hour guard details and surveillance on El Chapo.
Then the worst possible outcome for the drug lord occured.
He was informed that he would be extradited to the United States.
El Chapo was flown to the U.S. where he was placed in a maximum security prison to await
trial.
He was tried and found guilty on ten counts for narcotics trafficking, using a firearm
in drug crimes, and money laundering.
On July 19, 2019 El Chapo was moved to his current residence at Administrative Maximum
U.S. Penitentiary, or ADX, in Florence, Colorado.
He was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.
Now he spends 23 hours a day in his breakout proof cell.
But what is the cell like?
What is available for El Chapo to do to pass the time?
The short answer is: not much.
ADX Florence is known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
The prison itself opened in 1994.
No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence because of its design and the preventative
measures put in place at its inception.
One main reason that no successful escapes have occurred is because of the cells.
El Chapo’s cell is located in one of the most secure wings of the prison, and he is
anything but comfortable.
The room itself is 7 feet by 12 feet and made out of reinforced concrete walls, ceiling,
and floor.
There is not just one, but two doors that separate the cell from the hallways.
The entryway that El Chapo stares at while locked in his cell is made up of an interior
barred door with a solid metal outer door just behind it.
This reinforces the isolation concept, making sure El Chapo knows he’s stuck in his cell,
except for the one hour of recreation he gets each day.
El Chapo doesn’t even get to leave his cell to eat.
All food is delivered through the barred inner door before the outer door is sealed again.
There is a solid concrete table that El Chapo can sit at, although it is barely big enough
to put the food tray on.
The table doubles as a desk with a stool, both of which are made of solid concrete and
built into the cell infrastructure, so there is no way for him to move anything around.
Almost everything in the cell is made of rock and stuck in place.
Near the small desk is a shelf for a radio and black and white television set that is
rewarded for good behavior.
The only programming on the TV is recreational, religious, and educational, so El Chapo will
not be seeing any of the documentaries or series on streaming services that have recently
been made about his life.
The cell contains a concrete slab on which a thin mattress rests.
This is El Chapo’s bed.
It is not made to be comfortable.
The bed, like everything else, is concrete and mounted onto the wall.
It is just big enough for him to lay on, however, the size does not allow El Chapo to stretch
out in any meaningful way.
There is a single window in El Chapo’s cell.
It is 42 inches tall and 4 inches wide, so it is more of a slit in the concrete wall
than an actual window.
The opening provides a scenic view of the dreary, grey, prison roof, and a small sliver
of sky.
The window is designed this way so that the prisoners at ADX Florence will never know
exactly which part of the prison they are in.
That way there is no chance of them informing their associates where to find them if a break
out ever occurs.
The cells themselves are soundproof so that inmates can’t communicate with anyone else
in the prison.
It also keeps the inmates from knowing when guards are passing, or where people are in
the facility at any given time.
The design of the cells make sure that tapping or banging on the walls will not create any
sound outside of the room.
This is to prevent prisoners from communicating with one another using morse code.
You might be wondering where El Chapo goes to the bathroom if he is not let out of his
cell for 23 hours a day.
The toilet and shower are built right into the floor and walls of the cell.
This allows El Chapo to do his business, and maintain his hygiene, without having to be
transferred to a shower or bathroom facility.
The shower is on a timer to prevent any flooding in the cell.
This was also done to make sure that prisoners could not drown themselves.
There’s a single light in El Chapo’s cell, which is controlled by the guards.
In fact, the electricity to all appliances in the cell is controlled by the guards.
So if it is lights out, El Chapo only has the option of staring into the silent blackness
around him.
There is no TV, radio, or lights when the guards turn off the power.
Obviously no phones are allowed in the cells, but if El Chapo behaves himself and follows
the rules eventually he will be allowed outside visitors.
He will be separated from anyone who visits by a thick glass window.
It seems like the prison cell is slowly getting to El Chapo.
He was used to a life of luxury and being able to do whatever he wanted.
There are no parties in ADX Florence.
There is no way for El Chapo to contact other members of his cartel.
He is stuck there, just like all of the fixtures in the cell itself.
El Chapo has even said that being in his cell at ADX Florence has “been torture, and the
most inhumane situation I have lived in my entire life.
It has been physical, emotional and mental torture."
Clearly El Chapo is not enjoying prison this time around.
That being said, some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have questioned
the methods and design of ADX Florence.
They state that putting mentally unstable prisoners in such an isolated situation borders
on mental torture.
Everyone knows that prisons are not suppose to be nice, comfortable, places, but being
border line torture chambers does bring the methods at ADX Florence into question.
So we know that El Chapo’s prison cell is not the nicest place to spend a life sentence,
but he has committed terrible crimes in his life.
Since he is confined to his cell without any human contact for 23 hours every day you might
ask: what does El Chapo do for the one hour he is let out of his concrete cage?
During his one hour of recreation El Chapo is brought out of his cell and escorted to
a concrete pit that is reminiscent of an empty swimming pool.
The pit is designed to let El Chapo walk around with three guards escorting him.
To be fair, he can’t get very far.
He can walk about ten steps in a straight line back and forth, or 30 steps in a circle.
Either way, El Chapo is not going very long distances, and after an hour the process probably
gets pretty monotonous.
The exercise pit was purposefully sunk into the ground so that prisoners would not be
able to identify their exact location within ADX Florence during their recreation time.
Everything at the prison was designed to prevent escape, which for El Chapo must be a real
bummer considering he escaped relatively easily from his first two prisons.
El Chapo has no idea where he is located within the prison while in his cell, or at the exercise
pit.
But if he could ever figure it out, what other failsafes are in place to make sure that El
Chapo never escapes?
ADX Florence is equipped with motion detectors and pressure pads throughout the facility
to ensure the guards are alerted to any unauthorized movements.
There are countless cameras in plain sight and hidden throughout the prison as well.
All of the prison cell doors are controlled by guards, and in total there are 1,400 remote-controlled
steel doors in ADX Florence.
The walls surrounding the prison complex are 12 feet tall, have razor wire fences lining
the tops of them, and are patrolled at all times.
Basically there is no way in or out of ADX Florence unless the guards allow it.
No one has ever escaped from the prison.
And although there have been inmates diagnosed with insanity due to incarceration at ADX
Florence, the prison administration does not seem eager to change their set up.
In 2012 a class-action lawsuit was brought to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons stating that
prisoners at the facility were known to bang on the wall and scream through the night.
However, almost ten years later, very little has changed at ADX Florence.
El Chapo is not the only infamous criminal to be incarcerated at ADX Florence.
Due to the nature of the prison, and the security it provides, some extremely dangerous people
are locked up there.
Residents of ADX Florence include: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who was one of the Boston Marathon
bombers; Theodore Kaczynski—more famously known as the Unabomber; and Ronald Herron,
AKA Ra Diggs, a rapper from New York City who was convicted of three murders as well
as racketeering and drug trafficking in a violent gang based out of Brooklyn.
Needless to say, almost everyone at ADX—including El Chapo—are serving life sentences.
The prison and the cells it contains are meant to be impenetrable.
El Chapo has escaped from two maximum security prisons in Mexico, but the United States authorities
have no plans of letting him escape their custody.
This is why El Chapo is stuck in his 7 by 12 foot concrete cell for 23 hour a day with
no hopes of escape.
There will be no more parties, no more drug deals, and no more freedom for this Mexican
drug lord.
Now check out “How Insane is El Chapo's Prison Cell Security?”
Or watch “Insane Way El Chapo Escaped Prison/”