U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons

The ten best books about America's prisons

This week's cover story, "The Lifers Book Club," reports on the Words Beyond Bars Project, a pilot progam at the Limon Correctional Facility that puts high-security prisoners, many of them serving life sentences, in a room with volunteers to discuss great books. It's a modest effort that could trans ... More >>

Update: Photos from supermax lawsuit claiming horrific abuse of mentally ill at ADX

Update: Yesterday, Alan Prendergast reported on a supermax lawsuit alleging shocking mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners. We've added a copy of the suit, plus photos of the facility and the imprisoned plaintiffs in the case. See it below following Prendergast's piece. Original post by Alan Prend ... More >>

Private prisons' blueprint for success: more lobbying, less security

The use of private prisons by states and the federal government continues to increase, yielding billions in annual revenues for two dominant companies in the industry -- despite a lack of solid research that America's experiment with for-profit incarceration actually saves taxpayers money in the lon ... More >>

Robert Hood: A former supermax warden's resolutions for 2012

Robert Hood.​A former warden at the highest-security prison in the country -- the federal supermax prison outside Florence -- has some intriguing advice for fixing the nation's troubled, budget-draining corrections system in the coming year. Intriguing, in part, because some of the changes Rob ... More >>

Thomas Silverstein: Judge rules conditions at supermax not "extreme"

Federal judges in Denver are of two minds about the kind of punishment doled out at the supermax penitentiary in Florence. While one is allowing a Tanzanian terrorist's complaint about the prison's restrictions on his mail and visitors to proceed to trial, another has thrown out Thomas Silverstein's ... More >>

Harley Lappin: Private prison industry woos another top public official

​There are two revolving doors in every prison system. One is for the inmates, many of whom fail on parole and keep coming back. The other is reserved for top administrators who, even amid scandal, move easily from high-powered positions of public trust to high-paid jobs in the private prison ... More >>

Raped and extorted by a prison gang, Scott Howard was called a "drama queen" by corrections officials

Scott Howard: Inmate's history of obtaining bogus refunds tip of prison-tax-fraud iceberg

​This week's cover story, "The Devil's Playground," recounts the ordeal of Scott Howard, a Colorado inmate extorted and sexually assaulted by the 211 Crew prison gang. But it's also about Howard's history of obtaining bogus tax refunds while behind bars, a talent the gang was eager to exploit. ... More >>

Thomas Silverstein: After 26 years in solitary, "Terrible Tommy" wins a round in court

Thomas Silverstein at Atlanta's penitentiary (inset) in the 1980s and at ADX in 2007.​When you've spent your time since the early days of the Reagan years in a cell smaller than some people's closets, progress tends to get measured in small, small increments rather than sweeping events. But T ... More >>

Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero: It's not every day the feds get a guilty plea from a drug kingpin with his own Wikipedia page

Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero once sold weed by the ton. Yes, the ton.​Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero, 46, who entered a guilty plea Friday in regard to charges against him in Colorado and Arizona, isn't just any drug peddler. As one of the reputed leaders of Mexico's Sonora cartel, he became the stu ... More >>

Breaking News: Joe Principe's standoff with the cops ends badly

Three views of Joe Principe. The call came into my voicemail Monday morning, November 17. "I'm calling to give you the exclusive rights to a standoff with the government," the voice said. "I'm not going to leave my house. They're jamming me up again… after all this nonsense that I've been t ... More >>

Kudos for "The Caged Life"

Pro and Con

Amadeus Harlan has spent his life playing everyone around him — but not as a Denver Bronco.

The Caged Life

Is Thomas Silverstein a prisoner of his own deadly past — or the first in a new wave of locked-down lifers?

Coming Up Short

Letters to the Editor

From the week of June 10, 2003

Cowboy Justice

They ran the toughest cellblock in the most dangerous prison in the state. It was the perfect place to beat inmates.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of October 10, 2002

The Long Silence

Federal prisoners' fight to get the word out reaches unprintable extremes.

Off Limits

Prison break

A Broken Code

The supermax snitch unit was supposed to bust prison gangs, but who was really rolling over?

Marked for Death

Trapped in a prison race war, Tony Francis had three choices: kill, snitch or run. He found another way out.

Pest of the West

Death comes for the prairie dog.

Look for the Union URL

At the federal supermax, it isn't just the inmates who think management is unfair.

Fight Club

The Cowboys set up federal prisoners for beatings -- and blamed it all on the inmates.

Singing Like a Canary: The Birdman's Caged Book

Con Heir

Meet a truly dangerous prisoner. Literate. Political. Published. His teacher: the Birdman of Alcatraz.

This Jail for Hire

Colorado's cheap solution to prison overcrowding has cost inmates plenty. It could cost the state millions.

MAXIMUM INSECURITY

OUTSPOKEN CONS CLASH WITH FLORENCE OFFICIALS OVER RACE, RELIGION--AND SPEAKING FRENCH.