Staffing 'terrorist central'

100 townspeople gather to discuss Supermax shortages

Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

FLORENCE - Mike Schnobrich recalls that when the federal government opened Supermax, the country's highest-security prison, in 1994, it had 50 to 60 more guards that it does today.

And that was before it became "terrorist central," the repository for all of the nation's worst terrorists, from Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

"We now have about 180 to 190 correctional officers, down from 240 when they opened the facility," Schnobrich said.

The staffing of Supermax, along with three other prisons that house a total of nearly 3,000 inmates at the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, brought more than 100 townspeople to a meeting at City Hall on Monday night to discuss plans to demand federal help.

The federal Bureau of Prisons has systematically cut personnel from its prisons, not just at Florence but around the nation.

At Florence, guard numbers are 15 to 25 percent below even the Bureau of Prisons' own guidelines it established in 2005 for minimum staffing to maintain safety, said Schnobrich and other representatives of the guards' union.

No Bureau of Prisons representative was at the meeting to speak.

The numbers were disturbing to Florence Mayor Cindy Cox and others in the audience.

"It's a big deal," Cox said. "When Moussaoui came into town a couple of months ago, we were asked by everybody and their mother if we were worried about that, and at the time we weren't.

"Now we hear about the staffing shortages and the funding not being available, and that concerns us because those are very high-profile individuals up there."

The shortages are not just at Supermax.

At the medium-security Federal Correctional Institute, 110 corrections officers guard more than 1,100 inmates.

At the high-security United States Penitentiary, 163 guards have responsibility for 1,000 inmates.

But it's Supermax's terrorists that fuel worry in Florence.

"I have concerns over the notoriety this community has gotten over having Moussaoui brought here, and I'm concerned about compromising the security of the federal penitentiary as well as the community at large," resident Timme Pearson said.

"If we plaster it all over America, how to get in and how to get out, we have been left vulnerable," she said.

A former manager at the federal prison, whose name was withheld to protect his current position, said that public safety is not considered in staff-reduction decisions.

"When a decision is made to vacate a post, you're not thought of. Money is thought of," he said.

"And if somebody doesn't step in and change this, it won't change.

Jennifer Wilson, a union representative from the U.S. Penitentiary, said that $324 million to build two new federal prisons was moved to other needs, including the Iraq war, so more inmates will be funneled into already-crowded prisons.

State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, whose district includes the Florence complex, said that the Bureau of Prisons also has seen its requests denied for four years for money to "harden" Supermax against terrorist attacks.

Supermax has never had a successful escape or an attempt to breach the perimeter from the outside to spring an inmate.

"The likelihood of somebody breaking out of Supermax is pretty remote," McFadyen said. "But nobody thought they were going to put a plane into the World Trade Towers, either."

"We're not in an era anymore where we're so naive to think that a terrorist attack couldn't take place at our facility," she said.

"I think that's the ultimate concern."

Facts on federal prisons

The Federal Correctional Complex is one-half mile south of Florence on Colorado 67. The complex sits on 600 acres, with 250 acres developed into four separate prisons, consisting of 1.2 million square feet. The prisons' components are:

ADX - Administrative Maximum Facility (Supermax)

• Opened: November 1994

• Capacity: 490

• Population: 396

Corrections officers staff: 180-190

• Incidents: Two homicides in April, May 2005

United States Penitentiary - High Security

• Opened: November 1993

• Capacity: 1,276

• Population: 1,003

• Corrections officers staff: 163

• Incidents: Nine homicides since December 1994; riot August 1995; three guards convicted in June 2003 of beating inmates; three other guards pleaded guilty to beating inmates in November 2000.

Federal Correctional Institution - Medium Security

• Opened: January 1993

• Capacity: 1,352

• Population: 1,117

• Corrections officers staff: 110

• Incidents: Riot in February 1994

Federal Prison Camp - Low Security

• Opened: July 1982

• Capacity: 514

• Population: 438

• Corrections Officers Staff: Not available

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Prisons; Federal Correctional Complex, Florence