Life Near the Supermax......

[Waxd0g]

It's just a normal life near the Supermax; Huge maximum-security penitentiary neighbour has little effect on residents of Colorado town | Kelowna.com
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It's just a normal life near the Supermax; Huge maximum-security penitentiary neighbour has little effect on residents of Colorado town

Saturday, November 28th, 2009 | 3:10 am

Like the towering Rocky Mountains and endless acres of dry grass dotted with cactus, a federal prison holding dozens of convicted terrorists, many with al-Qaida ties, is just part of the landscape here.

Golfers tee off on the local course and kids hop off the school bus just a few hundred yards from terrorists who sit in solitary confinement nearly 24 hours a day.

The roster of 449 prisoners at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility –dubbed the Supermax –includes a Sept. 11 conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui; the would-be "shoe bomber," Richard Reid; the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef; and a former Chicago gang member accused of aiding terrorists, Jose Padilla.

The cells here also house the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh's accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols.

But if having terrorists imprisoned a 10-minute walk from your home is a safety risk, there's no sign of that in Florence, Colo., a rural community about 110 miles south of Denver.

"We still leave our doors unlocked at night," said former Mayor Bart Hall.

Thomson, Ill., could become home to the second federal Supermax. Federal prison officials recently visited the cash-strapped northwestern Illinois town of 600 as they consider converting a state prison there into a Supermax to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Several Republican politicians have harshly criticized the plan, saying it would make Thomson and Chicago, about 150 miles east, potential terrorist targets.

In Florence, roughly 3,800 residents are neighbors of the Supermax, and the thought of a convict escape or terrorist plot is not a burning issue. The Supermax is the nation's most secure federal prison. No one has ever escaped.

"You could walk down the road and get hit by a car or fall off your horse and break your neck," said Tessa Smith, 35, taking a break from raking leaves on her five-acre homestead. "I think any one of those would happen [before] getting attacked by a prisoner."

To allay safety concerns, the federal Bureau of Prisons has said Thomson's perimeter would be at least as secure as the Supermax.

Warden Blake Davis declined a Chicago Tribune request to visit the Supermax facility, but security there includes two 15-foot fences topped with razor-sharp coils about five feet apart, prison officials and residents who have toured the facility said. A sensor attached to an alarm measures sound, movement and touch near the fences, guards rove the perimeter 24 hours a day, and several hundred cameras surround the prison. Most prisoners are allowed screened visitors.

Much like Florence and Fremont County 20 years ago, Thomson is desperate for jobs and is seeking a federal prison to keep its community alive. The economy here was hurting so much in the late 1980s that Fremont County residents collected about $130,000 to buy 600 acres and donated it to the federal government to entice it to build a prison, Hall said.

The mine had closed and the Ford dealership moved out of town. The cement plant had cut its production in half. The biggest employer was the nearby Colorado State Penitentiary, Florence City Clerk Dori Williams said, and those were clean, steady jobs. So when the government was looking to build a federal prison complex, Fremont County courted them.

"Just the idea that there could be 2,000 or 3,000 jobs available between '91 and when they went in full operation in '94, it was big," Williams said.

Residents say there wasn't much fuss in Florence or the surrounding county of Fremont when the prison opened in 1994.

The Supermax is one of three federal prisons of varying security levels on a complex about two miles outside of downtown Florence. About 980 people work at the complex, and nearly 275 of those employees live in Florence with their families, said Darrell Lindsey, who heads a committee that acts as the liaison between Fremont County residents and the prison complex.

"The only major problems [that came with the prisons] were longer lines at the bank, larger lines at the post office, longer lines at the grocery store, and traffic was a real problem," Lindsey said.

Florence had one stop light before the Supermax opened. Now it has three. The town built a new high school after prison employees with young families moved in.

Lindsey estimates about 10 businesses opened, including two credit unions, a Super 8 hotel and several antique shops that took over vacant storefronts downtown.

Florence didn't see big-box stores or restaurants sprout up like some predicted, and the town didn't build housing in time for the prison workers moving here, forcing many to settle in neighboring towns.

Michelle Newlon, 20, and her husband bought a one-story house this summer in a subdivision near the prison.

"My feeling is if [convicts] get out, they probably wouldn't stick too close," Newlon said as she pushed her 11-week-old son in a stroller, the prison just ahead on top of a hill.

[Kebemt]

Damn Right we have not had an escape. We are damn good at what we do out here!