United States Penitentiary, Florence

The United States Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado is located in southern Colorado convert|45|mi|km south of Colorado Springs. This high-security prison houses approximately 1000 adult male inmates. [http://www.bop.gov/news/weekly_report.jsp] The Penitentiary is a part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, which is situated on 49 acres of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security. The United States Penitentiary is located adjacent to ADX Florence, the Supermax prison. USP Florence was opened in January 1994, and often referred to as "Club Fed" due to the remarkable comforts afforded the inmates. [ Bosworth 2005:1115-1116 ] In the early years of the penitentiary, a group of officers known as the Cowboys were indicted and then convicted of abusing inmates.

Background

The prison was built because of the growing need for a place to house high-security inmates. Before the complex was built, the city of Florence was experiencing an economic crisis with an unemployment rate of 17%. When the citizens were polled by mail about building the complex in Florence, 97% of respondents were in favor of the project. The Federal Correction Complex was going to provide approximately 1000 temporary jobs and close to 900 permanent jobs to the community. In anticipation of these jobs the community raised $160,000 to purchase the convert|600|acre|km2 needed to build the prisons. [http://www.-unix.oit.umass.edu/~kastor/cem1_articles/cu_in_us.html] The United States Penitentiary in Florence (USP Florence) was built in 1993 by the DLR Group, a major architect firm specializing in justice centers.

USP Florence is approximately convert|390020|sqft|m2. All the control activities are located and administrated at one station and the direct supervision method of management is used. No inmate cell window looks outside the exterior building line. A perimeter fence, seven guard towers, and a patrol road ensure the security of the prison. [ Bosworth 2005:1115-1116 ] The prison includes health services, educational program areas, visitation, laundry, a barbershop, commissary, chapel, Special Housing Unit (SHU), and recreation. Inmates work in a Unicor wood chair and desk drawer assembly factory. [ Bpsworth 2005:1115-1116 ] In the first thirteen years USP Florence has had six wardens including the first warden, Patrick Whalen. The current warden is H. A. Rios, Jr.

Cowboys

USP Florence is famous for a group of correctional officers known as the Cowboys who were accused of abusing inmates. Reports of abuse started early in the prison's history; however, it was not until 1996 that the reports started to be taken seriously after the testimony of William Vance Turner, a prisoner who was abused by officers who were alleged members of the Cowboys. [http://news.westward.com/issues/1999-12-16/news.html] Seven of these officers were indicted by a grand jury in Denver for crimes of abusing inmates. The indictment list included 52 incidents, such as dropping handcuffed inmates on their faces, kneeing prisoners in their kidneys, squeezing their testicles, falsifying reports to cover up the guards’ actions, smashing inmates’ heads into walls, and mixing human waste in prisoners’ food. The indictment also alleged that some accused officers taught other correctional officers how to hit an inmate without leaving a mark and threatened other guards that, if they told on them, the Cowboys might be slow to help them if they were ever attacked by an inmate. [http://www.blacknewsweekly.com/prison.html]

The key witness in the trial was Lt. David Armstrong who himself was a Cowboy, but entered into a plea agreement and testified against other Cowboys. In Armstrong’s plea agreement he stated that the Cowboys were a secret group that formed in 1995 because of frustration with the lenient treatment of the SHU inmates who abused officers. The Cowboys’ solution was then to physically abuse and harass the inmates causing the problems and then file false reports so the inmates looked like the guilty parties. [http://news.westward.com/issues/1999-12-16/news.html]

The trial lasted nine weeks and had a ten-day deliberation. The outcome of the case convicted three federal prison officers and acquitted four. The convicted officers were sentenced to a minimum of three years in a federal prison system. [http://talkleft.com/new_archives/002980.html]

References

*Bosworth, Mary ed., Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities, Vol. 2, pp. 1115-1116, 2005