Producer's Notebook: My Trip To Supermax

60 Minutes Producer Henry Schuster Shares Some Impressions From Supermax

(CBS)  "H-Unit," where a number of the Islamic terrorists are kept in their single cells for up to 23 hours a day, along with the FBI traitor Robert Hanssen, was most certainly not on our walking tour. Those prisoners are allowed no contact with the outside world, except for a pre-approved list of family, friends and lawyers -- part of what are euphemistically called Special Administrative Measures (SAMs).

H-unit is where a dozen or so of the Islamic terrorists have been staging repeated hunger strikes. The prisoners are not allowed to exercise together and the only way they can communicate is by shouting to each other through the toilets and sinks in their small cells.

We did not go by D-Unit either. Back in pre-9/11 days, it was known as Bomber's Row, because Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was there, alongside Yousef and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. One former officer described the scene in the recreation yard as a "recipe club" where the bombers could trade tips and compare their political views.

These days on D-Unit, it is mostly the second-string terrorists, the ones not considered dangerous enough to rate SAMs. Kaczynski is still there but perhaps more interesting is Olympic Park bomber Rudolph who seems -- from letters written to a Colorado Springs newspaper-- to have taken on the mantle of a prison rights advocate. He's also become fairly fluent in Arabic, getting shouted lessons from some of the other D-Unit residents.

We did pass a door marked Z-Unit, the segregation unit designed for discipline (though about the only discipline left for men who are in solitary, often for the rest of their life is to take away TV privileges). Somewhere in the maze of hallways off Z-Unit is Range 13 (though inmates in their letters sometimes refer to it as 13 range) which is the home to just two inmates.

Tommy Silverstein, who killed a prison guard at the federal pen in Marion, is there. He's perhaps the reason that Supermax got built. After he killed the guard, it became apparent that Marion's security, even in complete lockdown, just was not tough enough to satisfy the BOP. And since by that time Alcatraz was on its way to becoming a tourist attraction, Florence was built.

Ramzi Yousef is also there on Range 13. No one we have talked to who knows Yousef believes his change of religion is for real, despite the extraordinary steps of cutting his hair, eating pork and professing to be a Christian.

What we do know is that Yousef gets his news late and in pieces. He is not allowed to watch any of the news channels and he gets copies of USA Today a month after they are published. News items that relate to terrorism or are otherwise deemed a security risk are cut out of the paper before he gets it.

So we set off for our walk through the halls of Supermax, limited as our tour was going to be. Our CBS News Legal Editor Andrew Cohen was along and has a nice description of what he saw.

To me, the highlight was sitting inside one of the cells, imagining that life, imagining the prospect of spending the rest of my days in such confinement. We had gotten countless letters from inmates describing their conditions inside (most hated it, a rare few said they enjoyed or at least appreciated the solitude). And we even got pictures from inmates, because it turns out if you win a game of bingo -- played alone in your cell -- you can earn a candy bar or even the right to have your picture taken and sent to your family.

The 7' x 12' cell -- complete with poured concrete bed slab, desk and stool, not to mention your own shower stall and toilet along with a 12" black and white television seemed to shrink around me. You don't get a view of the Rockies, although unlike my old high school, each cell does have a slit window offering a view of an inner courtyard and maybe a patch of sky.

A few minutes inside that cell and two hours inside Supermax were enough to remind me why I left high school a year early. The walls close in very fast.

There was much I had hoped to learn at Supermax. Most of it I didn't see. I would like to come back with a camera and get a proper tour. But I certainly don't want to stay.

[ericmichael1]

Answer:

Security, security, security.

A U.S. Penitentiary is a maximum custody facility. In Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a max custody inmate communicated with friends that he was about to be transported to a local hospital. A young correctional officer who was unarmed was killed by gunfire exiting the hospital. Another officer was wounded in the arm.

It is a dangerous job. But they do it every day. To tell a relative that a max custody inmate is at a downtown hospital is a great security risk.

I wouldn''t have told you until he was back in the prison, either. Security.

[palfordc]

May I add that what happens to prisoners who are at the mercy of the guards and their action, certainly effect law abiding citizens like myself.

[palfordc]

My son was in Atlanta USP suffering from PTSD due to a JAN'' 05 attack from 3 men on the prison grounds and was not to have a cell mate when a prison guard placed a fighting man (man had just had 2 fights w/other prisoners) in my son''s cell. Prisoners notified me that my son was in Grady Hospital on Life Support due to the brain''s bleeding and swelling and other injuries substained in the attack in which that man kicked and stomped him. When I got to the prison, the assistant warden wanted to know who notified me and that he had to ask me to leave the premises and without information about my son''s condition. I then went to Grady and walked the ICU floors until I saw my son there on a ventilator and a stent in his skull. I kneeled at the door''s threshold and prayed for Devine intervention, and a prison guard came to tell me to "get away from the door", I finished praying and replied "not even the federal government has a higher power than me". My son was comatose for 6 weeks plus, and hospitalized at Grady, South Fulton Medical Center and the Hospital for Federal Prisoners in Springfield,Mo. for a total of 7 months. He was injured in Sep.''05 but was not found nor received medical treatment until Oct.''05. God has other things for my son to do, so therefore God assisted all those teams of trama, brain, eye surgeons and neurologists as well as the support teams of nurses and aids. I do not know why the prisons do not notify family members when their loved one are in such grave conditions.

[ericmichael1]

Ramzi Yousef: convert to Christianity? Paul was a prisoner and a band of Jewish zealots had bound themselves with a curse not to eat or drink until Paul was assassinated. Did they convert to Christianity? No, they would rather die.

It is similar. To understand Ramzi Yousef, you must understand his world view. He sincerely believes that he is an agent of God, a soldier in a divine war. To him, it is Good vs. Evil. Any pretense he makes to have security restrictions lifted is just that, pretense. He will strike out at the kufir (unbelievers) at the first opportunity he is given.

This is a world view unlike any other we have come to know. To expect a man who sincerely believes he is a prisoner-of war in a universal struggle to convert to the religion of his mortal enemy is just unrealistic.

Look at Yousef''s history. He was the same man who plotted the assassination of the Pope and only gave up on it because his bomb lab was discovered. He was on the run from plot to plot from the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 onward. He envisioned himself as the 007 of the radical Islamic terrorist movement, and, indeed, he was. He killed without remorse and will yet kill again if he can. The Bojinka plot he helped to craft was the precursor to 9/11.

Yousef and others like him belong at the ADX. It is a necessary evil because there is pure evil---like Ramzi Yousef---that needs to be contained there.

Eric

[grammawhamma]

The comment I felt was stupid was something to the effect of "look at his eyes...he looks like Charlie Manson". Ok...my deceased husband looked like Charlie Manson also...but he didn''t have a mean bone in his body.

[purplelady155]

no looks do not meal alot but you can look at an inmate and see/feel the hated and evil in them, its a sickness and in most cases will not ever be cured.

[sandcrabby]

I thought the comment by the former warden that one of the terrorists was "the real deal" and had not been converted to Christainity may have been too cynical. After all, the Apostle Paul-- formerly Saul -- was "the real deal" whose passion was to rid the world of Christianity and scared the heck out of his new Christian brothers when told of his conversion. Let''s not forget the power of God to change even the hearts of hated terrorist...IF it is true...what a message he could bring to the world. Remember Eldgridge Clever...it happened to him.

[purplelady155]

remember these boys are not locked up for singing too loud at sunday school, they will reoffend, they are the hardened ones that only live to perpetuate evil

[cjprobof]

What is the BOP hiding? Curious that they force feed inmates but deny these human beings other life sustaining sustenance! If an NFL player treated his dog this way he''d be up on charges. The dangerous staff shortages compromise staff safety and the safety of our nation. The Dept of Justice and the BOP need to target our resources so we can incarcerate those who need to be incarcerated in a safe and humane manner. Why is our government treating inmates and staff like this? Because they can - let''s change that!

[purplelady155]

do you not understand that the only responsibility the doc has towards these inmates is control and custody, if it makes it easire just imagine how "humane" they were to their victims,staff shortages are a fact of life and that needs to be taken up with the government, not the officers- they too wish for more co-workers too.

[grammawhamma]

I have visited in the Z Unit and near by there is a mentally insane man screaming and screaming for hours on end. Can you imagine being locked in a cell for 23 hrs (sometimes 24) a day listening to that poor man''''s screams. It was almost more than I could bear and I was just visiting.
posted by yendys33

Sorry...but I disagree with you. (You can be a resident at a nursing home and have to listen to people scream non stop.) Maybe it is good for the murderers imprisoned to hear screams to remind them of their victims final screams. I might sound harsh but prisoners are there to be punished...not coddled.

As far as your brother...you obviously love him, therefore in your eyes you see him as the shining example of a perfect prisoner. The prison system, however, sees him as the most dangerous of criminals. I would believe they are correct in their judgement of your brother because you are biased by being his sister. Good luck to you and your family...it must be a hard thing to deal with.

[purplelady155]

be grateful that is all he can do to your brother is scream, I could think of worse things to happen

[grammawhamma]

My question about this story that I hope someone can answer is: Why are they force feeding the prisoners that go on hunger strikes with feeding tubes three times a day? If the prisoner is offered the food and refuses it I don''t see any reason to force feed.

[wazupmd]

I''m really confused, are we supposed to feel sorry for these inmates? Haven''t the inmates proven they can''t play well with others and this is the consiquence? And did I see Scott Pelley tear-up when interviewing Garrett Linderman?? I remember when the Supermax opened in 1994 and if I remember correctly there was all kinds of film footage out there from CBS and many of the other networks.