Clean Hell, A

A Clean Hell opens the doors of America’s most secretive prison and lets the reader step into the cell to experience all the horrors the Federal Bureau of Prisons tries to keep hidden underground.

In 1995 the Bureau of Prisons opened the ADX, its “escape-proof” supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The nation’s most secure supermax prison, it was meant to hold the most high-profile prisoners. The “Alcatraz of the Rockies” has since been home to World Trade Center bombers, Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombers, gang leaders, disruptive prisoners, and those deemed “enemies of the state.”

Now, thirty years after the ADX first opened, A Clean Hell offers readers an up close and personal look at life in the most restrictive prison in the United States. After defying the odds and beating the government in a crooked criminal trial, antifascist prisoner Eric King found himself inside the ADX for eighteen months at the end of a ten-year bid. In telling his story of his trial and life inside this underground supermax, Eric vividly captures what life inside ADX is like for both the most infamous prisoners, as well as those prison rebels you have never heard of.

Whether you’re facing time in a federal prison, have clients or loved ones locked inside the ADX, are concerned about the United States prison machine, or are an abolitionist combating the carceral state, A Clean Hell presents a clear picture of survival under the most restrictive levels of state repression. It is both an indictment of American atrocities and an invitation to fight back.