Colorado State Democratic Rep. Buffie McFadyen, whose Pueblo district includes SuperMax, said budget problems for the prison system have left the top-security facility short-changed and short-staffed.
Two leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang are to be sentenced next week in federal court in Santa Ana, California. They were convicted on conspiracy charges including instigating a murderous race war at another prison through a message smuggled out of SuperMax.
A recent ruling by a federal arbitrator said because of manpower problems at SuperMax, entire cell blocks were left without inside staffing for full shifts on a number of occasions. The doors are electronically controlled, however, and there is constant remote-control camera surveillance
The prison employees' union and local officials say the guard force at SuperMax is well below the number employed when the prison opened a dozen years ago, and it has sunk below the minimum manpower levels established a year ago.
