Breaking Free When Our Past Enslaves Our Present

Known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”, The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum, or ADX Prison just outside of Florence, Colorado, was built in 1994 at a cost of $60 million dollars. ADX was designed to house the the worst of the worst offenders known to the United States. The facility was created to imprison the type of people with multiple life sentences, most deemed so dangerous that they are considered a risk to everyone, and in many cases even to our national security. They’re the kind of people that even other high security prisons don’t want to be responsible for.(1)

The prison itself exists in a desolate area, designed such that once you are on the inside, a person looses all sense of direction. There are no windows, except a few small openings facing the sky directly above. Inmates spend their days in 12-by-7-foot cells with thick concrete walls. Each cell has a set of double solid steel doors, this is so that inmates cannot see one another. Inmates are permitted solo workout sessions in an indoor “gym”, a windowless concrete cell with a single pull-up bar for up to one hour per day. (2)

All meals are provided via a slot built into the interior door after a guard opens the exterior door. Inmates sleep on concrete slabs on a thin mattress. The exterior of the prison is surrounded by a series of twelve foot razor wire fences, and thousands of motion detectors, cameras, and pressure-sensitive sensors. The prison was once described by warden Robert Hood, as a “clean version of Hell.”(2) To date, no one has ever attempted to escape or been able to escape ADX. (3)

What a hopeless place to spend one’s life. It is a certainty that anyone entering this facility for life will only leave in a casket having never again tasted the freedom that was once theirs. In some ways there are ordinary people from all walks of life that find themselves locked in their own prison, in a prison where the locks are secured by a life history of hate, anger, and hurt.

Some of these same people are able to conquer the feelings of hurt in their lives, but many discover that an ember of anger glows ever so slightly in the depth of their being, having not been fully extinguished by all of their efforts. All it takes is some set of circumstances to ignite the flames of disappointment and hurt, to relive the pain they experienced over a lifetime of trauma. For these people real peace is often just out of reach. It’s here that the abused sometimes becomes the abuser, becoming the very person they had most despised. A frighting and traumatic expereince all by itself.

The scriptures remind us of this generational cycle that gets passed from parents to children, often through multiple generations. God warns about such a possibility when he said expressed caution to those that chose to reject and hate him and worship other Gods. He said; “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,” (, NIV)

“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” (, NIV)

“Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”” (, NIV)

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,” (, NIV)

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (, NIV)

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” (, NIV)

“Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.” (, NIV)

“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,” (, NIV)

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“Five Most Inescapable Prisons in the World,” Google,accessed August 18, 2018, -https://www.mazim.com/maxim-man/5-most-inescapable-prisons-world.html

“Inside Americas Toughest Federal Prison,” NY Times, accessed August 18, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/3015/03/29/magazine/inside-americas-toughest-federal-prison.html

“Fast Facts Supermax Prison,” FoxNews, accessed August 18, 2018, https//www.foxnews.com/story/2006/05/04/fast-facts-supermax-prison.html

1. “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, Google, last modified April 17, 2017, https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

1. “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, Google, last modified April 17, 2017, https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

2. “History,” Columbia University, accessed May 15, 2017, http://www.columbia.edu/content/history.html.