WASHINGTON — In a Feb. 4 court filing, the federal government announced plans to transfer “almost all” formerly federal death row prisoners to the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX), the nation’s most restrictive federal prison.
According to an article by the Death Penalty Information Center, the prisoners, whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December 2024, will be sent to Florence, Colorado, where concerns about constitutional protections and prison conditions have been freshly renewed following the announcement.
The Justice Department informed Judge Timothy J. Kelly in a two-page notice filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the Bureau of Prisons intends to move the prisoners from the Special Confinement Unit at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute to ADX Florence.
The change, government attorneys said, would occur “no sooner than 10 days from the date of this filing,” citing security concerns that prevented them from providing more detailed public information.
The filing is part of an ongoing legal dispute involving 37 federal prisoners whose death sentences were commuted to life without parole by President Biden on Dec. 23, 2024, Bedard notes.
Biden, at the time, said he could not, “in good conscience,” allow the incoming administration to resume federal executions he had previously halted.
Twenty-one of the 37 prisoners filed suit in April 2025 challenging the planned transfers, led by plaintiff Rejon Taylor, whose lawsuit alleged that immediately after the commutations, Bureau of Prisons staff evaluated the prisoners.
That evaluation considered the potential transfer to ADX and determined that none of the 21 plaintiffs were appropriate candidates for placement at the supermax facility, the Death Penalty Information Center reports.
Many of the prisoners did not pass mental health evaluations required for ADX placement, Bedard explains, while others required medical care that would not be available at the facility.
The lawsuit also alleges that after President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 20, 2025, executive order, the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons “departed from established policies and procedures.”
Bedard reports this was done in order to transfer the prisoners to what the complaint describes as “the most oppressive conditions in the federal prison system.”
The lawsuit argues the government exceeds its statutory authority and is acting in a manner that is “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion” by “categorically condemning Plaintiffs to indefinite incarceration in harsh conditions in response to their receipt of clemency from the previous President.”
Bedard also writes that the complaint further contends the transfers were made “without proper notice and comment” and were “not in accordance with the law.”
Bedard further reports that the plaintiffs allege the transfers would violate multiple constitutional provisions, including the bill of attainder and ex post facto clauses of Article I, Section 9.
Along with the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection and procedural due process clauses, the complaint contends the transfers would also violate the plenary power clause of Article II, Section 2.
In cautioning Bureau of Prisons officials that transferring prisoners to ADX without following standard protocol would “raise serious questions” about the agency’s reasoning, the Death Penalty Information Center reported that Judge Kelly declined to issue an injunction blocking the transfers.
Brian Stull, an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the prisoners, told Indiana Public Media that, although the court did not grant an injunction, “the court made clear that it expects BOP to follow its usual procedures.”
Bedard explains that this “means not transferring our clients before their administrative appeals conclude.”
In President Trump’s executive order, he directed the attorney general to “take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure” that the 37 prisoners are housed “in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose,” Bedard noted.
Subsequently, on Sept. 25, 2025, on her social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that her administration had already begun transferring some of the prisoners to ADX.
According to the press release, those transferred in the fall had either completed their appeals or were among prisoners originally recommended for ADX placement.
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