Federal Government Says It Will Transfer Former Federal Death-Sentenced Prisoners to Supermax Prison Within Weeks

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment says it plans to trans­fer ​“almost all” for­mer fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers whose sen­tences were com­mut­ed by President Biden to the nation’s most noto­ri­ous and restric­tive prison with­in the next sev­er­al weeks, accord­ing to a court fil­ing dat­ed February 4, 2026. 

In a two-page notice filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department informed Judge Timothy J. Kelly that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) intends to move the pris­on­ers from the Special Confinement Unit at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute to the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado — known as ​“ADX.” The trans­fers will occur ​“no soon­er than 10 days from the date of this fil­ing,” gov­ern­ment attor­neys wrote, cit­ing secu­ri­ty con­cerns that pre­vent them from pro­vid­ing more detailed infor­ma­tion on a public docket. 

The notice rep­re­sents the lat­est devel­op­ment in an ongo­ing legal bat­tle over the fate of 37 fed­er­al pris­on­ers whose death sen­tences President Biden com­mut­ed to life with­out parole on December 23, 2024, just weeks before leav­ing office. At the time, he said he could not ​“in good con­science” allow the incom­ing admin­is­tra­tion to resume exe­cu­tions he had halted. 

Twenty-one of the thir­ty-sev­en pris­on­ers, led by plain­tiff Rejon Taylor, filed suit in April 2025 chal­leng­ing the planned trans­fers as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The law­suit alleged that in the days after the com­mu­ta­tions, BOP staff eval­u­at­ed the com­mut­ed pris­on­ers for trans­fer, and none of the twen­ty-one were deter­mined appro­pri­ate for ADX. For many, this meant they did not pass men­tal health eval­u­a­tions, thus exclud­ing them from hous­ing at ADX, while oth­ers required med­ical care that would not be pos­si­ble at ADX. However, the law­suit also alleged, after President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and BOP depart­ed from estab­lished poli­cies and pro­ce­dures to effec­tu­ate their trans­fer to a prison with the most oppres­sive con­di­tions in the fed­er­al prison sys­tem. ​“By cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly con­demn­ing Plaintiffs to indef­i­nite incar­cer­a­tion in harsh con­di­tions in response to their receipt of clemen­cy from the pre­vi­ous President, it exceeds the statu­to­ry author­i­ty grant­ed to the Attorney General and her deputy, and is arbi­trary, capri­cious, and an abuse of dis­cre­tion; it was made with­out prop­er notice and com­ment; and oth­er­wise is not in accor­dance with the law,” the suit argued. 

The law­suit alleged that trans­fer­ring these pris­on­ers to the harsh con­di­tions of ADX would vio­late the U.S. Constitution: the bill of attain­der and ex post fac­to claus­es of Article I, Section 9; the ple­nary pow­er clause of Article II, Section 2; the equal pro­tec­tion and pro­ce­dur­al due process claus­es of the Fifth Amendment; and the Eighth Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments. Judge Kelly ulti­mate­ly declined to issue an injunc­tion but did warn BOP offi­cials that mov­ing pris­on­ers to ADX, while not fol­low­ing stan­dard pro­to­col, would ​“raise seri­ous ques­tions” about its rea­son­ing. Brian Stull, an ACLU attor­ney work­ing on behalf of the pris­on­ers, told Indiana Public Media that while the injunc­tion was not put in place, ​“the court made clear that it expects BOP to fol­low its usu­al pro­ce­dures — which means not trans­fer­ring our clients before their admin­is­tra­tive appeals conclude.”

President Trump’s Executive Order directs that the Attorney General shall ​“take all law­ful and appro­pri­ate action to ensure” these 37 pris­on­ers are housed ​“in con­di­tions con­sis­tent with the mon­stros­i­ty of their crimes and the threats they pose.” On September 25, 2025, AG Pam Bondi announced on social media that her admin­is­tra­tion had begun mov­ing some of these pris­on­ers to ADX. Those moved in the fall had either com­plet­ed their appeals against their move­ment or were among pris­on­ers whom BOP ini­tial­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ADX transfer.