The Supermax prison in Colorado where the most dangerous criminals in America are incarcerated provides prisoners with more generous services and activities than do most prisons in Europe, says the European Court of Human Rights.
The Strasbourg-based court's acknowledgement came in a ruling Tuesday, provisionally approving the extradition of five terror suspects to face trial in the United States.
Lawyers for radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza and five other men indicted in the U.S. on various terror charges between 1999 and 2006 argued that, should they be convicted in the U.S., they would face conditions of incarceration and length of prison terms that would amount to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," in violation of article three of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court rejected the argument, with the seven judges agreeing unanimously that article three would not be contravened "as a result of conditions of detention at ADX Florence" in Colorado, should the suspects be extradited to the U.S. (ADX stands for Administrative Maximum.)
It said that although inmates at the ADX Florence facility are confined to their cells most of the time, they are also "provided with services and activities (television, radio, newspapers, books, hobby and craft items, telephone calls, social visits, correspondence with families, group prayer) which went beyond what was provided in most prisons in Europe."
The judges also noted that, according to the Department of Justice, 89 of the prison's 252 inmates were in a "step-down program."
"This showed that the applicants, if convicted and transferred to ADX, would have a real possibility under such a program of moving through different levels of contact with others until being suitable for transfer to a normal prison," the court stated.
The step-down program runs on a three-year cycle. Inmates are kept in their cells 23 hours a day for the first year, then gradually allowed contact with other inmates and prison staff. In the third year they may be out of their cells for up to 16 hours a day and eat meals in a dining room. 
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