Convicted ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey has avoided being sent to America’s maximum security prison - instead being caged in “one of the most dangerous penitentiaries in the country”.
The jihadist, who accepted a plea deal that included “cooperation requirements”, was rewarded for his help by avoiding the ADX Florence known as the ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’.
However, the 38-year-old has now been flown to USP Canaan in Waymart, Pennsylvania, known for its fearsome reputation for extreme violence.
A prison insider said: “Kotey may be breathing a sigh of relief after he avoided Florence given the conditions there, but at least being in solitary confinement, you are safe.
“At Canaan, inmates are constantly looking over their backs.
“Stabbings and beatings are commonplace.
“Good luck to Kotey. He’s going to need it. Especially if they think he’s a snitch.
"There is a reason why the prison earned its nickname of 'hell in a cell'."
The high-security penitentiary has seen a least five murders since it opened in 2005 - several happening in the last few years.
Back in 2013, corrections officer Eric Williams was killed by an inmate after being stabbed more than 200 times.
Last November, a 32-year-old man was murdered after a fight with another prisoner.
In 2019, five corrections officers had to be hospitalised after being exposed to drugs they were trying to confiscate.
Assaults between fellow inmates are frequent.
Only in January, con Andrew Daniels, 41, was sentenced to over two-and-half years in prison for stabbing another inmate in Wayne County.
In March 2018, Pennsylvania lawmakers wrote to then-US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-BOP Director Mark Inch decrying prison staffing cuts, saying Canaan “is one of the most dangerous penitentiaries in the country.
The cited 256 reported acts of violence in 2017 alone. And if the inmates don’t kill you, the food could.
In June 2011, one of the largest ever institutional salmonella poisoning outbreaks occurred when 300 inmates and several staff members became ill after eating chicken in the prison dining room.
Famous inmates have included drug kingpin Juan Matta-Ballesteros, Somali pirate leader Mohammad Shibin, and double cop killer Ronnell Wilson.
Donald Trump ’s former presidential campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was also held there following his conviction for tax fraud, bank fraud and witness tampering.
Canaan was opened in March 2005 and designed to house 1,088 male inmates in six housing units.
Six towers are lined along the rectangular-shaped facility, with one in the middle.
A lethal electrical double fence surrounds the facility.
Inmates are housed in 4m × 2m cells, equipped with a bunk bed, a stainless steel sink-toilet combination, and a small table with a non-removable stool.
Cells are usually occupied by two inmates and are air-conditioned.
Originally from Paddington, London, Kotey was sentenced to life in April after he admitted to inflicting torture on hostages while in Syria.
It included waterboarding, mock executions, painful stress positions, food deprivation, beatings with sticks, chokeholds causing blackouts and electric shocks.
American and British authorities say the Beatles - made up of four Brits -
were responsible for killing 27 people.
They included British volunteers David Haines and Alan Henning and American aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
Kotey admitted his role in capturing hostages and said that when his involvement ended, he worked in the terror group’s recruitment division, as a sniper and in ISIS’s “English media department”.
He pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit hostage-taking resulting in death and conspiracy to murder.
Kotey was captured in Syria by a Kurdish-backed militia in 2018, along with fellow Beatle El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, as they tried to flee to Turkey.
If he fulfils his “cooperation requirements”, Kotey could be sent to Britain after 15 years to complete the remainder of his sentence.
As part of his plea agreement, Kotey agreed that, before any such transfer, he would plead guilty in a UK prosecution and face a life sentence in prison without parole.
If the sentence he serves in Britain is less than life for any reason, Kotey has agreed to serve the remainder of his US-imposed life sentence in the UK, if that is legally available, or to be transferred back to the States to do the rest of his sentence.
ISIS Beatle leader, Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, was killed in Syria in a US airstrike in 2015.
Suspect Beatle, Aine Davis, known to hostages as ‘Paul’, was jailed in Turkey in 2017 but is now held in the UK awaiting trial.
Kotey’s pal Elsheikh was last month (August) handed eight life sentences for his role in the Beatles and faces dying in ADX Florence.
