BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) - Waiting in solitary confinement to learn his sentence, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman failed to persuade a federal judge Monday to grant him outdoor exercise time and access to the jail commissary.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan cited Guzman’s notoriously slippery nature, particularly his two escapes from high-security Mexican prisons, in his order. Short for special administrative measures, Guzman faces constraints on his confinement known as SAM to keep him from running the Sinaloa cartel from his prison or plotting attacks or another escape.
“Given the evidence introduced at trial about defendant’s means and methods of running the Sinaloa Cartel (especially evidence related to his previous prison escapes), [it is] plausible that defendant could try to recreate such an escape attempt if the opportunity presented itself,” Cogan wrote.
He added: “This SAM is not designed to punish defendant, nor is it excessive or arbitrary; it furthers very real security concerns and will therefore remain in place.”
Guzman’s good behavior throughout his incarceration and trial were not enough to change the judge’s mind.
“I agree with defendant that his conduct was and remains exemplary, but that conduct is a direct consequence of the strict conditions of confinement in which he finds himself,” Cogan wrote. “His continued good behavior is not a reason to modify them, it is a reason to keep them in place.”
Defense attorneys first filed a letter last month requesting four modifications to Guzman’s conditions in the highly restrictive 10 South Wing of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center: the ability to exercise outdoors and buy six water bottles a week, as well as access to the general commissary and a pair of earplugs.
“One of the most damaging conditions is the lack of sunlight and fresh air,” attorney Mariel Colón Miró wrote on May 9. “This deprivation of sunlight and fresh air, over an excessive 27-month period, is causing psychological scarring.”
Miró also said Guzman appears to have trouble understanding what his attorneys say to him.
In denying Guzman access to earplugs and the general-population commissary at the jail, Cogan wrote Monday that he would not “second-guess” the Bureau of Prisons’ determinations that those items should be restricted for high-security inmates like Guzman.
According to Miró’s letter, Guzman’s windowless cell measures approximately 10 x 8 feet, and the artificial light is always on, which disrupts his sleep. Guzman also suffers from constant headaches and ear pain, Miró added, claiming earplugs would ease those issues.
Miró had cited old pipes as the reason for requesting bottled water — “Mr. Guzmán can taste and see mold coming out of the water faucet,” she wrote — but Cogan pointed out Monday that Guzman has been receiving the requested water bottles since April, according to MCC records.
Cogan also declined to transfer Guzman to another location while he awaits sentencing. Just this weekend, Miró argued that other jails in less densely populated areas than Manhattan, such as the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, lack the troublesome rooftop exercise space.
Cogan found Monday, however, that the conditions of Guzman’s confinement “reasonably [relate] to a legitimate penological interest.”
Guzman’s lawyers requested a new trial in March, complaining about an interview one anonymous panelist gave to Vice News that describes multiple instances of jurors researching the case despite court orders not to.
In its April response, the government said one story about one purported juror is not enough to secure a retrial.
Cogan has not yet ruled on the matter; the defense has one more opportunity to make its case in a filing due June 14. Guzman is still scheduled to be sentenced June 25 at 10 a.m. News broke over the weekend that the U.S. had approved a visa for Guzman’s 91-year-old mother Consuelo Loera to visit him along with two of her daughters, though the U.S. has declined to confirm this. Loera told reporters she wants to bring her son enchiladas.
After a three-month trial, Guzman was convicted in February on all counts including running a continuing criminal enterprise, drug trafficking and money laundering. He faces life in prison in the U.S.
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