A Clean Hell: Anarchy and Abolition in America’s Most Notorious Dungeon by Eric King is a searing firsthand account from inside the most repressive prison in the United States, a place built not for rehabilitation but for disappearance.
The federal supermax ADX Florence is the most secure facility in the United States, a dungeon of isolation, sensory deprivation, and psychological disintegration. Here, cruelty isn’t accidental; it’s the design. Built in 1995, the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” was made to cage the so-called worst of the worst: bombers, gang leaders, political enemies, and anyone the government deems too rebellious, too inconvenient, or too visible.
Among them was antifascist prisoner Eric King, targeted for his politics, brutally tortured by the Bureau of Prisons, and ultimately entombed at ADX after beating a politically motivated federal prosecution. A Clean Hell tells the story of Eric’s decade behind bars: the years of surveillance and retaliation, the years locked in solitary confinement, the reality of being known as a “race traitor,” and the daily acts of resistance that kept him—and others—alive.
More than just a firsthand survival story and exposé, this is a blistering indictment of the carceral state and the sanitized violence it tries to hide. A Clean Hell is a crucial document of solidarity and struggle inside the belly of the beast and required reading for anyone concerned with mass incarceration, political repression, or the inhumane architecture of the US prison system.
About the Author :
Eric King is an anarchist who was imprisoned in 2014 for acts of solidarity with the Ferguson, Missouri, uprising. While in federal custody Eric was indicted for a self-defense incident at FCI-Florence. Eric took it to trial and is one of the absolute few people to ever win at Federal Trial. After his victory Eric was sent to the Federal Supermax, ADX, where he spent most of his final two years of his prison bid. During his time in prison Eric coedited the political prisoner anthology Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners. Eric survived years of documented physical and psychological torture and made it out of prison with heart and soul intact. Eric is an activist, antifascist, and loving father and husband. He lives in Denver, CO.
Raymond Luc Levasseur is a Vietnam veteran, human rights activist, revolutionary, writer, and political prisoner. Levasseur was part of a revolutionary Marxist organization that waged a militant struggle in the 1970s and ’80s against racism and imperialism.
Josh Davidson is an abolitionist, a member of the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar collective, and part of the Children's Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blanco. Josh coedited Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners with Eric King. He works in communications with the Zinn Education Project, which promotes the teaching of radical people's history in classrooms and provides free lessons and resources for educators.
Review :
"An excruciatingly honest look at one of the most brutal federal prisons in the country. This important work lays bare the broken prison system and provides the foundation for resistance against injustice and bias within our federal prison system."
--Kristin Pidgeon, Riverstone Books
"A Clean Hell is gripping from the very first page. This memoir was eye-opening to the plight of so many trapped in the prison industrial complex. May this book reach far and wide, and lead to change in the way prisoners are treated."
--Annastasia Williams, Bookshop at The Bottom
"Raw, heartbreaking, and unflinching--A Clean Hell exposes the hidden torment inside America's supermax prisons. Eric's story is more than survival; it's a wake-up call. A Clean Hell pulls you into the harrowing reality of life inside one of America's most notorious supermax prisons. Through Eric's story, you'll witness the unimaginable torture, isolation, and fear he endured--an experience that is as heartbreaking as it is eye-opening. Gripping and timely, this book is a powerful reminder of the hidden truths within our justice system and a must-read for today's world"
--Ambir Moore, The Book Lovers Era
"Sentenced to the US's most repressive 'supermax' prison, Eric King defied the government's unrelenting attempts to crush his spirit through years of isolation and physical and mental attacks. His profound dignity shines through this account of survival and resistance, offering lessons to everyone committed to fighting the forces of repression."
--Donna Willmott, former US political prisoner
"Eric King is an antifascist, antiracist political activist who spent over a decade in the worst US federal prisons, including solitary confinement, and ADX, the nation's most extreme and repressive prison, located in Colorado. A Clean Hell is a searing exposé and indictment of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, and the US government. The use of violence, physical and mental torture, and retaliation by authorities all fuel Eric's fight against the slow death of politically motivated imprisonment. For any activist, organizer, resister, or anyone studying American history, this is a guide to understand the viciousness of intended death by incarceration."
--Susan Rosenberg, former US political prisoner, writer, and teacher
"It is so necessary for any movement to have an accurate and complete documentation of its own history and struggle--to avoid being erased, or worse, misrepresented by the shrieking sirens of Empire. Eric King's excellent new book about the hidden world of the ADX in Florence is a part of that tradition of griots, those ones who help us remember and know the truth about ourselves. Gandhi once said that you could see the true nature of any society by witnessing the treatment of its prisoners and animals. By that rubric, this society fails. King's condemnation is powerful and a timely call to action. King has been a reliable and principled reporter on state repression for years. Having this antifascist and antiauthoritarian 'insider's' view of the carceral state is an inspirational personal account of survival and triumph."
--Marius Mason, current US political prisoner and artist
"I can attest to the words of my brother Eric King, who knows the dehumanizing use of 23/7 lockdown prisons, built to destroy you, kill your spirit, and crush your mind. These are places no man wants to be. Eric knows firsthand since they sent him there as punishment for winning his case against staff who brutalized him at FCI Florence. Eric is not a criminal; he is a fighter for justice. When you stand up for yourself and humane treatment in the face of a corrupt system you can suffer as my brother did, getting locked down in a supermax. We all must stand up and bring an end to these prisons. Eric was there and he has no fear of telling the truth. That takes a lot of guts."
--Oso Blanco, Indigenous artist, author, musician, and current US political prisoner
"Eric's story sticks with you, long after you put his book down. It's a brutal read, and a nakedly honest one, never varnishing over the monstrous violence of the prison system, intimately experienced by Eric. At the same time, his truth-telling ability is all heart, burning with a radical love in defense of empathy, dignity, and freedom that not only aided him in the one 'victory that matters in prison'--to get out alive--but also in passing along hard-won wisdom about how we can solidaristically fight to keep each other alive. A Clean Hell is a timely, immensely powerful gift!"
--Cindy Barukh Milstein, author of Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice
"A Clean Hell is an unflinching, harrowing account of state violence. King exposes the brutal realities of federal prison--offering rare, deeply personal insights into the hidden world of ADX--where he was imprisoned in retaliation for his acts of resistance and solidarity with the Ferguson Uprising in 2014. Through his testimony, he challenges us to cultivate compassion, extend empathy to ourselves, and commit to collective struggle--because revolution is not just about survival, but about building a world where we all thrive."
--Zane McNeil, editor of Y'all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia and Vegan Entanglements: Dismantling Racial and Carceral Capitalism
"Eric King spent ten years in some of the worst prisons the world has ever seen. And lived to tell the story. A Clean Hell is a haunting, harrowing journey through hell and back, told with unflinching honesty and a crooked smile. Like Alexander Berkman and Martin Sostre before him, King keeps the anarchist flame burning--prison be damned."
--Dan Berger, author of Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family's Journey
"The federal prison ADX Florence is simply the more modern version of Alcatraz, Marion, or Guantánamo. To understand the justification for violence and torture of human beings by the state, one needs to take a deep look at how imprisonment impacts real people. Eric King is one of a long list of people who not only survived but is dedicated to expose and oppose the endemic nature and inhumanity taking place in these shadows of the US Bureau of Prisons. A Clean Hell is a must read."
--Claude Marks, former US political prisoner, and cofounder and codirector of the Freedom Archives
"In this heartbreaking debut, Eric King takes us on a rage-inducing journey into the life of a political prisoner abused by the system at every turn. From manipulative lawyers to sexually deviant cops, King is subjected to the worst that humanity has to offer. However, through it all, King clenches his fists, opens his heart, and solidifies his opposition to the forces that oppress us. His descriptions of prison will leave you breathless. Your jaw will hurt from clenching at the depictions of brutality and violence at the hands of the state. Yet the little flickers of joy in King's dogged rebellion radiate with the possibility of joy, hope, and revolution. King's prose burns like a gas-soaked rag in the mouth of a Molotov."
--Josh Fernandez, author of The Hands That Crafted the Bomb
"As I sat in prison myself, I followed Eric's story. He offered the hope, joy, and inspiration I needed to get through my own bid. I am forever grateful to his resistance."
--Pepe Bandit, founder of Stay Free Coffee, music producer, and creator/host of the podcast Back on the Grind
"They tried to bury Eric King alive, but he achieved the near-impossible: he got out. A Clean Hell is a rare look into a place that the US government doesn't want you to see--the darkest corners of the federal prison industrial complex. A place where officers act with impunity, kangaroo courts run rampant, and inmates are left to wither away in underground cells. Eric's story isn't one of survival, but radical resistance. And a reminder that indeed, those they try to bury are actually seeds."
--Jake Conroy, former US political prisoner, SHAC 7 defendant, and host of the podcast Radicals and Revolutionaries
"Eric's new work detailing his experiences in the ADX, along with the voices of others--some still trapped inside--is powerful and compelling. A Clean Hell is a must read for everyone interested in the support of prisoners and the complete destruction of prisons and the state who maintains them."
--N.O. Bonzo, illustrator of Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution and creator of Off with Their Heads: An Antifascist Coloring Book for Adults of All Ages
"King's visceral account of his political imprisonment within America's supermax torture chambers will grab you by the throat and force you to bear witness to the anti-human violence and irrationality at the core of the prison system. But that's not all. The grounded analysis of this self-proclaimed 'race traitor' allows us to reflect on the utility of antiracist, abolitionist, and anarchist approaches to fighting fascism during a historical moment in which such analysis is more critical than ever."
--Orisanmi Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt
"A Clean Hell vividly takes us into the bowels of the most repressive prisons in the country. The reader experiences the beat downs by gangs of guards, the strip search designed to be a sexual humiliation, the 24-hour a day lockdowns, the worry about the anguish of one's family, as well as ways people resist. These prisons are designed to break one's spirit, and there's the added hostility toward Eric as 'a traitor to the white race.' What makes this book particularly inspiring is that it's written by someone who not only came out of prison unbroken but who also continues to be a fireball of activism for social justice."
--David Gilbert, former US political prisoner and author of Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond and No Surrender
"A Clean Hell is a raw and unfiltered recounting of a life inside the American gulag. As abolitionists challenge the prison industrial complex, Eric King's brutal first-hand experience of every federal security level will be crucial knowledge for the fight ahead."
--Josh Harper, former US political prisoner and SHAC 7 defendant
