About the Book
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 expose, 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 exposéeacute; 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
