Colorado State Penitentiary also known as "CSP" is a maximum security prison and is one of 25 prisons in the Colorado Department of Corrections system. CSP is located in Cañon City, Colorado

Cañon City, Colorado

The City of Cañon City is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Fremont County, State of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 16,000 in 2005. Cañon City is noted for being the location of nine state and four ...

. CSP houses Colorado's most dangerous, most violent and the most disruptive prisoners. CSP also houses the Lethal Injection

Lethal Injection

Lethal Injection is the fourth studio album by California-based rapper Ice Cube. Similar to the rapper's previous albums, it was a commercial hit, debuting at #5 on the Billboard 200 with 215,000 copies sold in its first week...

 Chamber and the prisoners who were sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

.

All inmates at Colorado State Penitentiary are under Administrative Segregation also known as Solitary Confinement

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

. Admin segregation Inmates are all held on 23 hour lockdown. They are held in complete isolation during their entire stay at CSP.

CSP was recently the focus on National Geographic Explorer "The human cost of Solitary Confinement"

Death row inmates

• Giuseppe Alia, Sicilian-born Anarchist hanged at the Colorado State Penitentiary for the first degree murder of Father Leo Heinrichs
  Leo Heinrichs
  Father Leo Heinrichs, O.F.M. was a German-born Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order. While assigned at St...
  
  , O.F.M. on February 23, 1908.
• Nathan Dunlap - Sentenced to death in Arapahoe County
  Arapahoe County, Colorado
  As of the census of 2000, there were 487,967 people, 190,909 households, and 125,809 families residing in the county. The population density was 608 people per square mile . There were 196,835 housing units at an average density of 245 per square mile...
  
   in 1996 for killing 4 people during a robbery at Chuck-E-Cheese .
• Sir Mario Owens - Sentenced to death in Arapahoe County
  Arapahoe County, Colorado
  As of the census of 2000, there were 487,967 people, 190,909 households, and 125,809 families residing in the county. The population density was 608 people per square mile . There were 196,835 housing units at an average density of 245 per square mile...
  
   in 2008 for the murder of two witnesses of a previous murder that he was also convicted of.
• Robert Ray- Sentenced to death in Arapahoe County
  Arapahoe County, Colorado
  As of the census of 2000, there were 487,967 people, 190,909 households, and 125,809 families residing in the county. The population density was 608 people per square mile . There were 196,835 housing units at an average density of 245 per square mile...
  
  in 2010. He is the co-defendant in the same case as Sir Mario Owens.