Abu Hamza extradition: inside ADX Florence, the Alcatraz of the Rockies

Lawyers for the men argued that conditions at the most secure prison in America, where Hamza is likely to be held, amounted to "inhuman or degrading treatment".

But the judges ruled that the strict security regime is justified given the risk the men pose - and that the leisure facilities provided at the prison go beyond those found in most European jails.

Today European judges rejected Hamza's plea for an appeal.

ADX Florence, also known as United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, in Florence, Fremont Country, Colorado, houses the most dangerous inmates in the US prison system.

It is home to 490 convicted terrorists, gang leaders and neo-Nazis. Many have been transferred from other prisons after killing inmates or prison staff.

They include Richard Reid, the attempted shoe bomber; Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker; and al-Qaeda terrorists behind the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993 and the bombing of the US embassies in Africa.

The five extradited men are likely to go to H-unit, home to a number of Islamist terrorists and Robert Hanssen, a FBI agent serving a life sentence for passing secrets to Russia. Some have held hunger strikes.

D-unit houses home-grown terrorists including Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, and Eric Rodolph, who bombed the Atlanta Olympics.

The prison was built after the murder of two prison officers at a high security prison in Marion, Illinois.

The perimeter of the 35-acre site is guarded by 12-foot high razer wire fences, laser-beams, pressure pads and attack dogs. No-one has ever escaped.

Inmates are kept in cells measuring 7' by 12' for 23 hours a day. The bed, desk and stool are immovable and cast from poured concrete. The cells also feature shower cubicals and a toilet.

A black and white television provides classes, religious services and fifty channels of broadcasting. Each cell has a slit window with a view onto an inner courtyard and a patch of sky. Each inmate gets a copy of USA Today, with certain articles cut out.

Inmates can play games of bingo alone in their cells. The winners get chocolate bars, or the right to have their picture taken and sent to their family.

Wardens told the ECHR that daily exercise is taken in pens measuring 12 feet by 20 feet, containing pull-up bars and footballs. Prisoners are allowed to talk to each other between pens, or through the ventilation grills in their cells.

Indoor exercise is held alone in a windowless hall with a vaulted ceiling, likened to an empty swimming pool.

Better behaved prisoners are granted extra privileges, with the best behaved given five hours of phone calls a month and the right to eat together out of their cells.

The five extradited men will be allowed to see the imam four times a week. The library holds 158 Arabic books and 320 videos and DVDs on Islam. They will have the right to pray in their cells and have prayer beads, rugs and headgear. Inmates can also use a law library for two hours a day.

But Professor Laura Rover, Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Denver, told the court that one warden had described the prison as a "clean version of hell". Many prisoners spent years in solitary confinement, with one denied outdoor exercise for sixty days after attempting to feed crumbs to birds.

She said a number of prisoners suffered from mental illness and screamed through the night. There have been reports of "unncessarily punitive and painful" force feeding of hunger strikers and claims the 'sensory isolation' causes mental and emotional breakdowns.

"It's a very negative atmosphere. They can't see grass or trees, they will never feel the touch of a loved one, they will never see bright colours, they're deprived of the sensory stimulation that you and I know," says Gary Kalitolites, a former ADX guard.

"Everyone in there is in a dark abyss. The isolation breeds paranoia. It's contagious."