(NewsNation) — Viktor Bout was released from a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois, in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Bout had not been scheduled to be released until 2029. Now, the Federal Bureau of Prisons tells NewsNation he is no longer in their custody.
Jeff Bernthal with NewsNation affiliate KTVI gave us a sense of what it’s like at the southern Illinois facility.
“We can tell you this is a medium-security facility,” Bernthal said. “The type of prison where you would find strengthened perimeters, meaning double fencing and electronic detection systems.”
According to Bernthal, the facility was built to essentially replace Alcatraz and was dubbed a Supermax security prison facility.
“There was an uprising here in the 1980s,” Bernthal said. “There were two guards who were murdered here and that led to a 23-year lockdown.”
Since then, according to Bernthal, this has become a medium-security facility that has allowed for a larger number of prisoners to be here at last count from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Watch the full report in the video player at the top of the page.