Weese designed each cell with a floor-to-ceiling slit window, 7 feet (2.1 m) long by 5 inches (130 mm) wide, narrow enough not to require bars, and beveled out to allow natural light to pass inside.

[4] The cells were originally designed to feel as comfortable as possible, based on sailboat cabins, with built-in hardwood beds and desks.

[10] In 1985, convicted murderers Bernard Welch and Hugh Colomb assembled the materials necessary to break open a window hole and gain egress from the MCC, escaping down a piecework rope to street level.

[18] In February 2010, Sinaloa Cartel leader Vicente Zambada-Niebla was apprehended by Mexican police and extradited to Chicago to face trial.

Bureau of Prisons officials cited the fact that the Sinaloa Cartel has unlimited resources and has succeeded in both escapes and assassinations in the past.

[19] In order to comply with the ruling and alleviate security concerns, the Bureau of Prisons transferred Zambada-Niebla to the Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, a medium-security facility in Michigan which has a ground-level exercise area.

The pair ostensibly fashioned a rope from bedsheets or fabric scraps,[22] and exited their 17th-floor cell through a hole created at the bottom of a narrow window slot, rappelling down the side of the MCC to the street below.

[23] Their escape and the gaping hole in the prison wall apparently went unnoticed during routine overnight bed checks, and was only discovered when arriving jail workers spotted the rope dangling down the side of the MCC at about 7:00 am.

[24] Conley and Banks were subsequently recorded on a nearby video security system as they entered a cab at the corner of Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue at about 2:40 am.