Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Behind Steel Door In Federal Prison

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now behind a steel door, tucked away in a small prison cell close to 40 miles from where police say he and his older brother planted bombs at the Boston Marathon.

After recovering in a Boston hospital this week from injuries he suffered in a standoff with police, Tsarnaev has been transferred to a federal medical detention center, where he is behind a steel door in a secured room.

Federal Medical Center Devens spokesman John Collauti said the 19-year-old bombing suspect is being kept under close supervision. Tsarnaev is behind a steel door that has only a small observation window and a slot for passing through food or medication.

Inmates in the portion of the prison where Tsarnaev is being held have fewer privilege, including no access to television or radio. Dzhokhar is allowed to read books and other written material, prison officials said.

“Really this type of facility is fully capable of handling him and it’s not that much of an inconvenience because it’s more or less business as usual,” Collauti said.

Dzhokhar was captured last Friday night in Watertown, not far from the site of the Boston Marathon bombing that claimed the lives of three people and left more than 180 injured. Police say he and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan left makeshift bombs created from pressure cookers and laced with shrapnel near the finish line of the race.

Police caught up with the brothers later in the week after they allegedly shot and killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier. A rolling gunbattle then followed through the streets of Watertown that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar missing. He was found the next day hiding inside a boat in a residential neighborhood.

As court proceedings for the accused terrorist begin, there are still unanswered questions about how the brothers perpetrated the bombings. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said he’s not convinced that they worked alone to create and package their arsenal of improvised explosives.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily just two kids who watched some YouTube videos and went awry and decided to do this mayhem,” Chaffetz said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program. “No, I worry that they were radicalized in a way that others may have also been radicalized.”

Tsarnaev will next leave his steel door on May 30, when a magistrate has scheduled his next court appearance.