Jeff Fort, the 78-year-old founder of Chicago’s Black P Stone Nation and El Rukns, is today an inmate at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, serving a combined 168-year sentence and, as of late 2025, recovering from emergency surgery after a fall in his cell. His daughter and a new legal team are pushing for a transfer to a medical facility suited to his age and condition, after a federal judge rejected his bid for compassionate release in 2023.
Where He Is Held
Fort has been housed at USP Florence ADMAX in Colorado, the federal supermax facility sometimes called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” for roughly the past two decades.1Patch. Bobby Rush Carries Message to Supermax Prison: Stop the Killing Inmates there are confined to soundproofed cells for roughly 23 hours a day, with virtually no contact with other prisoners or the outside world.2Final Call Digital. Advocates for Incarcerated Former Street Organizer Jeff Fort Fight for Medical Transfer He has spent nearly four decades in what amounts to solitary confinement across the federal system.
His daughter, Ameena Matthews, has said she went years without being able to visit or speak with him, in part because of the facility’s strict protocols and COVID-19 lockdowns. She reported that only recently has he been granted slightly more freedom of movement inside the prison and additional phone privileges.3Chicago Sun-Times. Jeff Fort Denied Freedom Under First Step Act
Fort is held in the same facility as Larry Hoover, the founder of the Gangster Disciples. Both men are aging Chicago gang leaders who have sought release under federal sentencing reforms, though Hoover’s case has attracted far more public attention and celebrity support. Fort, by contrast, has largely faded from public view and has struggled for decades to find attorneys willing to take on his case.3Chicago Sun-Times. Jeff Fort Denied Freedom Under First Step Act
His Current Health
Around October 2025, Fort suffered a blackout in his cell, fell, and struck his head on the floor. He was hospitalized and underwent extensive surgery. Advocates said he weighed roughly 180 to 185 pounds, had difficulty breathing, and could barely eat because of dental problems. They have also argued that the prison’s elevation of more than 5,300 feet poses an additional risk given his age and condition.2Final Call Digital. Advocates for Incarcerated Former Street Organizer Jeff Fort Fight for Medical Transfer
The 2023 Compassionate Release Denial
In 2023, Fort filed a handwritten petition for compassionate release under the First Step Act, the 2018 federal law that allows judges to consider early release for aging or seriously ill inmates. He described himself as an ailing grandfather who wanted to reconnect with children and grandchildren born during his imprisonment, and he pointed to his completion of prison educational programs and a clean disciplinary record.3Chicago Sun-Times. Jeff Fort Denied Freedom Under First Step Act
U.S. District Judge John Tharp denied the petition and called the bid “quixotic.” The judge acknowledged Fort’s clean prison record and coursework but wrote that those factors “fall well short of assuring that the ruthless El Rukn ‘Imam’ has morphed into a gentle grandpa.” Tharp concluded that Fort’s “willingness to kill indiscriminately and for profit” marked him as “among the most dangerous of criminals” and that a sentence reduction was “entirely inappropriate.”3Chicago Sun-Times. Jeff Fort Denied Freedom Under First Step Act
The State Sentence That Would Still Hold Him
Even if Fort succeeded in reducing or ending his federal sentence, he would not walk free. He is also serving a consecutive 75-year Illinois state prison term for the 1981 murder of rival gang leader Willie “Dollar Bill” Bibbs. Judge Michael Toomin imposed that sentence in November 1988, citing “exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior” to justify an extended term beyond the typical 40-year maximum for murder. Together with his earlier federal convictions, that brought his combined prison time to 168 years.4Chicago Tribune. Fort Gets 75-Year Term for ’81 Murder
New Legal Representation in 2025
In September 2025, the law firm For The People, LLC, announced that attorney Jenipher Jones would represent Fort in a new round of post-conviction legal efforts. The firm said its immediate priorities include addressing his medical care and challenging the conditions of his confinement at ADX Florence, with the goal of moving him to a facility “appropriate and conducive to his age, medical needs, and disciplinary record.”5For The People, LLC. For The People LLC Announces Representation of Jeff Fort
The current effort is focused on where he is held, not on freeing him outright. A medical or geriatric transfer would address the health concerns raised by his fall and surgery without disturbing the underlying convictions.
His Daughter’s Advocacy
The most visible advocate for Fort has been Ameena Matthews, his daughter, who has built her own public identity as a Chicago anti-violence worker. She spent years as a senior violence interrupter with CeaseFire (now Cure Violence) and was featured in the 2011 documentary The Interrupters, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.6PBS Frontline. Meet the Interrupters7Chicago Reader. The Interrupters
Matthews has argued publicly that her father, despite his convictions, is a charismatic community figure whose influence could help reduce gang violence in Chicago if he were released. In 2016, she and a group of religious leaders formally asked President Barack Obama to commute his sentence. That effort was unsuccessful.8ABC7 Chicago. Family Wants Gang Founder Freed to Help Curb Chicago Violence She has continued to advocate for him while acknowledging how difficult that has been during stretches when she could not visit. In interviews, she has drawn a careful line between her father’s record and her own: “I’m not Ameena from the past or Jeff Fort’s daughter. I’m Ameena with a soul, a peacebuilder.”6PBS Frontline. Meet the Interrupters
How Long His Sentence Runs
Fort’s 168-year total comes from three cases stacked on top of one another. In 1983, he was convicted of federal drug trafficking for arranging a cocaine-for-marijuana deal by phone, drawing a 13-year sentence at a federal prison in Bastrop, Texas.9Chicago Magazine. The Making of Jeff Fort10Chicago Tribune. Fort Gets 80 Years for Plot11TIME. Gaddafi’s Goons On December 29, 1987, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle sentenced Fort to 80 years and a $255,000 fine, telling him, “You were clearly the leader of the organization.”12Los Angeles Times. Five El Rukn Gang Members Sentenced The Seventh Circuit affirmed the convictions in 1990.13FindLaw. United States v. Doyle
The 75-year Illinois murder sentence for the Bibbs killing was ordered to run consecutively to the federal term.4Chicago Tribune. Fort Gets 75-Year Term for ’81 Murder On paper, that combination keeps him in custody well beyond any plausible life span. In practice, the live question today is not whether he goes home. It is where, and under what conditions, he spends the time he has left.