The Vault Geography

The Robert F. Kennedy Federal Superhuman Penitentiary, better known to the general public as 'The Vault', is a prison designed to house superhumans convicted of committing federal crimes. The prison is officially a SuperMax prison, but has facilities for maximum, high, and medium security prisoners as well. The Vault is located inside a mountain in the Colorado Rockies, about sixty miles northwest of Denver. Although officially under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Vault's day to day operations are handled by SHIELD.

The Vault was first conceived in 1958 by FBI agent Jimmy Woo, who went on to found SHIELD as a division inside the FBI. Woo recognized that the state and federal prisons of the time were unable to hold the growing number of criminals with superhuman abilities. Construction of the prison was authorized in '61, and the initial facility was opened in '65. Early on, many of the inmates were offered early parole if they worked to help expand the facility, but that practice stopped in the mid '80s upon completion of the facility. The prison has undergone constant upgrades as newer technologies become available.

The Vault uses the latest in suppression technologies, including power suppression collars, null-power fields, and the occasional mystical ward and charm for unconventional prisoners (see Common Technologies). Many cells are lined with or built completely from adamantrium or vibranium.

Despite being a federal prison, there are a number of convicts housed at the Vault from states that lack the ability to house them in their own prisons. SHIELD director Henry Peter Gyrich has been petitioning Congress to make committing any crime using superhuman powers a federal crime, but is facing stiff opposition on that stance from both sides of the aisle.

Security at the Vault is provided by men and women wearing suits of powered armor called Guardsmen, and more recently by Mark I Combat and Mark III Recon Sentinels. The Guardsmen armors are based off a design developed by Howard Stark, Jr., in the '80s and manufactured by Stark Industries; these suits are inferior to the suit Howard's son Tony wears as Iron Man, being unable to fly and outfitted with more conventional weaponry.

Power for the Vault is provided by a dedicated fully automated geothermal power plant located nearby. This power plant is believed to be tapping the dormant Yellowstone super-volcano, but this is unconfirmed.

Layout

First Level

The first level of the Vault consists of prisoner processing, administration and security offices, the Guardsmen armory, and the infirmary. This level also contains the laundry and kitchen facilities where medium-security prisoners can work. A lone elevator and a stairwell run from this level up through the next five levels.

Second Level

This level houses the medium-security prisoners. It consists of six hundred cells, rooms for rehabilitation meetings, an outdoors courtyard, a weight room, a library with Internet access, and a central cafeteria.

Third Level

This level is high-security area. It has its own cafeteria and rehabilitation meeting rooms, and has four hundred cells. It lacks an outdoor courtyard, but the cafeteria is designed to permit light in from outside the mountain.

Fourth Level

This is the maximum security area of the prison. It consists of three hundred adamantium-lined cells, and fifty similar cells designed for solitary confinement. The prisoners here do not have the luxuries of the lower levels, spending most of their time in their cells. The number of Guardsmen and Sentinels assigned to this level are triple the number of the high-security level.

Fifth Level

A late addition to the facility, separated from the max-sec area, this level is the super-max level, consisting of one hundred cells built from adamantium with vibranium layers between them. Only the worst of the worst are housed here, prisoners convicted of the most violent crimes, chronic troublemakers from the lower levels, and/or unable to have their powers suppressed for any number of reasons. Inmates on this level spend 23 hours a day alone in their cells with no contact with anyone, being released from their cells for one hour to exercise alone; security on this level is handled solely by Sentinels.

Sixth Level

This level, located near the top of the mountain, is the prison's Death Row, reserved for those awaiting execution for their crimes after all their appeals have been exhausted; before that time, the convicts are assigned to the maximum security level. It consists of a dozen cells and an execution chamber. The execution chamber, due to the nature of the prisoners, is equipped for a number of methods, from lethal injection to a cutting edge laser guillotine for those who are immune to toxins.

Outer Grounds

Outside the prison proper are many houses and a large apartment complex, a supermarket, department store, library, movie theater, a gas station and convenience store, post office, school, two restaurants, four bars, a bowling alley, and many other facilities – recreational and otherwise – for the prison staff and their families.

First Post-Reboot Appearance: