In 2009, Anthony Boyd, a serial bank robber, was released from the Metropolitan Correctional Center as a result of what appeared to be an administrative error.

Whether there have been other successful escapes or missing prisoners in recent years is unclear. Officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center did not return a phone call or respond to an email message seeking comment.

The jail, opened in 1975, holds about 795 inmates. It is wedged between the Church of St. Andrew and the United States Court House. From the upper floors of the courthouse, inmates can be seen playing basketball in the rooftop recreation area.

It is unlikely Mr. Guzmán will be permitted to join them. The inmates deemed most dangerous are housed in a half-dozen cells in a small wing known as 10 South, where they are held in solitary confinement and prohibited from calling out to one another. The lights are on 23 or 24 hours a day, according to court records, interviews with lawyers and written accounts. The frosted glass windows offer no view of the outside world. Even the slot on each cell door is kept shut, meaning that inmates see little beyond their solitary cell.