America’s Most Isolated Federal Prisoner Describes 10,220 Days in Extreme Solitary Confinement
- “Control Unit” by Thomas Silverstein
Thomas Silverstein, who has been described as America’s “most isolated man,” has been held in an extreme form of solitary confinement under a “no human contact” order for 28 years. Originally imprisoned for armed robbery at the age of 19, Silverstein is serving life without parole for killing two fellow inmates (whom he says were threatening his life) and a prison guard, and has been buried in the depths of the federal prison system since 1983.
In his current lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Silverstein contends that his decades of utter isolation in a small concrete cell violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, as well as its guarantee of due process. (The lawsuit, brought by the University of Denver’s Civil Rights Clinic, is described in detail in our article “Fortresses of Solitude.”) Update: On Friday, federal District Court Judge Philip Brimmer set a court date of January 23, 2012 for a jury trial in the Silverstein case.
In support of that lawsuit, Tommy Silverstein, now 59, has written a long “declaration,” the purpose of which “is primarily to describe my experience during this lengthy period of solitary confinement: the nature and impact of the harsh conditions I have endured in spite of a spotless conduct record for over 22 years, and my lack of knowledge about what, if anything, I can do to lessen my isolation.” After apologizing “for the actions that brought me here in the first place,” particularly the murder of corrections officer Merle Clutts, Silverstein contends that he has “worked hard to become a different man.” He continues, “I understand that I deserve to be punished for my actions, and I do not expect ever to be released from prison…I just want to serve out the remainder of my time peacefully with other mature guys doing their time.”
The bulk of the declaration is a detailed account of Silverstein’s experiences and surrounding in a series of what constitute the most secure and isolated housing in the federal prison system: in the notorious Control Unit at Marion, the supermax prototype; at USP Atlanta in a windowless underground “side pocket” cell that measured 6 x 7 feet (“almost exactly the size of a standard king mattress,”); at Leavenworth in an isolated basement cell dubbed the “Silverstein Suite”; on “Range 13″ at ADX Florence, where the only other prisoner was Ramzi Yusef; and finally in ADX’s D-Unit, where he can hear the sounds of other prisoners living in neighboring cells, though he still never sees them.
The following is from Tommy Silverstein’s description of his life at USP Atlanta:
The cell was so small that I could stand in one place and touch both walls simultaneously. The ceiling was so low that I could reach up and touch the hot light fixture.
My bed took up the length of the cell, and there was no other furniture at all…The walls were solid steel and painted all white.
I was permitted to wear underwear, but I was given no other clothing.
Shortly after I arrived, the prison staff began construction on the side pocket cell, adding more bars and other security measures to the cell while I was within it. In order not to be burned by sparks and embers while they welded more iron bars across the cell, I had to lie on my bed and cover myself with a sheet.
It is hard to describe the horror I experienced during this construction process. As they built new walls around me it felt like I was being buried alive. It was terrifying.
During my first year in the side pocket cell I was completely isolated from the outside world and had no way to occupy my time. I was not allowed to have any social visits, telephone privileges, or reading materials except a bible. I was not allowed to have a television, radio, or tape player. I could speak to no one and their was virtually nothing on which to focus my attention.
I was not only isolated, but also disoriented in the side pocket. This was exacerbated by the fact that I wasn’t allowed to have a wristwatch or clock. In addition, the bright, artificial lights remained on in the cell constantly, increasing my disorientation and making it difficult to sleep. Not only were they constantly illuminated, but those lights buzzed incessantly. The buzzing noise was maddening, as there often were no other sounds at all. This may sound like a small thing, but it was my entire world.
Due to the unchanging bright artificial lights and not having a wristwatch or clock, I couldn’t tell if it was day or night. Frequently, I would fall asleep and when I woke up I would not know if I had slept for five minutes or five hours, and would have no idea of what day or time of day it was.
I tried to measure the passing of days by counting food trays. Without being able to keep track of time, though, sometimes I thought the officers had left me and were never coming back. I thought they were gone for days, and I was going to starve. It’s likely they were only gone for a few hours, but I had no way to know.
I was so disoriented in Atlanta that I felt like I was in an episode of the twilight zone. I now know that I was housed there for about four years, but I would have believed it was a decade if that is what I was told. It seemed eternal and endless and immeasurable…
There was no air conditioning or heating in the side pocket cells. During the summer, the heat was unbearable. I would pour water on the ground and lay naked on the floor in an attempt to cool myself…
The only time I was let out of my cell was for outdoor recreation. I was allowed one hour a week of outdoor recreation. I could not see any other inmates or any of the surrounding landscape during outdoor recreation. There was no exercise equipment and nothing to do…
My vision deteriorated in the side pocket, I think due to the constant bright lights, or possibly also because of other aspects of this harsh environment. Everything began to appear blurry and I became sensitive to light, which burned my eyes and gave me headaches.
Nearly all of the time, the officers refused to speak to me. Despite this, I heard people who I believed to be officers whispering into my vents, telling me they hated me and calling me names. To this day, I am not sure if the officers were doing this to me, or if I was starting to lose it and these were hallucinations.
In the side pocket cell, I lost some ability to distinguished what was real. I dreamt I was in prison. When I woke up, I was not sure which was reality and which was a dream.
In a summing up, Silverstein reflects on the physical and psychological effects of 28 years in solitary and on his own development as a self-taught artists and practicioner of yoga and Buddhist meditation. He reiterates his plea to be allowed into the BOP’s “Step-Down program” toward less isolated confinement. The complete declaration, which runs to 64 pages, can be read here.
Update: A declaration submitted as an exhibit in the case, by Dr. Craig Haney, one of the nation’s leading experts on the effects of prolonged solitary confinement, can be read here.
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Reading this brought tears to my eyes and, as I shake my head in disbelief, I can only think that I have never heard of a more horrible example of hell on earth. Religons teach that God sends the souls of humans to heaven or to hell. But it appears that Man takes it upon himself to hurl a human being into Hell, right here in the United States, with complete disregard for our Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”.
Nothing justifies what has been done to Mr. Silverstein. I am disgusted and sick the more I learn about some of the inhuman and truly evil practices under the banner of “Justice” in my own country. I’m appalled that part of this person’s Hell was lived out in my home state of Illinois.
Solitary Watch, what an invaluable mission you carry out. Thank you.
@Jane Well said this happened to a human being that I love very much and the anger that is in me has no outlet the more I know about the prison system the angrier I get these prisons and their staff seem to be above the law and Constitution. It’s a world of it’s own, doing to people what it wants to. Where are the checks and balances how did “they” get away with it? And now will “they” escape even so much as a REPRIMAND OR PENALTY? Tommy should be set completely free for justice and fairness to be carried out. and from the things that were done to him how is it that it’s hard to believe he was torture to the point of homicide by the CO in charge? And these things go on all over our country, COs taunting caged isolated men. Justice restitution and change for Tom Silverstein NOW!
I can’t wait to learn what Judge Brimmer decides tomorrow after reviewing this horrific account of the BOP’s cruelty that is sadly carried out in our name.
Brimmer has set a May 6 court date to discuss a potential trial date.
Read more: Supermax inmate suing to lessen solitary confinement – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17954968#ixzz1LW1H6Gf8
Who will be the next “bogeyman” of the BOP to receive this unbelievable abuse?
The stories on Solitary Watch always breaks my heart and makes me feel so helpless. Just this morning I heard an NPR Radio Lab story on “Zoos”. The main point of the story is we are, as a nation, moving away from caging our animals because it causes them to go mad. One study done showed how the brains of animals placed in cages would atrophy. How do we expect human beings to take solitary confinement, or even confinement at all, without reverting to the most base and to lose all hope?
Radical change and attention to this matter is needed. Thank you Solitary Watch for shining a light in one of the darkest places on earth – the American Penal System.
sad and sick it is to know that we do this to are owen i hope he is freeded soon thare was ones a warden in texes who siad he feaed a prison run my inmates well me i fear the day that the treetment he suffers dayly is the standared for treetment of all bop inmates i feear the day the usa treets all thare inmates like they have him i fear the day that the usa becomes POJ how can we be proud of this nashion i fear the day that i being human minded mess up but moest of all i fear the day thow i pray it never comes i fear the day i am thowen to the tribunal and by thare orders thowen with in the gates of the vast plane of justice no one should be treeted like he was no one we say death is the worest you can give by court order i beg to difer on that life in solitary like he has suffered and still dose that is the cruelest sentince that can be given that is the fate i fear moest of all in life may thare be light in the darknes of justice
@ Joshlynn. I feel the same way. This kind of treatment is worse than execution. And, yes, it goes on all over this country and the worst part is most people don’t seem to care. Sometimes I post things about the evils that exist in our criminal “justice” system such as the Solitary Watch info such as above and hardly anyone ever makes a comment. Wait til it happens to someone they love, God forbid.
Jane and Joshlyn you guys are totally right I post everywhere 4 blogs twitter face book send my family articles this one finally hit my niece with such disbelief she knows now why I fight for reform. @Alan the Denver post did say May but I have also heard a different date from My Tom’s atty but most of the case is very secretive as so much could sabotage him after all this is the Federal gov’t just please pray for releif for Tom thanks so much to you all
as I have posted before the Torture of Tom is always freash they continue to this day in so many ways the hurt and upset him he is a strong man and I thank God he is still here but death would have been more merciful. These prisons answer to no one, what kind of monsters work in these places? Sadists and bullies.
Again thank you all. from Tom and me.
Good news, Judge Brimmer set a Jan 23, 2012 trial date.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18013074?source=pkg
he was a murderer guys. just saying.
Yes, he is, and he should (and will) spend the rest of his life in prison.
That still doesn’t justify such horrible treatment.
@ Josh , yes and when you become aware of the conditions in prison it’s easy to see why Tommy was not a murderer be he went to prison All of that is really besides the point People should NOT betortured, no matter what. Why does America have dungeons and torture people this is the 21st century not the dark ages, America used to mean pride to me but not after learning how the prison system is just to make money and is above the constitution. My prayers are for relief for Tommy no one on this Earth or in this country should suffer in such a way. Josh thank you but I do hope you look into the facts of a 19 yr old kid trying to survive prison, do u think hes the only person that ever was pushed to homicide once in, read Clarrissa’s post, these things “they” do to people do not rehabilitate they drive them insane. Just thank God you havent slipped up as Joshlyn said it could happen to any of us with a system that has no rules for the Humane treatment of people.
Right on, Tomasina! Josh, yes, he murdered and it was brutal. But OUR CONSTITUTION prohibits cruel and unusual punishment!!!!! And this is ignored by the Keepers of the Cages. It’s not right, I don’t care if he is Hitler. Leave it to GOD to punish or forgive(???) (and the God I believe in, which is a Holy Power for Love and Forgiveness, does not approve of what is going on in our prisons….). We all have different beliefs, but nothing justifies torture of an animal, human or otherwise….
how dose cruel unusual punishment even stand up….. and What If……. There is no God and youve all been stooped…….then who will punish someone for murder……..i say if you kill someone wile your in prison……a bullet only cost pennys and who wants there tax dollars to pay for people like this to live another day…….com’on economic crises you waste money on people like this….stupid people
just sayen
“We all have different beliefs, but nothing justifies torture of an animal, human or otherwise….”
What about torture of a monster? This man is obviously a dangerous menace. What the prison did is rather extreme, yes–but I find it difficult to offer any sympathy to a murderer.
Josh if you read the document Silverstein wrote it begins with a statement of remorse for the two murders that he has admitted committing. The first was that of Cadillac Smith who had twice attempted to kill Silverstein before he was killed.
I never knew either men so I researched and found this description of Cadillac Smith written by a friend of his.
http://eglibraryreferences.blogspot.com/2009/04/christian-soldier-and-gladiator.html
Monday, April 13, 2009
Christian Soldier and Gladiator
By Eddie Griffin
April 26, 1983
This is a true story about the eruption of a race war in prison, and about the gladiators that fought them, how they lived and how they died. But of all the prison stories, there is none like the life and death of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.
Sampson, that was my image of Cadillac, because he was equally as strong, battle hardened, and roared like a lion whenever he went into combat. And, on a good day, his signature battle cry would rattle the walls and shake all the prison cages.
No wonder, men in prison feared him, both inmate and guard. He was invincible in hand-to-hand combat.
There was this old story about how an assailant once stabbed him in the chest, aiming for his heart. The knife folded like tin foil against an ox hide buff, muscles built by iron on the weightlifting pile. The attacker struck from behind, and when the knife wilted, he fled and sought protective custody in the arms of the nearest prison guard.
Cadillac laughed. He always laughed in the face of his enemies. And, there were times when his psychotic laughter caused even me to quiver. To hear him laugh was not good, not good at all for somebody.
They call prison the “belly of the beast”, not merely metaphoric, but because it churned like a caldron sitting on top of the pit fires of hell.
I was there, at USP Leavenworth, sitting on a two-year parole date like a man holding hot gold in the palm of my hands, when the report of Cadillac’s assassination came to me by the Moors, whom the FBI identified in the memo below as the “Moorish Science of America”.
The federals also characterized the brothers as “DC Blacks”, with no respect for their ancient “science”. And yet, the FBI searched high and low for evidence in the stabbing death of Baumgarten, but found nothing- no weapon, no bloody clothes, and no scratches. And, whatever witnesses were left behind never saw anything actually go down.
It was said of the Moors in prison that they could kill a man, stash the weapons where no one on earth could find them, wash their clothes and dry them, before prison officials could ever discover the body. As far as I know, the FBI had never been able to pin a murder on a Moors.
I was made an honorary Moor, given a kufi as headgear to wear while attending secret meetings, and being briefed on everything, except the “science”.
Few people know that most Washington, D.C. Blacks originated from Morocco during the slave trade era. They had a different African culture and traditions than the rest of the U.S. black population. To this day, they know their history and where they came from, and they never broke completely with their ancient traditions. They knew the art and science of killing, Moroccan-style. And, Cadillac was heir to the “Sword of Justice”, a gleaming curve steel blade about two-feet long.
The FBI memo, paraphrased here, read:
At approximately 9:30 a.m. on December 9, 1982, in C-Block of the U.S. Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania a witness had found inmate Neil Baumgarten, bleeding profusely from the upper portion of his body… With the assistance of two inmates, the witness placed Baumgarten on a stretcher and he was thereafter transported to the Institution hospital.
At approximately 9:40 a.m., Baumgarten was provided emergency treatment for the estimated 15 puncture wounds to his upper chest, back and abdomen area. Due to the severity of Baumgarten’s condition, he was immediately transferred to a nearby civilian hospital where he was pronounced dead at approximately 10:00 a.m. …
The crime scene was searched but failed to produce any physical evidence.
The lone witness felt that the murder was in retaliation for the murder of Cadillac Smith which occurred at the USP, Marion, Illinois, earlier in 1982…
During the period from December 1982 to the present, information has been received and compiled indicating the presence of a large group of inmates with the USP, Lewisburg, which has organized into a retaliatory and murder organization. This group is comprised of Black inmates from the Washington, D.C. area and is known as the “D.C. Blacks”. A large segment of this group also has membership and/or ties with the Moorish Science Temple.
Information has been received indicating that this group of inmates have banded together and have plotted the murders and attempted murders of white inmates at the USP their cause being the retaliation of the killing of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith who was purportedly murdered at the USP, Marion, Illinois, by incarcerated members of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB)…
To support the above information, on December 11, 1982, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons transcript of a telephone conversation… indicated an imminent “war” between the AB and the D.C. Blacks at the USP, Leavenworth, and USP, Lewisburg. The “war” was in retaliation over the murder of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.
Now all of this could have been avoided if the BOP had not first moved Cadillac from another prison to a cell near Silverstein. Cadillac was known by the BOP to be the best friend of Chappelle whom they claimed Silverstein had murdered but whom Silverstein still denies having committed.
OK bad move but possibly an oversight right? But then Cadillac first loudly vows to kill Silverstein and true to his word makes two separate attempts to do just that. This gave the BOP two chances to separate and thus avoid any further violence.
Inmates cannot move themselves so it was not unreasonable for Silverstein to eliminate the threat just as our government has done this month with OBL.
Now the guard Clutts is said to have vowed to set Silverstein up once again to be killed by rivals and Silverstein has said that he believed him.
This is not a wild accusation but a reoccurring theme that inmates of all races claim is done regularly by prison staff to those they dislike. Silverstein still believes the guards wanted either of the two men to kill each other and the survivor to be punished for it. They got their wish.
As you just read retaliation for a murder is a real threat.
Who are D.C. Blacks and what is the Moorish Science Temple’s philosophy?
Drew Ali, founded the Moorish Science Temple in Newark, N.J. in 1931. It was a forerunner of the Nation of Islam.
Today three fourths of the Temple’s congregations are inside prisons.
Ali claimed that “all blacks are Asiatics” who were “the original inhabitants of the earth and the progenitors of all nonwhite nations.”
Ali told his followers to take the name Bey, to operate small businesses to be self-sufficient, to display the star and crescent and that they were the world’s superior race and that God would cleanse the earth of other, impure races in a fiery apocalypse.
Whites, he claimed, were the product of an evil scientist named Yukab who conducted genetic experiments and created a race of inferior devils.
As is noted above Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, at the time of his death was the most powerful D.C. Black in prison and the heir to its “Sword of Justice”, a gleaming curved steel blade about two-feet long.
The infamous El Rukn group is also a breakaway faction from the Moorish Science Temple.
You may recall that in the mid 80’s the El Rukn gang even dabbled in international terrorism, allegedly traveling to Libya and meeting with agents of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to offer their services as domestic terrorists in return for money and weapons.
Today the tradition continues in other break away groups. One such group has its headquarters in Oakland at “Your Black Muslim Bakery”.
The leader is under indictment for several murders:
http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2009/04/29/grand-jury-votes-to-indict-bakery-leader-in-slaying-of-oakland-journalist/
A grand jury indicted Bey IV, on three counts of murder for allegedly ordering the murder of Bailey before he could publish a story in the Oakland Post about financial problems at the bakery; for ordering the murder of Odell Roberson for retribution because Roberson’s nephew killed Bey IV’s brother; and ordering the murder of Michael Wills, a white man, because he was “a devil.”
http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/2011/03/28/broussard-bursts-into-laughter-describing-2007-slaying/
Broussard briefly told jurors how Mackey bragged about killing Wills on July 12, 2007. Mackey and Bey IV, Broussard said, mocked that slaying, laughing together about how Wills’ leg flew into the air when he was shot, as if kicking a football.
Broussard said they jumped around imitating a football referee, raising their arms in the air and saying, “It’s good, it’s good,” as if referring to a field goal or extra point.
He also said they laughed about killing Wills because he was white and said Bey IV and Mackey bragged they had been talking about the so-called Zebra murders in the Bay Area in early 1970s, where Black Muslims randomly shot white people on the streets.
Bey IV admired the Zebra Killers because “they was giving white people a taste of their own medicine.
Yes given these facts I do believe Cadillac was a threat to Silverstein.
What were his choices then that would not make him a murderer?
All this violence is sad and unjustified but very very real!
He didn’t even become a murder until he was put into prison. Also, for all we know all of his killings could have been self-defense, but we only have his word and other officers’ counter-words. Even Officer Cutler could have been a monstrous freak, no matter his family status, but officers always vehemently defend each other and extra-punish people who harm their officer buddies. Yet the justice system doesn’t seem to care about this kind of nepotism.
This document isn’t very interesting in its present state: No external collaboration of the many claims it makes. Even the claim of 10,000+ consecutive days of solitary confinement — verifiable?
Note that the doc has internal inconsistencies, i.e., inaccuracies. One easy one to spot was the claim of consecutive days spent in solitary. However, he spent a week out of solitary e.g. during the Cuban prisoner riots.
this person murdered 3 people, he should have been killed and thats it , but keepin him locked down for all these years and spending our tax money on him is pure stupidity
HE IS A CRIMINAL SCUM!
I HOPE HE ROOTS THERE.
Well the bastard should not have killed fellow inmates, but he took the life of a corrections officer, so there is no unusual punishment for him! Let him rot. The conditions he has are better than the pain he has caused the families he has hurt.
I can’t even imagine 28 DAYS in solitary confinement, let alone 28 years… I would have killed myself if I had to go through 28 years with absolutely nobody to talk to and nothing to do. I mean, what that guy did was fucked up and all, and he should NEVER be allowed to see the light of day, but 28 years with no human contact is a pretty horrible way to live.
This piece of crap deserves what he’s getting.
It sounds like the Correctional Officers Union have returned from their Marquis de Sade convention.
to those who offer no sympathy, who say “this is what he deserves”
If you are a chrisitan who’s done his reading (and if you are not, feel free to stop reading), then you’d understand that it is not the right of men to codemn or judge one another. It is not your right to say that someone is irredeemable, or that someone has no right to live. and that right belongs to God alone. To those who want theological proof, I direct you to my subject line.
It is, however, your duty, as a christian, to offer brotherly love to others, regardless of who they are, and to hate the sin, not the sinner.
Yes, societies ought to jail criminals from necessity – to protect the public at large. Whether they should do it to rehabilitate is matter of opinion. Put to punish for the sake of vengence is to claim right to something that isn’t yours to claim right to. Let God punish as he sees fit, and let men forgive.
Shit, this world is wicked and evil enough as it is. Making yourself monsterous by condemning others only serves evil’s purposes. I hope you can find the time and wisdom to realize this.
to the comenter of keep him in thare i would like you to look up your loceal supermax and go spend a year if you feel that solitary confinment is so right for him then why not spend some time in solitary yourself get back to me in a year will see if your still sane anyone who would wish life in solitary on a nuther is sick in the head is a follower of the tribunal and is what is rong with this nashion if you like solitary so much go live in it let the rest of us sane humans live free what has ben done to this poor man is not justice it is cruil and i hope reames unusal it is tribunal thupers like you who i fear moest for it is you who if gets in are courts will kill justice it is those who would do such a thing to a nuther that i fear more them rapest or merderers why cos at the least they get it over with to spend ones life in solitary is a slow painfal and horrific way to die death is fast and mercy when faced with the other tell me what if you where in his places or your sun i would not wish such a fate even on those who did 911 kill them one it shows us as a merfal nashion and we never have to wory bout them agan and it is cheeper for tax payers i not saying i am pro death i not por death but but moest of all i am not por solitary confindment and as for you who want life in solitary as a standered for all stay out of are couts do not become judges and stop rapeing are justice and law stop wipeing your ass with are flag and are constushional rights what would you founding fathers say even they moved away from solitary after seeing it failed do on to others as you would have them do to you i for one would never wish a fate of life in solitary on anyone for i would never wish to faces it myself the day i fear moest in my dreams is the day i stand befor a judges and be handed such a sentince for that is when i know this nashions gone to hell
Joshlynne, you are absolutely right…tune out these Haters who think they have the right to torture someone when that is NOT what his sentence was from the judge involved. Prison is one thing, this cruelty is another. Don’t let them upset you. You and I and others know your heart is good and in the right place!
It is very hard no hurt over the ugliness, these attitudes contribute to a society of cruelty.
whether a person believes there is a God or not still does not give them a right to torture people and those worried about tax dollars should take a look and the system which is no more than the new slavery making money by keeping people in chains. Stop Super maxes all together Obama wants to open another. The public is “duped” into believing murderers and rapists fill the prisons. They dont I do not know 1 rapist in prison. I continue to stand by the truth that Tom was turned into a murderer by the system as are so many others.
Theres no need for long sentences, the prisons are full of old men that cause no trouble make the staffs job easier some states the max someone can get is 22 yrs, “they” let the violent people out year after year, but old guys quiet money in the bank. Uk has less crime than we do they have civilized prison system as does the Netherlands And as for verifying his circumstance we have the freedom of information act oh God a week out of 28 years by all means deduct them what an idiot. The public has been inundated with the one-sided story
there is a video on youtube where a CO from that prison verifies Tom’s story, you think the Federal gov’t will allow or acknowledge anything? the child of the CO made the tape all stories of CO whistle blowers end the same they disappear. The sadists live and rule. and again any documentation is buried.Even most of the violence in prison is instigated by the staff thereby justifying pay raises the biggest lobbies in Washington are for prison. Whole cities would not even exist without the prison built I could fill a page with real stories from inmates and the money. “they” do not feed, them let them visit, recreate them; budget cuts go there, but higher pay, more buildings, better equipment, trasportation etc all get the money Industry remember that. Tom should not be tortured he should not even be in prison anymore “they” have exacted their revenge.
Keep in mind that Silverstein’s crimes include the murder of correctional officer Merle Clutts in 1983. Silverstein planned the murder ahead of time, and was particularly brutal, stabbing him dozens of times.
He is in prison as punishment for his crimes; he is in solitary in order to protect those who have to be close to him.
The least the scum prison staff could do would be to loose the bible and give him a set of Buddhist dharma to study as he might meditate well after all of these years. There is also a bit more reading involved. What could one do for him, after so long being inhumanly confined how would he react to another human being? What can you say??????
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. – Fyodor Dostoevsky
John Lee I say lets give it a try in a seniors prison. Not much gang banging going on when inmates are on respirators, use walkers, wheelchairs, or are bedridden. This man reacted to threats on his life he did not kill children, prostitutes, or other innocents he killed those that either attempted or threatened to kill him. He admits he was wrong but cannot take it back. As for Clutts the guard there is no way to know if he was a sadist or was serious about setting Silverstein up to be killed. There are enough cases that prove both are very real possibilities.
Question is what would you do if doing nothing meant certain death in your mind?
The Seals just eliminated a threat on us all. Few in the west would call them murders and throw them into solitary for the rest of their life.
His trial and he is getting one will give him the chance to convince the jury he has changed I only hope they don’t select the jury from the community that lives off the misery of the prisoners.
Read about just what went down as I have, try to imagine being held in place under a constant threat of death like a tethered animal in a slaughter house awaiting the moment of your death. I think at the very least you (if your not a guard) will have to question if he acted as you would.
Read any prison blog and you will see comments about the collusion between guards and inmates to eliminate those the guards do not like or fear.
In fact most black sites believe Silverstein had the blessing and aid of the guards. How else could he have done what he did without being spotted. The place has cameras at every corner.
There is even one guard on youtube who says the administration allowed the conditions to exist that allowed the murder of Clutts to take place in order to have an excuse to lock the place down. Which they did afterward. He was angry that Clutts had to die for it to happen. Also in the book Hot House by Pete Early a veteran hero guard said Clutts made the mistake of allowing it to get personal between him and Silverstein. He also should have known this since early in his career his trainer was killed in mauch the same way for simialr reasons. It is on the BOP web site. His murderer was later paroled.
It is known that one effect of solitary is a growing fantasy to kill the guards. Making threats to set him up sealed Clutts fate. All of this together is what drove the man to kill. Solitary and it’s know affects, unprofessional harassment of a prisoner making it personal in an environment where image is everything, and making credible threats on a prisoners life.
He is sorry for what happened but the system is ultimately bares some responsibility in the events that took place. Early and others that have investigated this have all made statements to this.
Don’t just assume guards are good guys (even guards admit there are rouge guards that collude with inmates) and everyone in prison are blood thirsty maniacs that would kill innocent children and drink their blood. Although this system might just create some.
It is called a step down program because Silverstein and all the others gradually reenter the General population GP. The mislabeling of GP in his current situation is not GP as one would expect.
Good luck Tom come Jan. 23!!!!
let them rot in hell, they already get better accomodations than our homeless–waste of my tax dollars, a bullet to the head would have been better, and only cost a quarter
Just noticing a little math in here. He was in Solitary confinement for 23 years and has been a model prisoner for 22. Although he did manage to cause trouble his first year, it is a little difficult to be unruly when in solitary, you also can not base good behavior on a person’s actions while confined to solitary. Most prisons do psych evals regularly on prisoners in solitary. There is a lot being left out here, and, despite what some people think, there is evil and there are people that have no hope of redemption.
@Lorelei- Obviously you have never been in or had anyone you love in solitary. If you had you would realize there are many ways to misbehave in solitary. There is enough written on this site about it to educate yourself if your interested. It is good that you mentioned psych evaluations yes they do receive them and Silverstein has been found to be a low risk to other inmates and staff.
As far as being evil you are right there are extremely evil men in prison some are even inmates. Although Silverstein’s acts were extremely violent they were only as extreme as his environment. Again I think you need to do your homework. Read my comments above to understand the man’s actions.
I also find it curious as to how only Silverstein draws out the haters. No other case has drawn as many hateful comments as his. Many making these comments are most likely concerned correctional officers but many others seem to believe that attacking Tom is risk free. After all he was in the AB according to the BOP and nobody approves of them right? Neither do I but I know the conditions that created them first hand.
Other ex-convicts mentioned on this site carried out domestic terrorism or belonged to organizations that believed in such actions. No one made any negative comments about them. Why not? And several of these ex-cons are free now.
Some of you ‘bloggers’ need to seriously go back to grammar school and learn how to spell. This guy murdered 3 people and you feel sorry for him? Poor guy made the decision to kill 3 people. Dont do the crime, dont do the time.
Humans create their own heaven and hell here on earth as if they were immortal God themselves and Judge each other as if they were Immortal God themselves
You don’t have to wait til judgement day it happens every day
And you don’t have to wait for heaven and hell, hell is right here on earth and so is heaven
They are so vested in this Religious pipe dream reality tunnel that they have built their whole world around it.
By the way Tim it’s don’t not dont (or even do not), looks like someone needs to go back to grammer school themselves!
Personally I believe that if you commit a crime then you should be punished yet this kind of treatment is barbaric. Americans go on about removing despotic leaders to give justice and democracy to the people while at the same time allowing this kind of thing to happen on your own soil. I’m not condoning what the guy did but no person deserves to be treated like that.
Tim Silverstein was convicted of three but admits to only two. Someone else claimed he killed the first one at Silverstein’s trial. Silverstein has always claimed he did not kill Chappelle. The second one was after Cadillac Smith failed twice to kill Silverstein in revenge. Now I kind of understand why Silverstein didn’t want to wait for a third and forth attempt just like Obama took OBL out to prevent another attack on Americans.
But I do not understand why the BOP moved Chappelle’s best friend two doors down from the man they claim killed his friend, nor why they did not move him after the first or the second attempt on Silverstein’s life. I guess there is something to what Silverstein said something like: “Everyone knew he was going to attempt to kill me but no one did anything to keep us apart. They wanted us to kill each other.”
Now these type of setups are common in prison according to prisoners of all races. Blacks still believe Cadillac was set up by the guards.
After that the guard Clutts comes along and threatens to set Silverstein up again and does everything that he can to provoke Silverstein who took Clutt’s threat as seriously. The rest is history.
Read about Cadillac through the eyes of his friend in my earlier comment above.
The person I believe you are referring to in the spelling comment is a product of the system and reflects the type of education that is available in these institutions. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a valid point. However being unable to see how wrong this all is reflects on your own upbringing.
I won’t quote the bible but I would just ask you how you would like to be treated?
Most people are capable of killing in self defense although I find it hard to grasp the fear this man must have felt laying there waiting for the next attempt on his life to take place.
No one that has never slept in a level 6 prison could possibly know that.
Loreli please read some of what the “psche” evaluaters do… nothing is what. ADx is full a screaming madmen that are mentally ill. Breaking mens minds by eddie griffin this whole system is to break their mind and evsaluater are there just for a job which we pay for remember this is NOT about justice but money
@bikerdoood who said it was planned? the BOP? of course thats want “they” say. If anything was planned it was to kill his tormenter Clutts, he ran past 3 other guards to get to him. Speaking to them as he passed. They had not harmed threatened or abused him so he didnt harm them.
In the true story “midnight Express” the torture ended when he killed his tormentor and we all cheered. That was Turkey this is America we have a constitution, thats the boundary of of how people are to be treaed
I do not care what a man does his punishment is prison not 23 years of torture.
Is this really so much better than a medieval dungeon? In many ways I think it’s worse. We have truly regressed as “civilized” society. What’s worse, a forced labor concentration camp, or a supermax isolation prison where people are treated worse than animals? At least in a concentration camp you most likely won’t live long.
Tim, I don’t care if he’s goddamn Hitler, our society has limits on what kind of punishment you can serve on a person. Just because our society allows criminals to be treated this way doesn’t mean it’s perfectly right to do so. Society can’t dictate cruel and unusual punishments simply because you’re a criminal. You still have civil rights regardless of how evil you are.
Amen Sarah <true Agreement Human Rights Civil rights, if this happens to Tom it can happen to anyone Right now there are thousands in isolation for one reason or another
Pelican Bay SHU will go on hunger strike to the death July 1st to bring attention to the cruelty, I know many there and in Tehachapi isolation that are NOT murderers but as one responder said how can they act human when they are treated w/out humanity. Tom is not the only just longest most severe because our country lets its prisons get away with it.
Does he deserve it? well maybe. This guy is a murderer. If it was one of my children killed by him, I definitely would feel that he is deserving of it. Heavier capital punishment ftw.
Just don’t end up in a prison. Then you never have to worry about it in a first place. This guy ended up there for a reason, then well, gotta take what they give you.
@high are you kidding me? This country has gone the way of the dark ages.”get what you get” thats ridiculous. Lets see caning or chopping off limbs seems barbaric, And this doesnt?
Over 50,000 hits means the public is concerned? (Read the side bar from 14 hours ago.)
Lets hope they reflect a disbelief of the American public that we treat inmates in this manner. But then again the Correctional Officer’s Union might be behind this judging from the sadistic comments.
To the “High” guy: Let me get this straight you think it is ok for the BOP to do whatever it wants if you land in jail. You do realize there are over 43 Million people with a police record on file somewhere. You mentioned your kids maybe they might pull a college prank or buy some herb at the wrong place at the right time. A large % of the inmates are serving time for drug related charges and many college students experiment with drugs.
Lets hope not yours. Also not everyone comes from a supportive family. Did you read the facts on Silverstein’s after all his crime partner was his dad. What chance did he have for a normal life.
Judge not lest you be judged.
Alan it is my belief that this is just another set of people exploiting Tom hes tortured by the Federal Gov’t with the blessing of other sadist and then rather than an article shedding light on what can be done to stop the gov’t from doing this to it’s own people it regurgitates the same old hash “he killed…” rather than showing what the system down to the medical people and staff are doing to thousands( there are stories and lawsuits about COs that put feces in inmate food, deliver cold food to isolated inmates , placing extremely mentally ill in isolation to scream endlessly) no one reads it unless it says “Tommy Silverstein” SW will keep this going just for the hits I’m ashamed I read this tripe and allow the comments to hurt me so deeply. He breathes I breathe. Everyone is worthy of redemption. What ever religion one espouses to no man or his family should endure this it’s time solitary watch did more than parrot bad news and further the cause with help for those in isolation. Everyone can write letters to their own elected officials opposing this kind of treatment for all people.
I just noticed the update of Dr. Craig Haney’s report at the bottom of the article.
It should be titled Catch 22 because the phrase was used throughout the report.
It was an eye opening piece on how the system twists even good behavior into a negative for the people in their charge.
How one uses words does indeed have a profound impact of the reader. Still hopefully even the skillful efforts of deceit made by paid agents of the BOP will finally be exposed for just that.
Human bias is also a major factor in writing albeit at times a subconscious one.
Tomasina: At least the “worst of the worst” phrase was absent this time around. I still believe decades of editorial bias is hard to correct for. People are conditioned to resist empathy for even historical amounts of sensory deprecation if the victim is associated with a group like the AB. While other radical group members traditionally aligned with the far Left get a pass.
Just compare the first paragraphs of such articles which of course set the tone for the reader. I think it is not a conscious bias act but reflective conditioning.
Let him rot. Why should I feel any sympathy for an animal who took 3 lives, including the life of a correction’s officer? Truthfully, the American tax payers should not have to carry the burden of this animal; the average prisoner costs taxpayers $50K a year. A bullet to the base of the skull is much cheaper.
James. I get the impression that you feel that correctional officers’ lives are more valuable than the lives of other human beings? How do you justify that?
James, you’re an obvious sociopath.
Reading this, I believe this man is sincere in his remorse for his crime and his desire to become a better man. I fail to see how it is possible for anyone to work to become a better person when deprived of anything or anyone to be better to, than, or about.
I am reading Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, and it is striking that the methods described here are similar to those used on the inmates in the Gulag. Incredibly, the incessant brightness of the cell and the isolation from other prisoners was used primarily in “punishment” cells in the Gulag experience as described by Solzhenitsyn, and ordinary prisoners had the lights turned off at night and shared cells with other inmates.
Scary stuff…
When I read this, it makes me never want to commit the sort of crimes this man did. Every teenager should have to read this. I’d rather energy be spent trying to use this as a way of preventing others from repeating this man’s mistakes than spent trying to make life easier for other cold-blooded murderers.
lol, did you people skip the part that he killed 2 people while in prison? For my standards he shouldn’t even being living to complain. 2 family’s lives were racked because of him.
I read the full declaration. I would expect to read this about treatment in the Sudan or in the gulags of the Soviet Union not the United States. Unbelievable that this man was subjected to this for 28 years.
Dr. Atul Gwande wrote an essay in The New Yorker in March 2009 titled HellHole. It’s about extreme isolation. Dr. Gwande says: The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?
After reading what was done to Mr. Silverstein for 28 years I have to say, “Yes, this is torture.” Even some of the petty things the officers would do like leaving him in the outdoor recreation area for hours in the winter or putting a telephone outside his cell and letting it ring for hours are torture.
Yes, this man is a murderer and should be in prison like other murderers but this treatment for 28 years is cruel and unusual punishment and demeans us a human beings.
Read Dr. Gawande’s essay on this.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1MUEfYSxM
Is it the solitary confinement people have an issue with our his conditions there? He clearly made his own bed on the solitary confinement issue. Treating him as a regular prisoner would endanger the lives of all other prisoners and security personnel.
Who knows how accurate his depiction of the solitary confinement conditions is. It should be looked into of course, and the conditions he describe are a bit over the top. But once you start killing people IN prison, you really don’t leave the system a whole lot of options.
When Silverstein’s was tried for the murder of Chappelle who was an alleged member of the D.C. Blacks prison gang. A Mr. Matthews testified that he had killed Chapell. Here is what I found:
When called to the stand to testify Norman Matthews, another prisoner housed on C Range at the time of the murder, was asked whether he could remember November 22, 1981, he replied, “It was the day I killed Chappelle.”
Although Matthews had previously given a statement to the FBI confessing to the murder–his confession in open court caused a commotion.
Defense counsel said, “All right, now, Mr. Matthews, you have right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States not to incriminate yourself. Do you understand that?” Matthews replied, “Yes.”
When the judge finished explaining Matthews’ Fifth Amendment right to him, Matthews replied, “Maybe I should take the Fifth…. You convinced me I should protect my rights, sir.” The judge then instructed the jury to disregard Matthew’s testimony.
The lapse in security that allowed Chappelle to be murdered in his cell cannot be passed over in silence.
Excerpts from Pete Earley’s book “The Hot Hot House” .
Page 105:
“The black inmates were from Washington D.C., and were known simply as “D.C. Blacks.” They were one of the most difficult groups at Leavenworth for guards to control. Because it has limited jail space of its own, the nation’s capital sends a disproportionate number of inmates into the federal system, and most are black, a reflection of the city’s predominantly black population. At the Hot House, D.C. Blacks were the largest single ethnic group from any single city, and nearly all were well-schooled in violence. D.C. Blacks were especially notorious as “locker-knockers”–petty thieves who ransacked the personal lockers of other inmates–and for pressuring new inmates for sex.”
Page 230: “Chapplle’s death worried some bureau officials, who feared that it might start a war between the AB and the D.C. Blacks gang. But apparently it did not worry them enough to separate gang members at Marion. In fact, while Silverstein and Fountain were on trail for Chappelle’s murder, the bureau transferred Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, the national leader of the D.C. Blacks prison gang, from another prison into the control unit in Marion and put in a cell near Silverstein’s. The bureau would later insist it had nowhere else within the entire system secure enough to place Smith, even though guards knew that Chappelle had been a close friend of Smith’s and that Smith had vowed to avenge his death.
From the moment that Smith arrived in the control unit, prison logs show that he began trying to kill Silverstein. On September 6, 1982, guards opened Smith’s cell electronically so that he could walk down the narrow tier to the shower stall. En route, he stopped in front of Silverstein’s cell, pulled a knife from under his towel, and swung at him through the bars….
Continued on Page 231: A few days later, guards caught Smith trying to shoot Silverstein with a zip gun, made from a piece of pipe crammed with sulfur match-heads that worked like gunpowder when lit. Smith was taken to an isolation cell as punishment, but he was returned to his old cell a week later.
“I tried to tell Cadillac that I didn’t kill Chappelle, but he didn’t believe me and bragged that he was going to kill me,” Silverstein recalled. “Everyone knew what was going on and no one did anything to keep us apart. The guards wanted one of us to kill the other.”
(In my opinion it is difficult to imagine how prison authorities in Marion’s control unit equipped with wall to wall cameras, and knowing the bad blood between the two failed to prevent this from taking place. Unless Silverstein’s analysis is correct!)
As for the guard Clutts. Also from The Hot House.
Page 393: Referring to Clutts and Silverstein, Ralph Seever, a legendary lieutenant who had spent his career at Leavenworth and was revered by guards as the best there ever was explained, “Inmates expect guards always to tell them no and punish them when they violate the rules. It’s all part of the game, “But you never want, the relationship to get personal.” He warned. Whenever an inmate believes for some reason that the natural conflict between convicts and officers is personal, his ego is at stake, and in a penitentiary, image is a thousand times more important than reality.”
Transcript from Earley’s taped interview with Silverstein.
11:40 into video: Clutts listen I got forever in prison, I got life in prison I’m not a punk, a little guy, that you can smack around all the time. You better get off my case or you got something coming if you keep messing with me. It just added fuel to the fire. He just wouldn’t listen.
12:40 Silverstein: He liked to make a point to show off to the other guards.
Earley: Here is the guy that killed Chappelle and Smith and I can be tough with him.
Silverstein: Yeah!
16:25 Silverstein: I think he was just selling me wolf tickets (making threats). But he didn’t know I was taking him serious.
As many killings that I have seen when someone says he is going to kill you, you can’t just sit back and say awe it ain’t nothing and do nothing.
When somebody has gone that far especially when you’re telling him you don’t want no trouble why don’t you get off my case. You know, I pleaded with that guy, maybe that’s why he thought, you know, that he could do what he wants with me. Maybe I am not what he thought I was you know. Maybe he expected me to growl you know like a mad dog or something I don’t know what.”
Silverstein had reason to believe the threat by Clutts to set him up to be killed was real given the prior events that took place. However Silverstein has acknowledged that his actions were wrong and has expressed his remorse as a much older and wiser man. This appears to me to be a sincere statement. Statistically older prisoners ” represent a vastly reduced threat than younger inmates.” I also believe Dr. Craig Haney is correct in his analysis that if Silverstein is placed in a senior s prison (and yes they exist) he as an older inmate would not be a threat to either prisoners or prison workers.
I have said this long before reading the good doctors report above which SW has posted.
Also you may want to read the description of Cadillac Smith made by his friend Eddie Griffin I posted above. You may then appreciate the seriousness of the threat on Silverstein’s life that he had posed.
Sad and unbelievable violence takes place in these institutions and like Silverstein has said when someone tells you they are out to get you you have to believe them or risk death.
In considering the “two” horrendous murders that Silverstein commited I wondered what his motivation had been. He sounded sane on his blog. When he brought up the fact that no one takes the time to ask who his victims were.
I set out to try and find information on the D.C. Blacks Prison Gang to which the two inmates belonged. I wanted to understand the threat that they posed to Silverstein.
I found some info on the D.C. Blacks prison gang in the book “The Hot House” on Page 105:
“The black inmates were from Washington D.C., and were known simply as “D.C. Blacks.” They were one of the most difficult groups at Leavenworth for guards to control. Because it has limited jail space of its own, the nation’s capital sends a disproportionate number of inmates into the federal system, and most are black, a reflection of the city’s predominantly black population. At the Hot House, D.C. Blacks were the largest single ethnic group from any single city, and nearly all were well-schooled in violence. D.C. Blacks were especially notorious as “locker-knockers”–petty thieves who ransacked the personal lockers of other inmates–and for pressuring new inmates for sex.”
At the time of his death in 1982 Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, was the national leader of the D.C. Blacks prison gang and a violent criminal that had twice tried to kill his murderer Thomas Edward Silverstein at USP, Marion, Illinois.
Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, had been convicted for armed kidnapping, armed robbery, extortion, and assault with a dangerous weapon. Smith was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to an effective term of 6-18 years.
Fellow prisoner, ex-Black Panther Eddie G. Griffin was in Marion for bank robbery, kidnapping, and commandeering a police squad car- at age 26 at the time.
Griffin said of Cadillac “we both trained for combat in the same prison cage.”
Griffin also wrote this tribute to his friend and former leader of the D.C. Blacks:
This is a true story about the eruption of a race war in prison, and about the gladiators that fought them, how they lived and how they died. But of all the prison stories, there is none like the life and death of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.
Sampson, that was my image of Cadillac, because he was equally as strong, battle hardened, and roared like a lion whenever he went into combat. And, on a good day, his signature battle cry would rattle the walls and shake all the prison cages.
No wonder, men in prison feared him, both inmate and guard. He was invincible in hand-to-hand combat.
There was this old story about how an assailant once stabbed him in the chest, aiming for his heart. The knife folded like tin foil against an ox hide buff, muscles built by iron on the weightlifting pile. The attacker struck from behind, and when the knife wilted, he fled and sought protective custody in the arms of the nearest prison guard.
Cadillac laughed. He always laughed in the face of his enemies. And, there were times when his psychotic laughter caused even me to quiver. To hear him laugh was not good, not good at all for somebody.
They call prison the “belly of the beast”, not merely metaphoric, but because it churned like a cauldron sitting on top of the pit fires of hell….
It was said of the Moors in prison that they could kill a man, stash the weapons where no one on earth could find them, wash their clothes and dry them, before prison officials could ever discover the body. As far as I know, the FBI had never been able to pin a murder on a Moors….
Few people know that most Washington, D.C. Blacks originated from Morocco during the slave trade era. They had a different African culture and traditions than the rest of the U.S. black population. To this day, they know their history and where they came from, and they never broke completely with their ancient traditions. They knew the art and science of killing, Moroccan-style. And, Cadillac was heir to the “Sword of Justice”, a gleaming curve steel blade about two-feet long.
http://eglibraryreferences.blogspot.com/2009/04/christian-soldier-and-gladiator.html
The violent race war that followed Smith’s death was at the center of the government’s 2002 indictment against the Aryan Brotherhood.
The FBI memo mentioned above in Griffin’s tribute to Cadillac Smith, in part reads:
From December 1982 to the present, information has been received and compiled indicating the presence of a large group of inmates….organized into a retaliatory and murder organization. This group is comprised of Black inmates from the Washington, D.C. area and is known as the “D.C. Blacks”.
A large segment of this group also has membership and/or ties with the Moorish Science Temple. (Search above for a comment & info on this “religious” organization.)
Information has been received indicating that this group of inmates have banded together and have plotted the murders and attempted murders of white inmates….their cause being the retaliation of the killing of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith….
To support the above information, on December 11, 1982, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons transcript of a telephone conversation… indicated an imminent “war” between the AB and the D.C. Blacks….. The “war” was in retaliation over the murder of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.
At the trial of the remaining AB leadership several black inmates testified for the defense.
An imprisoned member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang testified that the Aryan Brotherhood was severely outnumbered in the federal prison system by the DC Blacks.
Witness James “Doc” Holiday said there were at most 10 Aryan Brotherhood members at his prison, while the DC Blacks were “the majority.”
Holiday said DC Blacks had a type of violent mentality that didn’t exist among other prison gangs. He said the racial strife was largely instigated by the black gang, with the Aryan Brotherhood defending itself.
“Only the young and the foolish and the uninitiated would start something like that in prison,” said Holiday, who is serving two life terms for drug violations.
But who is the man and the BGF prison gang that he belonged to when making these accusations?
On page 236 of Eric Cummins book
“The Rise and Fall of California’s Radical Prison Movement” Cummins writes:
“In the face of the conservative backlash, inmate radicalism took on uncontrollable forms.
After George Jackson’s death, one of the most extreme of the prison’s guerrilla groups, the Black Guerrilla Family, quickly became a major gang…..
The BGF’s 1973 constitution defined the goals of the organization…It contained this line:
‘We are the pig’s implacable enemy, and if we continue to live with them it is only in order to destroy them more quicker and effectively.’
Beginning in 1972, the BGF would “hit” many inmates and some staff, black, white, and brown, and carry out operations outside San Quentin as well….. A former San Quentin BGF member remarks that:
“The BGF was essentially a political gangster operation. At least that is what it had become by 1973-’74…From the time I got to prison until I got out of prison, I lived in constant fear that somebody in the BGF would try to kill me because I spoke out against some of the sick stuff they were doing….I certainly feared for my life. And my biggest fear was not from the prison administration or the Aryan Brotherhood or any other of the Aryan groups. It was from the BGF.”
Page 224: The unreasoned extremism of the Symbionese Liberation Army came straight from the pages of George Jackson’s Blood in My Eye….
Page 241: “Throughout the summer and fall of 1973 the SLA members discussed their ideology and strategy for the future. Several of the group made frequent visits to members of the BGF at San Quentin. William and Emily Harris visited San Quentin nine times in 1972-73 to meet with James ‘Doc’ Holiday, head of the BGF. “
(Yes the same defense witness in the 2002 trial above.)
Page 242: Late that year the SLA swept into action. George Jackson had warned his readers against “right-wing traditionalist” blacks. “I’m thoroughly sick of the old Jess B. Simples…That will be your main source of opposition–the black running dog.”
On November 6, 1973, the foco gunned down with cyanide-capped bullets Oakland’s superintendent of schools, Marcus Foster, a black man, and his assistant, Robert Blackburn. Foster had recently suggested using city police to patrol the halls of Oakland’s crime filled schools. Only Blackburn survived…..
On February 4, 1974, the SLA broke into Patty Hearst’s Berkeley apartment and took her as a “prisoner of war”….
On April 15, 1974, Patty Hearst was filmed taking part in an armed robbery of the San Francisco’s Hibernia Bank….By May the group had fled south to Los Angeles, where Patty Hearst and several others were involved in a shootout at a small store. William and Emily Harris and Patty Hearst apparently then left the area….
On May 17, 1974, police surrounded a small house….where the remainder of the SLA had taken refuge. Then, for the Right, the bitter years of waiting for revenge on California’s revolutionary Left ended in a fiery blast…Police terror proved more than a match for the terror of the SLA.
Nate Harrington a former inmate of San Quentin & DVI is quoted in a 1989 interview on
Page 243: “….the SLA foco was a practical outgrowth of revolutionary ideology.”
Inside San Quentin, radical prisoners were devastated at the news…. Nate Harrington recalls: “I was in San Quentin when the SLA house was burned up in L.A. And I was next to Lumumba, who was…one of the SLA alleged in-prison leaders, him and Doc Holliday”…
Page 246: Soon the Harrises and Patty Hearst would be in police custody in San Francisco, where Hearst signed herself into jail as “an urban guerrilla.”
So when this leader of San Quentin’s BGF says “DC Blacks had a type of violent mentality that didn’t exist among other prison gangs.” I am impressed!!!
Alan the account started well but the story fell apart as it progressed, if you are trying to show that the DC Blacks were vicious murderers then the first couple paragraphs started to say so but accounts of Cadillac attacking Tommy would be a good place to go after about the4th paragraph…”twice tried to kill Tommy” maybe it’d be readable but the issue is not about the murders anymore it is about American prisons getting away with torturing people, prison is the punishment but to deliberately torture a human being the way the gov’t has Tommy is appalling, Isolation needs to be stopped and Tommy needs relief immediately
Tomasina/Renee I wrote early on: “At the time of his death in 1982 Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, was the national leader of the D.C. Blacks prison gang and a violent criminal that had twice tried to kill his murderer Thomas Edward Silverstein at USP, Marion, Illinois.”
As you pointed out I am not a professional writer but as I see it the loudest critics on here dwell on Tom’s “acts” in order to portray him as a wild animal. Several have written that he needs to be put down with a bullet in the head. I like to think that they just need more information. Having never met any of the characters in this drama, I, like the rest of the readers need information to judge if the man acted rationally or not. Neither he nor I seek a reversal of his convictions. I do however believe that the judge and jury need to know the threats found in this hostile environment that he was trapped in. Like I have written before “like a tethered animal in a slaughterhouse.”
The prosecution will not dwell on the “cruel and unusual conditions that he is held in ” but rather on the murders that he committed in hopes to paint him as a threat to the safety of those around him.
By showing he believed that he was acting in self defense makes him human to me and thus the torture of isolation need not be continued. Until the supreme court rules it is torture it will continue. Yesterday’s SC decision on a CA case gives hope to the mentally ill but I don’t think Tom is crazy. Even that took case took 20 years with more time for CA to act on the decision. Tom does not have 20-30 years left. I am disappointed that he has to wait until Jan to hear something.
Of course I am also not a lawyer, judge or mental heath expert. He has all of those I have however been incarcerated and know the unreasoned hatred and violence found there.
But we have had this discussion before.
We all share the same goal, namely his release into the GP.
And as always alan I still maintain and say Human rights is the point and the judge in Jan. will decide if the BOP has infringed on his human rights nothing else is in question so please Stop making an issue that is not and will not be in court.
Time will tell what issues are brought up in court. Until then some people just reading this for the first time might find the history interesting. Why else would there have been 50K+ hits on this article?
Just a coincidence this article below was sent to my email.
http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2011-05-when-does-a-crime-victims-criminal-history-matter
When Does a Crime Victim’s Criminal History Matter?
“Reporters often turn to murder victims’ criminal records when no other details about motive are available….
In a nuanced profile of a criminal case, when we have time and column inches to trace the victim’s and suspect’s life paths, of course a criminal history is fair game.”
As you already know I also wrote a short bio on Silverstein based on open sources.
Not everyone is as one dimensional in their thinking.
You also know that Tom approves of what I have done.
He himself in the link to his declaration said he had never heard of the DC Blacks until he read Earley’s book The Hot House.” Neither had I or most readers on here.
Sorry you find it pointless but only Tom’s opinion matters in this since it is his case.
And when was the last time you talk to him?
I speak to him 2x amonth and Laura as well this case is not a criminal case anymore Alan, it is a civil case in which the BOP are defendents so your rhetoric is just that pointless and besides the point the only one reading it is you, the people that click are interested in Tom in that this is a serious thing that the gov’t has gotten away with, People’s opinions will always be for or against Tommy. Again this case will help all in isolation and hopefully change the Feds practice of unrestrained torture, If the case was about anything other Solitary watch probably wouldn’t post it. It is about isolation and the torture of one man Tommy Silverstein. If you had read his account it was purely about the torture he’s sustained at the hands of our gov’t. No mention of self defense or crimes, torture only and our gov’t needs to stop it.
If Tommy wins all in isolation win.
Most of what you say is true. I do think however there are some, however few they may be, that wish to understand the whole dynamic of the case. Just to put a human face on it since the whole thing is quite surreal. As you know I don’t communicate with Tom but I do hear from him through a mutual friend.
These facts may make a difference in public opinion and build public support for him which puts pressure on the BOP. Where are the free Silverstein protesters? The BOP prison has made the “worst of the worst” label stick on Tom to the point that this site repeated their line awhile back and this is a site that is supposed to be about ending long term solitary for everybody. No other present or former prisoner had them four words attached to them. Of course it is very difficult for the public to understand the impossible positions men find themselves in these prisons.
My hope is to expose more readers to the realities of prison life. If no one reads it then it is because they do not want to believe it. But Earley, Bunker and Cummins sold many books covering this stuff. All three share information that explains what lead up to this case. Which is what I have passed on here. They are not my words, I quote from thier books.
When it comes down to it I bet that the BOP will not overlook the prejudicial facts against Tom but in fact dwell on his prior violent acts as the reason that he should stay where he is.
How will the defense reply? Haney spent much of his energy on countering the BOP doctor using the “Catch 22″ phrase repeatedly.
I know I am almost alone in this view. You can take credit for putting me in my place and lets leave it like that. Your the winner.
I have nothing more to add anyway.
TomIS a human being and if we are to change isolation all men of every color every background needs to be viewed as a person not trash or garbage. Tom is a tree in the forest or corruption and abuse.The BOP/DOC gov’t has no right to do this to people. The ISSUE of isolation needs to be heard and the violation of human rights.
Who Tom is NOW as a person, is a man that has withstood the torture dealt to him and is not frothing at the mouth causing trouble he is an aging man that hasn’t hugged his children or seen a tree or blade of grass. Prison is the punishment isolation is torture.
Of course the author’s made money there are still books coming out about Tom and it is the morbid that like to read their disturbing details of murders “the true crime” genre lots of fans. They didnt help him but hurt him. No ones written the story of the lives including his own that he saved or the sadistic corruption of some Corrections officers …it doesn’t sell.
exaggerated accounts of blood thirsty killers does. and the sooner the american people see the 200,00o in isolation as living breathing people the sooner it will change.
He is a criminal and a murderer, he got what he deserved.
Just to let you know none of the books I mentioned are “just about Silverstein” although Earley has dedicated much of his book on Leavenworth to him. And I for one can’t stand to read gore nor do I celebrate acts of violence. The other books deal with either Bunker’s life and politics on San Quentin’s prison yard.
Anyone that wants to truly understand how prisons have reached this sad point should read them.
But I re-read Hanley’s declaration and here are a few points he makes.
Part 2
Dr. Haney rightly points out that “Silverstein is caught up in several custodial Catch 22’s.”
Page 41:
“Assessment of his level of threat is based on his past conduct and the absence of any meaningful change in his cognitive orientation….”
(In other words Silverstein’s resilience to the torture was evidence, in this BOP employee’s mind, that Silverstein had not been broken and remained a danger.)
Page 56:
When Silverstein arrived to ADX he was placed directly into the most restrictive location in the institution, Range 13. Dr. Haney writes:
“Mr. Nalley indicated that the perceived need for this extraordinary treatment of Silverstein was based primarily if not exclusively on something Mr. Silverstein could not of possibly of changed over the past 22 years: ‘his criminal history, his past.’”
So the BOP still uses Silverstein’s past against him and they explain away the man’s good conduct by falsely claiming it is only the result of his continued isolation.
Countering this argument Dr. Hanley rightly points out that Silverstein has had ample time and means to cause the BOP problems and a very good reason to do so in the frustrating task of dealing with all these custodial Catch 22’s.
So why do I care? First of all I care on a human level. Knowing the joys of fatherhood myself I can totally relate to his desire to hug his daughter and shake his son’s hand and to be near them so that he can guide and support his children.
I also know of the impossible positions a prisoner is subjected to. I know the feeling of being forsaken and demonized by a society that knows little or nothing of the threats prisoners are under each and every day.
Yes this man also shares much in common with me. We are a year apart in age, share the same socioeconomic background and we both grew up in southern California. We both come from broken homes where violence was all too common. We shared the negative influences of some family members that steered us in the wrong direction thus we both spent too much time in California juvenile institutions.
If I had not escaped the prison conveyor belt at the very last moment I realize that his fate could have been my fate. Finally I care about this man because few others do.
Either his actions were freely chosen, or not, or both.
If freely chosen, then what he did was evil.
But then because he has free choice his future actions may, in theory at least, all be good. To say that he can freely choose in one instance to do good or bad but to deny the possibility later is inconsistent. If the argument is that he is likely or expected to do more evil, then we’ve entered the realm of probability and psychology. To make sense of this at all, you must be sure that on the whole of his life he won’t have brought more good than bad into the world. I’m doubtful of such prognosticative powers in mortals. Furthermore, even if we conclude on evidentiary grounds that he must and will do more evil acts, on what basis (once we’ve properly precluded the possibility of his doing more evil acts to others) ought we to do more in the way of setting right the balance of justice? How much should he suffer? How do we quantify this? To go about it haphazardly and based on no measure at all does lead me to believe that the proponents of such a view are out, not for justice at all, but for the thrill, joy, pleasure of vindictiveness. If so, and if we can say the pleasure is pure, let us by all means partake in it please. Why should we vicariously enjoy the pleasure of his suffering through prison guards and news reports? Let’s all be in on it. Let every lawbreaker get their comeuppance just so we can revel in that powerful ecstasy that comes with seeing wrongdoers brought to “justice,” namely a justice that isn’t just, namely one that depends entirely on private whim. No thrill, no justice–only irrationality.
If not freely chosen, then he was sick (that is, he had some psycho-socio-biological defect that can account for his abnormal behavior).
But if sick only, then solitary confinement (which is a tremendous euphemism–I prefer ‘isolated incompacitation’ or just ‘isolation’) is not just. It would be better to bring the individual, not to justice, but to health, if possible. Though rehabiliative justice has been proved wrong if I remember my criminal justice class correctly! Back to square one I guess. If you can’t get it right, give up! Enter pessimistic fatalism stage left.
If both, both sick and evil, well now we’re in a real quandary.
To do good for bad people is wrong, right? So we can’t help the guy get better. But nor can we discriminate the evil strands from the sick strands in that tangle. The causal chain is knotted up between an increased susceptibility to doing evil as a result of illness, and an increased illness as a result of being corrupted by evil. Thus we can’t heal him and we can’t judge him.
But to drop the philosophical facade of formalism for a moment, I would recommend he be studied humanely by scientists for purposes of understanding what solitary confinement does to a person.
Our nation is off fighting wars to liberate people who’ve been oppressed, tortured, held in prison for years without a trial, and the list goes on. We consider ourselves to be the avenger of human rights. It all sounds so charitable of the USA, until stories like this come out. Putting a person in total isolation for years is worse than a death sentence, and because of situations like this, we have no business trying to liberate other countries. This is beyond belief, and any of the prison employees getting their kicks out of mentally torturing this man ought to get some of the same treatment. The DOJ ought to be ashamed that they’ve undone a century of trying to straighten out the prisons and make them as human as possible. Now their goal, with this man in particular, is to be as inhumane as possible. They’d be in prison themselves if they were caught doing this to animals, but it seems to be okay that it’s a human they’re driving out of his mind. It’s sick and disgusting. I love America; am proud be to a natural-born citizen. But when situations like this come to light, I have to wonder what really separates us from third world nations with their inhumane treatment of their citizens.
Who does the cruelty serve? No matter what a persons done our country has not got the right under the constitution to tortue ANYONE. We are not a good country lost all our industry now we make money on our own people’s lives. That fact hes not cracked implies to the BOP (Tom is in Federal Prison) that its ok to torture people We should be ashamed of our Country I know I am.
I wish prisons in this country were about rehabilitation, rather than torture and revenge. Every human deserves respect, even those who do terrible things. This is just drawn out and unnecessary torture. I’m so glad my school thought to have us visit some of the prisons in the area and gave us a chance to talk to the prisoners there – we were able to see that they were no different than us. They’re humans and they should be treated like it!
I understand he was a murderer, and he did bad things, but there are plenty other people out there whom I am sure did worse things. Where I live, two boys 16 and 17 killed a girl age 17. They both shot her in the head. Another 15 year old girl (not where I live) Killed her neighbor, who was only age 9. She stabbed him. Her reasoning? She “wanted to know how it felt to kill someone.” Last month, my uncle died in jail from a brutal beating from 2 other inmates. The police officers witnessed the whole thing, and dragged him back to his cell. An hour later he lay in his cell dead.
There are people out there who do things worse than this man.
Abby and Stephania it is your voices that could change things. So many die from being brutalized and if your uncle did the killing in self defense would he end up like Tom? Tom didnt kill on the street just for kicks or gain he survived by defending himself. The system like to put certain races in a category, research who is in “the SHU” and the reason Isolation is an over used torture Gangs fight each other in prison and elsewhere why should Tom endure so much.
Many stories surface about the abuse inmates take from the staff, the staff cry “its dangerous in there pay us more” and then instigate things. they are not caretakers or protectors of their human charges if they see murder happening they watch til its over, my cousin watched as COs murder an inmate and just drag his body out of the unit. Whos gonna tell? The system is so corrupt because its about money we have no more industry in this country so it is using us its own people to make money. Look at WI parole ready seniors are denied but then to save money they take their meds away.
Again thank you for your thoughtful comments My wish is for our country to see the light and stop the torture of human beings and the profiting of people in chains isn’t that called slavery?
We have a black president you’d think he’d help… But incarceration only went up during Clinton and Solitary watch posted Obama is for more Supermaxes,
You people sating “OMG HE DESERVS 2 ROT THERE COZ HES A MURDERER GUYS”
Are FUCKING RETARTED, yeah he killed 1 black and an officer (he was blamed for the first murder of a black, in which the other black retaliated and he defended himself) , I’d have done the same if they were threatening my fucking life, now tell me, would any of you do the same?
Or would you let them end your life?
How are Merle Clutt’s days going for him these days? Just curious.
I am wondering how people always talk about forgiving . . and yet can not seem to do just that for a person who has been punished long enough . . the only thing he wants is human contact, to talk again, to feel again . . to live again. . . he is not asking to be set free . . . he is asking to be allowed to be human again.
Its unbelieveble for me to know this happens in America . . but come to learn this happens all over the country . . . the harsh punishments . . . solitary confinment, a horror punishment . .
It gave me shivers to read this story . . we ( in the free world) have NO idea what it means, what it does to a person to be alone for so long . . . to be ignored, to have no voice . . . its barbarian . . . its midevil . . and here we are living in 2011 . . where the world has changed so much. . where we want to be heard . . . where we want to be forgiven . . . but why can’t we do that for a man who has been trying to hold on, who believes one day they will forgive him . . . I know the big force has already forgiven him . . . . its our turn now . . . God bless you Thomas Silverstein
@Joe guess hes not torturing inmates anymore @ 2010asm Thank you for your comments
Forums/threads like this do Tommy no good but every once in a while there is a kind person that speaks the truth. That he’s been punished enough. And there is nothing to gain by continuing to violate his rights this prison system needs to be pulled into check. They seem to think they are above the constitution.
Its scares me how most react . . they see only one thing and have no idea what this is about.
They should educate themselves and stop following the standard, step out of their safetyzone and look around for a change . . . they will see something that would and should scare them . . very much so.
What happened and is still happening to Thomas can happen to every one of them . . . and its because of them this is still happening, the narrowmindness, the judgemental, the know it alls know better but have NO idea . . . have absolutely NO idea
A2010 I posted your comment on our blog And “scares” is an absolutely good way to put it.
21st century and still the medevil mentality and that is why we have a Costitution to stop the senseless torture of human beings but America has ignore the 8th amendment..
Again always hope where there is another person speaking out against injustice.
It blows my mind how all you liberal cowards feel about this subject. Not one of seem to remember Officer Clutts, a man who was doing his job, not threatening terrible tommies life but just doing his job. If he had just killed the two inmates he would not deserve this treatment, but he crossed the line when he took an inocent man’s life. By the way he was not in general population when he killed Officer Clutts, no he was locked down already and slipped his handcuffs and then stabbed the man to death. I wish you liberal pussies had the balls to step behind the walls with these maniacs, and put your life on the line everyday. Then come tell me if you want this man back in general population. you are all probably the same people who spit on soldiers but then hide behind the freedoms they provide for you. You all make me sick, go cry for someone who matters.
i’m wondering if the statements attributed to the prisoner are actually statements coming from his lawyer. i would think a person who spends 20+ years in solitary confinement, without any social stimulation or contact, would barely be able to communicate and would be very mentally disoriented. but this prisoner’s declaration is very well written and intelligent. either 1. solitary confinement is not mental torture, 2. he wasnt in solitary confinement for 20+ years or 3. these are not his statements.
i think solitary confinement is torture. i also think that lawyers sd not issue statements claiming them to be made by their client. its obviously not truthful, so why sd anybody believe what’s in the statement?. lawyers sd state that they are speaking on behalf of their client. if solitary confinement is wrong, it is precisely because it is mental torture and deprives the person of their mind and their humanness.
i think if u r going to use LTSC, u sd give the prisoner a choice between solitary and a bullet in the head. i’d opt for quick death-imo, it seems better than torture and slow death.
Tommy is lucid articulate and I suppose thats a strike against him that Nazi Judge Phillip Brimmer dismissed Tom’s case.
“Not Extreme” Can’t treat detainees like this but Americans in American prisons can be tortured
Judge Philip A. Brimmer
Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse A741 / Courtroom A701
(303) 335-2794
I am ASKING EVERYONE everywhere to call this judge and tell them We the People think it’s extreme and weare FEDup with the torture. 10,000+days not e4xtreme is he kidding.
Denver law school and Laura need help, with this case. Tommy needs reliuef for Christ’s sake.
Its hard to say this is cruel punishment after reading he killed 2 inmates and a officer. My brother was killed by 2 inmates while in prison, yet I ask myself everyday what is a just punishment and does one really need punishment, or to be kept away from others? On my side I dont forgive the guys that killed my brother, but I dont wish death or torture upon them either. I spent 8 years myself in prison, 1and a half of that in solitary! I’ll say the mind has a way of killing you, when left alone with your heart! One thing I am certain of is we live in a nation that will always run towards God to justify its actions, whether it be against gays, or pro-life isssues, and I dont think God would treat people this way. I wish there was an answer, I wish we wouldn’t have waited 5 days to help those abandoned by Katrina, I wish this world had better values… So for now I will just try to do a good thing for a fellow man and hope others will as well!!!!
This is extreme and inhuman punishment. It accomplishes nothing, it has no deterrent effect on others, and it sets a horrible precedent. Other criminals who have committed even worse crimes have no such punishment. Time to ease up on this guy. He may have to be segretated from others but not in absolute isolation like this.
I am sickened by this story but not surprised by it, nor do I think this is an isolated situation. Our way of punishing people to me is unbelievable and counter productive to help either the convicted prisoner or society as a large. You have a system in which you are placing people that even the most well adjusted person will over time be driven mad, now we place people who are already sufferning mental problems and placing them in that situation, knowing that most will be released into society at some point. And we wonder why we have the results that we do after we release them? Makes a mutha’ fucker crazy thinking bout it.
This man is in super max because he can’t be controlled. He has murdered three people since he went to prison.Save your tears for someone who deserves it.I don’t have one speck of sympathy for this animal. If we had the death penalty he’d be out of the prisons hair. Keep him locked away from humans he is evil in a human shell.