Thomas Silverstein, A/K/A, Tommy, has been incarcerated since 1975 and is currently the longest held prisoner in total solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and perhaps in the world. Not even the notorious “Birdman of Alcatraz” was held in (total solitary confinement) absolute insolation, as Tommy Silverstein has been subjected to the past 23 years! He was able to see and speak with his neighbors in adjacent cells beside and across from his cell at U.S.P. Leavenworth in building 63 (where Silverstein had spent over a year in 1979-80). Although deprived of any and all contact with fellow prisoners. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials have sadly, but most definitely, surpassed their previous diabolical means of burying a man alive in the twenty first century since the Birdman’s era.
These officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons have excelled at intensifying the environment of sensory deprivation and psychological torture, which is what causes sane men to be driven completely insane. This has been scientifically proven; Mr. Silverstein does not arbitrarily charge his tormentors as “sadist.” They know exactly the effects of long term isolation and intentionally, with malice and forethought, continue it.
Since your hard earned and over taxed dollars are paying for it. You all should have a say about how these government asylums are run and by whom. Especially when George Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales continue to assure the public that the U.S. government doesn’t condone torture. When in fact, both men support torture, as evidenced by the 23 years I have served in total solitary confinement; torture intended to make my life ‘a living hell.’” “I’m an American citizen, so if they can get away doing it to me, they can do it to anyone!”
“I’m not in Abu Ghraib or one of this governments secret prisons abroad, where they send suspected terrorist to be tortured so they can later claim the usual bureaucratic non-accountability if and when their deceitful maneuver is revealed. I am in the U.S. of A.’s BOP’s most draconian and repressive SuperMax penitentiary in this country and perhaps the world. It’s replaced the horrific U.S.P. Marion in Illinois. The BOP opened the Administrative Maximum (ADX) in Florence, Colorado, in1994. The BOP had three decades to refine their instruments of human destruction and degradation, in order to make “hell a living reality at their new and improved monster at the United States Penitentiary (U.S.P.) in Florence, Colorado.”
While serving a 15 year sentence for armed robbery, Tommy Silverstein was falsely convicted of the murder of an inmate by the name of Danny Atwell, for which offence he was transferred, in 1980, to USP Marion, at that time the only “level six” (now called “supermax”) facility in the BOP. At Marion, Silverstein was housed in the “Control Unit,” a virtual solitary confinement regime reserved for extreme 'management problems' (prisoners prone to assaultive and disruptive behavior) in the prison. Ironically, his initial conviction for the murder of Atwell (the reason why he was transferred to USP Marion in the first place) was quashed, as the testimony that convicted him was adjudged perjured.
Following the murder of officer Clutts at Marion, penitentiary in Illinois, Silverstein was placed on “no-human contact.” At Marion he was held in his cell for 23 hours a day, with one hour of exercise. October 22, 1983, at the age of 31, he killed corrections officer Merle Eugene Clutts.
Tommy Silverstein deliberately killed officer Clutts because he was the worst most threatening prison guard Tommy had seen out of the hundreds he had been exposed to at that point in his life. He was warned by other inmates, that even 20 years from now "they will know you are the one that killed the cop (correctional officer Clutts), because that is something the guards never, never forget." Another prisoner (Greschner) told Silverstein, "If you do a cop, you are going to go on Birdman Status," (referring to the Birdman of Alcatraz, who killed a Leavenworth guard and was never released from prison).
In spite of the penalty, Tommy assaulted officer Clutts with a shank (improvised knife), on his way back from the shower, while handcuffed with his hands behind his back and escorted by three guards. When he came out of the handcuffs with the help of a fellow inmate, he headed straight for officer clutts saying, "This is between me and Clutts," Silverstein screamed as he passed the two other guards on their way out of the unit because of their concern for their personal safety, as was admitted by fellow guard John Mahan recently on video. By the time McClellan and Mahan pulled Clutts off the tier, although he did make it to the gate on his own, and slammed the steel gate shut, he had been stabbed 38 times. "Silverstein yelled, the knife still in his hand, ‘this ain't against cops!'" After a lieutenant ordered Silverstein to "drop the shank." Silverstein refused, stating, "I honestly believed that they were going to kill me, and I was not going to give up without a fight." (Chapter 24 of The Hot House by Pete Earley)
Thus, Tommy Silverstein was falsely convicted of murder at Leavenworth (eventually overturned by the federal Appellate Court); he should never have been sent to the Marion facility. Tommy Sliverstein should have served the 15 year sentence he received from the federal District Court in California for robbing a bank with his father and uncle and released. Consequently, he never should have been transferred to Marion and been exposed to corrections officer Clutts.
Following the murder of Clutts, Silverstein was transferred to a”no human contact” special cell in Atlanta, Georgia. “No human contact” status was (and for Silverstein, remains), an essentially “improvised punitive status” (torture) reserved for those who kill correctional officers, in the absence of the death penalty. The rationale for such status is now unnecessary, given that the death penalty has subsequently been re-introduced for the offence of murder in Federal prisons. “No human contact” status is also known as “torture” by the other inmates as well as by many citizens in the United States.
During the 1987 riot by Cuban detainees at the Atlanta federal penitentiary. The Cuban riot released Tommy Silverstein from his isolation cell; then handed Silverstein over to the Federal Hostage Rescue Team, after it was made clear to the Cubans how important the FBI thought he was. BOP officials were reputedly afraid that Silverstein would begin killing correctional officers held hostage by the Cubans. BOP negotiators were able to convince the Cuban riot leaders to hand over Silverstein as a gesture of good faith, a relatively easy decision for them, given that Silverstein's status was peripheral to the aims of the Cuban leaders during the riot.
Silverstein was subsequently moved to Leavenworth Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, with his security recorded as "no human contact." Silverstein was placed in a cell located underground. The lights burned 24 hours a day and he was watched by guards constantly. A prison official pointed out that Tommy Silverstein couldn't be executed so as prison officials are fond of saying, “they had no choice but to make his life a ‘living hell’ to send a message to other inmates.” In 2005,when USP Leavenworth was designated to become a medium security facility, Silverstein was moved to the ADX in Florence, a supermax facility in Colorado where he is currently. His earliest theoretical date of release is February 11, 2095.