U.S.P. Leavenworth in building 63 (where I had spent over a year in
1979-80). Whereas I am deprived of any and all contact with fellow
prisoners.
Prisoncrats 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 pathetically sadistic agents of oppression eerily 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; I do not arbitrarily charge my
tormentors as “sadist.” They know exactly the effects of long term
insolation and intentionally, with malice and forethought, continue it.
I’ll include my recent appeal’s so you can read it for yourself my
argument for getting out of this damnation and their denials. We have
four levels of appeals. Two at the prison, three to the regional director
and the last (fourth) to the BOP director in Washington, D.C.
We (prisoners) seldom win an appeal. It’s really just a sham they use to
assure the public that any grievances we have are reviewed by higher
level administrators. Which is comparable to the cops policing
themselves. Ha ha! It is not worth the paper its written on. I however
went through the process anyway in order to obtain irrefutable evidence,
so no one would have to just take my word regarding my allegations.
The BOP enjoys giving the illusion that our problems will be solved if we
(the prisoners) would only file appeals. Although this process is stress
producing, it is a legal requirement that I exhaust all my administrative
remedies (appeals) before I can petition the courts to hopefully make the
BOP officials do what they’re determined not to do on their own.
You’ll note they don’t make it easy for me in this regard either, because
as they often do when they don’t want to address an issue, they’ll
dismiss it as “untimely” or claim they didn’t receive it, etc.
Prisoncrats, like politicians, lack the integrity to just spit it out as they
really see it, so they hide behind the same procedures that they’ve
created and implemented; so in the rare event someone like me dares to
expose this nonsense, they can claim everything was in accordance with
BOP policy.
This is one reason we’ve started this site. We hope to reveal, from a
prisoners personal perspective, what truly goes on behind these prison
gates of hell, that are seldom, if ever, presented by the corporate,
mainstream media, much less seriously challenged. On the contrary and
sadly, when they do bother to report on U.S. penitentiaries, it’s
miserably inadequate and skewed in favor of the prisoncrats. Their
premise being “them against us.” “Us” being called the “worst of the
worst,” while guards use that ploy to justify their madness, abuse, and
means of confinement.
We welcome one and all to our new site. Regardless of sex, race, religion,
class, height, weight, looks, education, citizenship, etc. We honor your
input and interest in what all we share together, so please don’t hesitate
to express yourself whenever the urge strikes.
But I must warn you, we believe in free speech. A lot of folks say that,
until they hear what they don’t like and suddenly want to ban it. If
anyone objects to adult language, being expressed about adult issues, I
suggest you stick with the mainstream sources who spoonfeed the public
their sterilized sugar coated version of events and commentary, in fear of
offending someone who’ll stop buying their paper.
This site also hopes to give the voiceless an opportunity to finally be
heard loud and clear. We care more about what’s said, than how people
say it!
If all goes well, we hope to enlist some profound columnist to share their
investigative insights into the U.S. penal/injustice system so you all can
see what is happening within the U.S. penitentiaries 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!
A former law clerk to Clarence Thomas and a member of the right wing
federalist society, John Woo, was among a group of Bush administration
lawyers, including Alberto Gonzales, now Bush’s Attorney General, who
crafted legal justification giving Bush a free hand to order the torture of
those he has declared as “illegal combatants” and held at Guantanamo
Bay and elsewhere. I am not an illegal combatant and I am accused of
killing gang members (members of a prison gang) and one prison guard,
not members of the armed services fighting a war.
According to the PBS documentary “The Torture Question,” after 9/11,
John Yoo “wrote the first draft of a sweeping war powers authorization
designed to give president Bush unprecedented power. The new statue
would vest virtually unlimited power in the President to fight the war on
terror. Congress passed it overwhelmingly.”
The following quotes by John Yoo are from New York magazine
(“Outsourcing Torture” by Jane Mayer.):
“There is a category of behavior not covered by the legal system...if you
were an illegal combatant, you didn’t deserve the protection of the laws
of war...they were tried in a military court and executed.”
Congress has no power to “tie the President’s hands in regard to torture
as an interrogation technique.”
“It’s the core of the commander in chief function. They can’t prevent the
President from ordering torture.”
Conservative my ass! These people are Nazi’s!
This is not surprising to U.S. prisoners since we are regularly subjected
to this systems torturous techniques. What Yoo has professed publically
isn’t anything new to this governments penal institutions and what they
do to its own confined citizenry!
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 sharpen 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.
Here is...
...where real life is stranger than fiction and in the absence of light,
darkness prevails!
After 31 long hard years in some of American’s most cruel and harsh
prisons; Solodad, San Quentin, U.S.P. Leavenworth, Atlanta, Marion and
Florence, I now know exactly why the Irish dramatist, novelist, poet and
wit, Oscar Wilde, said after his imprisonment for homosexual offences
(1895-97) that if you ever want to see the scum of the earth, go to your
local prison and observe the changing of the guards.
In an article entitled “US Prison Torture and You” it states in the early
1800 and 1900's prisons warehoused prisoners in dirty, stark, solitary
confinement cells (now they leave a maddening bright light on 24-7) and
a large number of them never left, or left with serious mental disorders.
A delegation from Europe, came to America and with the well known
author, Charles Dickens, toured the U.S. prison system. Upon completion
of the tour, there was a very negative report. But something Charles
Dickens wrote played an integral part in waking up society to the
inhumanity of solitary confinement:
“I believe that few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of
torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years,
inflicts. There is a depth of terrible endurance in it which none but the
sufferers can fathom. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the
mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the
body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to
the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds
are not upon the surface, therefore the more I denounce it as a secret
punishment which a slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.”
This commentary by Dickens, caused the U.S. Supreme Court to review
the use of solitary confinement and they concluded that it indeed caused
mental disorders and was therefore a violation of the 8th Amendment
(the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment). New guidelines
were established nationwide, banning the use of solitary confinement for
more than 15 consecutive days. This saved thousands of prisoners and
millions of tax dollars. It also protected society from the release of
damaged, often psychotic men and women.
In 1952, an administrator at the New Jersey state prison figured a way
around the ban. At the time, he truly believed in what he was doing. He
changed the name from “solitary confinement” and remained it
“administrative segregation” and classified it as “treatment.”
Four years later that administrator, Richard R. Korn, realized he was
mistaken and that solitary, in whatever disguise, could not be treatment,
that it did indeed cause serious psychological damage. He stood up and
protested it, but the system had once again embraced it as a tool of
control. The consequences to the prisoners and society be damned.
An old adage proclaims that the sure sign of insanity, is repeating the
same mistakes over again, expecting a different result.
Since history clearly shows us that solitary confinement does more harm
than good, proves the idiocy and sadistic mentality of prison
administrators who embrace this barbaric, medieval practice that is a
crime against humanity.
More to follow, but for now, I wish you all and hope you all continue to
visit us!
Your new pal, I hope!
Tommy Silverstein
#14634-116, Z-13-040-L
| Solitary Soul: Tommy Silverstein |
| From: Tom Silverstein To: The extraordinary guests on this website |
My name is Tom Silverstein, A/K/A,
Tommy. I’ve been incarcerated since
1975 and am currently the longest held
prisoner in total solitary confinement
within the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) and
perhaps in America and the world.
Not even the notorious “Birdman of
Alcatraz” was held in (total solitary
confinement) absolute insolation, as I
have 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
Tommy. I’ve been incarcerated since
1975 and am currently the longest held
prisoner in total solitary confinement
within the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) and
perhaps in America and the world.
Not even the notorious “Birdman of
Alcatraz” was held in (total solitary
confinement) absolute insolation, as I
have 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
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