(11-25-24) THIS IS NOT ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH.
My twenty-second and last book, No Human Contact: Solitary Confinement, Maximum Security and Two Inmates Who Changed the System, is not for the faint of heart because it describes – often in graphic detail and from a convict’s point of view – life imprisonment in the harshest conditions allowed under the U.S. Constitution.
For 33 years, I corresponded with Thomas Silverstein, who murdered three people while in America’s most secure penitentiary, including a correctional officer. A member of the notorious prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, Silverstein spent 36 years in isolation yet he found meaning in his life and ultimately rejected the gang.
His story raises questions about whether nurture or nature creates a killer.
I met him in 1987 in the bowels of Leavenworth prison where I asked him about his decision to attack and savagely stab Merle Clutts, a veteran officer.
Listen to Pete Earley’s taped interview with Thomas Silverstein describing murder that he committed.
Photo from 1987 when I first met Silverstein. Photos before his death in 2019. (Photos copyrighted by Pete Earley Inc.)
Because there was no federal death penalty in 1983, Silverstein could not be put to death. His actions helped prompt the construction of the first federal Super Max penitentiary where inmates are confined to their cells 23 hours per day with minimum comforts.
About the author:
