'Terrible' Tommy Silverstein has been put in solitary confinement for the past 27 years. After being sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing with his father, he committed in-prison murders. The first one came in 1980, two years after he was sent to prison, when he was convicted of killing a fellow inmate. He was moved to a maximum security prison, where his conviction was actually overturned. Then he was convicted of killing two other inmates at about that time. However, it was the highly publicized, 1983 murder of prison guard Merle Clutts that led to Silverstein's unusual solitary confinement. Silverstein fatally stabbed the 51-year-old. He is now in the high-security prison known as Supermax in Florence, Colorado. His only means of seeing the outside world is through a black and white TV. He writes letters and spends most of his time doing so. He wrote in one letter, "It's almost more humane to kill someone immediately than it is to intentionally bury a man alive." He uses art therapy and writing to express his feelings to the world.
It is unfortunate that Terrible Tommy has to suffer this for some in-prison murders. He has had no contact with any human for 27 years. When I thought of this, I realized that I cannot understand how he would feel. Imagine the frustration and the desperate need and want of talking to someone. Just because he made some mistakes doesn’t mean he has to experience what he says is worse than death. I am sure there are other people who have killed guards, but they were probably not put in this situation. I am not fond of solitary confinement because it hurts the person inside and doesn’t allow them to express anything. They are shut in their own world. It also seems as if Tommy is behaving well under the art therapy and I feel that they need to see if his solitary confinement should end.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/25/colorado.supermax.silverstein.solitary/index.html?iref=allsearch
No comments:
Post a Comment