DENVER—A lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges the status of a prisoner housed at Supermax, alleging that a “no human contact” order that placed him in solitary confinement for 24 years amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Thomas Edward Silverstein, 55, has been segregated from others since Oct. 22, 1983, after his conviction in the slaying of prison guard Merle Clutts, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Silverstein also has been convicted in the slayings of three inmates, but one of those convictions was overturned and he wasn’t retried.
Silverstein was housed at U.S. Bureau of Prisons facilities in Marion, Ill., Atlanta, and Leavenworth, Kan., before being transferred in 2005 to the Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colo., also known as Supermax. He is due to be released in 2095.
Supermax holds some of the nation’s most violent and disruptive inmates. Figures on how many other inmates are under “no human contact” orders were not immediately available Wednesday evening.
Warden Ron Wiley, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an e-mail. A prison spokeswoman declined comment.
The lawsuit states: “deliberate indifference has resulted in Plaintiff suffering deprivations that cause mental harm that goes beyond the boundaries of what most human beings can psychologically tolerate.”
The lawsuit alleges that Silverstein was not notified of his status, which also limits visits from friends and family, and that he has not had a hearing on his status.
The lawsuit was filed by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Student Law Office, which in August won a lawsuit on behalf of another Supermax inmate punished for writing articles for New York magazine.
In that case filed on behalf of inmate Mark Jordan, a federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Prisons may not punish any inmate who decides to publish under a byline.
Associate professor Laura Rovner, who led the team in the Jordan case, and visiting professor Dan Manville are working with law students Steven Baum and Amber Trzinski on the latest case. The students will practice under an order that allows student lawyers to appear in federal court with prior approval.
