What happens to people in solitary confinement | Laura Rovner 

Out of the 4 years I did in prison I did 44 days in solitary confinement. 10 Days when I first got in because of administrative segregation because I was a "high profile case". My first 10 days in jail I sat in a cell by myself with no pen or paper. With no books, or anything to keep my mind occupied besides looking over my charges. After a year I was sent to seg again because someone told the C.O.s that I was extorting them for their food. Which was false, I never did extort anyone. I went to maximum security floor because of a. false accusations. I got moved again to a lower level after a few months because of good behavior. When I was in a dorm somebody stole my food so I had to fight to get it back. I lost the fight and got 8 stitches in my head, and all the deputies cared about was "Do you want to press charges on the person that did this?" No! I don't want to punish another person even more then they are already punished. They stitched me up, and put me in seg, for 15 days. When the day came to take me out they said they didn't have enough room in population for me so I had to sit another 2 days in there until there was room. At least it was better than my first time because I had food and coffee. They messed with my mind so much that cold coffee and Cheetos actually brought me happiness on my 21st birthday. I was actually happy for the little things I had because I knew how much worse it could be. After that I got moved to prison and send to seg in there for a investigation. I was walking with someone that I knew and he got jumped by some inmates. He told the sergeant that I set him up, which I didn't. I sat in seg for another 17 days while they "investigated" this situation." They charged me with a 104 which is gang aggravated assault. 100 is murder. I didn't do anything at all...... I sat there for 17 days not knowing wether I would get found guilty or not. The anxiety sticks with me till this day that now I have a mental illness because of this. I am very grateful that someone is actually using their platform to speak for the people who are silenced. This was very powerful!! Thank you for exposing the torture that goes on every day in this country to kids who aren't even old enough to drink.

2.6 years in solitary 15 years ago. The people now pay my SSDI because from one day to the next I don’t know what is happening. During that 2.6 years I was starve and denied water for over a week and had to drink filthy water out of my non flushing toilet. Not because I did anything wrong that they could write a disciplinary case for, but because I wrote numerous Texas and Federal agencies asking for help, not for me but for two mentally ill inmates the guards regularly starved. One agency in all those letters actually contacted the prison ( they didn’t bother to monitor the problem, just informed the guards I’d complained.) I learned from that experience that if I didn’t one day destroy this country that there would be no change because we had already slid past the point of fixing the problems within the guidelines of the current rules and laws. Thank you all for supporting me in my efforts.

Leave someone alone long enough to find themselves, not long enough to lose their minds.

This is going on in all prisons not just ADX.

I am actually happy that there is a person like her who fights for people in solitary.

My brother spent his whole adult life in and out of prison for being a drug addict and after 21 years in all in and out over the years he came out the same brother I knew everytime he was what was called a problem because he had so much charisma they felt he was a security risk and he spent 1 years in solitary confinement and when he got out and came home he was a shell of his former self they broke him changed him forever I have done solitary confinement on a short term myself and what this talk is informing you about is very real and very much torture and should be band as a long term solution for any human being weather or not they are a bad person

I did 12 months and 25 days in solitary it brutal so so so hopeless!!!! we need more awareness!!!! great video

I used to complain about being grounded cause i felt it drove me crazy but that's not anywhere close to even a fraction of what those in solitary must feel

my aunt and her husband, both US residents, were in Egypt on holiday when they were taken into prison arbitrarily and put in solitary confinement for over 2 years now. no one from my family has been able to have any contact with them, not even the lawyer has been able to speak to them. we are extremely worried about their health. my aunt is the sweetest, kindest, gentle and caring person I know. we feel very helpless.

spent one year in solitary confinement, 24/7 lock down, no windows no yard no contact with friends of family. only conversation was with the guards that brought me my three meals and weekly 5 min shower. been free for a year now. but im still in solitary confinement mentally

Solitary confinement is one of the worst experience ever, and I wasn’t the one locked up! My ex husband spent 6 months there and I can say those 6 months were the worst of his sentence! I remember the first time I saw him after he got “visitation approval” which was through a monitor! And wow! I saw him so weak so scared and sad! Yet I remember I tried to put a smile cuz of course I was happy to see him! But after leaving I went home and cried so much just thinking of all the horrible things he was going through. Its inhumane! And everything she says its true he would tell me some crazy stories! I remember i did everything I could to make his time there less horrible, but I could only try yet only they know what it truly feels! Wish no one had to experience this from either side!

I feel like I have a bit of this feeling of losing the sense of self. I go to work, spend 8 hours with a few people there, but then I come back to my small apartament and live completely alone every day. It sucks and I've been depressed for years.

I know quite well what Solitary can do to a person. I spent 120 days in solitary. It started because I had a blanket on my feet and didn't take it off my feet when told. Mind you it's under 60°F most of the time. Once I was locked in solitary (I got 45 days for the initial blanket on my feet) I slowly was losing my bearings day by day, and would get new "charges" for things like hanging a picture on the wall of my cell, because it was becoming more and more difficult to keep a grasp on reality. One minute felt like one hour, one hour felt like half a day, and one day dragged on for what felt like almost a week. And a week felt like a month, and a month like eternity. By one out of four months in I was hallucinating which could make time slow even more. I'd talk to myself, and some things are just to hard on your mind to talk about, even years later. The absolute pure dread I feel now when encountering police officers is so noticeable that it always singles me out for harassment. I have night terrors that leave me shaken for days. I've found it difficult to function most my adult years because of this experience I went through at 18 years old. My initial crime? Stealing something when I was homeless with a value of less than $100 dollars. That's the crime I committed to "deserve" an experience that's fucked me up ever since. The experience has caused me to make other bad decisions that led to more jail. Like instinctively running from police out of that extreme sense of dread, whether or not I did anything wrong. Or resisting arrest over a ticket because I had a panic attack and fought the officer. So maybe one day someone can explain to me why the PTSD this caused me was worth the initial crime and jail "charge" I committed.

I was in prison for almost 3 years for drugs after I was sentenced and went from county jail to "diagnostics and evaluation" D&E I was held in a small cell for 23 hours a day under close watch until the institute decided where to send me ... It was there my eyesight went from totally fine to needing very strong prescription glasses to see also kinda lost my mind .. this video get a thumbs up from me

“What is freedom except the ability to unite with who you are and why you are here? The inability to do this represents the lack of freedom in all of its manifestations.” Steps to Knowledge - The Book of Inner Knowing

When I was 19, I was sentenced to 30 days in a city jail for a misdemeanor. The city jailer confined me to my own space away from regular traffic. Since it wasn't an overcrowded county jail, I was forced to serve the entirety of my 30 days. I was in solitude and had zero time outside of the cell. Ten years later, I'm socially awkward and developed a speech impediment. My therapist tells me it was a major source of trauma in my life.

You can't torture a monster without becoming one yourself.

"After he killed a corrections officier." Yeah lets lets this man live a normal live after he robbed people of theirs.

I struggle so hard with this. Thank you for giving me some very big topics to battle within myself. I have 4 of 5 family members that go through the prison system regularly and my personal battle with right and wrong and punishment for such is so disorienting now.

The fact that some schools have started doing this as well is scary...

On the outside, when we feel like we need help, we go talk to someone who knows about that subject. We don’t lock ourselves in our house and isolate from the world. Because it’s not natural for humans to be alone. History has proven that so many times that the only reason there could ever be for solitary confinement is torture. You can’t expect people to magically understand how to change their behavior by locking them away from the resources they need to get that information. If you want change, then you have to teach them how they are expected to behave. Right now, they are thrown into a confined area full of other people who also don’t know how to act in society and treated in a way that causes them to become aggressive simply to survive. We need change but I don’t know how.

I've met people at many phases of release after solitary confinement....after 6 months it's scary what it does to a man

Stop by a nursing home and say hello to your grandparents and parents. Someday, you'll be there, if you live long enough and then, you too will experience solitary confinement.

All that is said here, sad but true, is what's happening to Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison in Britain now. Officials in US are trying their best to bring him to US and continue the torture here!

Tommy Silverstein murdered prisoners and a corrections officer over a period of years BEFORE being placed in solitary. Isolation may feel like torture, but those that repeatedly disregard the human rights of others subsequently forfeit their own.

Isolation is like being buried alive. The lack of human contact is inhumane.

Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.

thank you for this

I've experienced solitary confinement for up to months at a time. I wasn't even in a prison known for being bad but still often would prefer solitary to dual or group confinement. I was surprised how much you seemed to know about the system but you seem to have little to no knowledge of prisoner to prisoner interactions. I don't discourage your interest. I encourage your involvement but please take the time to find out about the problems of prisoner to prisoner interactions. I look forward to finding out about your future involvement in this issue.

"Some people report that after years of not looking at anything further than 10 feet away, their eyesight has deteriorated so much that they can't focus on faraway objects any more."

The only thing keeping me from laughing at them for being tortured is not knowing their crimes. They could be terrorists, rapists, child abusers, and still get more rights and compassion than the most innocent and abused beings on the planet: non-human animals. Not only that, they will keep torturing and murdering non-human animals to feed those prisoners. Sorry not sorry.

This is what amazing speeches look like... It breaks my heart for those ppl regardless of crimes. Prison is bad enough

So, what about their crimes...? Or their victims, specially the ones that are dead... what about the torture to the victim's family members?

What happens to other people when there not in solitary confinement? I have been in prison some men...SOME, are literally just animals waiting to attack, I have seen them go off for no reason or for very minor ones. But solitary is rough, idk......what is the answer.

I think the problem here is the not caring part, and the lust for revenge. I thought to have understood that the crime rate in - I believe it was Norway - was far lower. And they treat people in prisons with respect, despite what these people have done.

What people don’t talk about is what it actually takes to go to solitary confinement. You just don’t break the law and go there. You have to be the worst of the worst. Not fixable. Also most developed countries other than the us really don’t have true solitary confinement but are now forced to keep inmates unlocked.

Would you want them living next door instead? Some are so violent that if you put them all together they would kill each other. So then execute them? you don't want that either. They are even a danger to any doctors wanting to treat or study them. I have no pity, being a rape victim I want the all locked away so they don't do this to other children. The people who were their victims (if they live) are in a mental prison made by them. I have no pity.

God bless this woman speaking.

This happened to me for only 3 nights and i was withdrawing off of legal pharmaceuticals with that feeling my stress and mental heath was so severe. I can relate ..

I think it depends upon the crime. Serial killers who murder and torture or rape children or any others tear apart families. Did they think about the psyche of the the people they killed and their families? I am 100% against the death penalty but I think solitary confinement would be something I would want for someone who raped, tortured and killed my family. I have mixed feelings about this subject. I think the youth of today who are imprisoned need to have more chance for rehabilitation. After all, the human brain isn't even done developing until age 25. I think if I was in solitary I would want to be executed. But I've not had more than a speeding ticket in my life. Thank you for the interesting take on this controversial subject though.

I spent 5 months in solitary confinement when I was in second grade thanks to my abusers. 23 hour lockdown on the weekends and 15 hours a day during the week for school. The beating I received in first grade kept me terrified and compliant. Later in 7th grade I did 10 months in solitary. As before nothing in my room/cell but a bed and a dresser. I cheated and snuck a book in to read, terrified I would get caught reading and be beaten. My abusers went on to have successful lives. I'm 52 and have been mostly homeless my adult life. ABUSERS SUCK!

Charles Bronson's prisoner artwork depicting paranoia through his drawings of CCTV illustrates isolation well

Actually, we outsource torture in other countries.

We have an obligation to bear witness. To basic human dignity. Amen ma'am. Thank you.

Perhaps being being locked in solitary confinement should be considered before someone leaves their home with the intention of taking another persons life or committing a severely heinous act ? Sadly, there are far too many people who for various reasons find themselves living an existence akin to solitary confinement despite not being criminals, just because they have no family or are housebound/disabled.

What did they do to be put in solitary confinement?

I've worked at a progressive state run male prison in the US for many years. I understand that solitary confinement is absolutely unhealthy. However, many of the incarcerated individuals in solitary confinement cannot function in the general population...when they are allowed in the general population they assault other incarcerated individuals and sometimes staff....they absolutely cannot function without hurting people around them. This is often why these individuals end up in solitary confinement (and prison for that matter). What do you do with someone who cannot function normally around other people? What is the solution?

I'd imagine it can change a person forever.

Solitary confinement need to be abolish

I wonder what the victims (if they're still alive) or the victims families think about these prisoners in maximum security prisons and solitary confinement? Kind of hard to empathize with this view.

This is the way the animals you eat are treated, and they did no crime.

Makes me think about the lives of industrial farm animals..

I have starved myself with social with withdrawal, just as an average Joe. My trust in people is zero until it is earned and easily lost. Never having been a bad guy, I can only imagine, but I think based on everything I have seen, solitary should be LIMITED in the amount of time anyone spends in that sitiuation. Anyone. Yes the worst of the worst might deserve it but FALSE IMPRISONMENT happens. People go to prison for things they didn't do. People get killed in American prisons for crimes they did not do. Since there is always some element of doubt, treat people as best as you can BY DEFAULT.

The entire system of prisons and punishments needs to be overhauled.

ADX is where the worst criminals go, the ones who cannot control their violence or enjoy it. I'm sorry but she did not convince me in the slightest. I don't think the people in ADX would give this women a ounce of compassion if the tables were turned, they don't respect human rights.

yes ma'am.

So how do you safely house these people and prevent them from continuing to kill others while still in custody? I didn’t hear any suggestions or solutions.

I was put in solitary confinement for 30 days, as a 16 year old girl for the crime of calling the police on my abusive step-father. I committed no crime and was treated worse than most murderers. I was tortured for asking "the helpers" for help. Mr. Rodgers was wrong.

Right, I think, your speak was very important, I hope everyone this matter realize it.Thank you..

What about all the humans who live in solitary confinement in their own homes? Elderly? Disabled? We dont think about these people!

At least put windows on the cells. That scenary alone could heal some...things?

I was in solitary confinment for 6 weeks. Difference is I knew at most I would only be there another two weeks. Maximum is 8 weeks, unless secratary of state allows longer.

I was a troubled youth I spent a lot of time in solitary confinement I will say that the majority of people broke down. As for me I was able to keep myself occupied and fit. I believe every time I left those doors I walked out stronger

Those saying they deserve this punishment, who are missing the point entirely, the following is addressed to you. These people have been let down by everyone else who had better opportunities, or rather, it's the people with better opportunities that can prevent the sorts of pathologising upbringings that create such victims (criminals). So long as we point fingers at them, we appoint responsibility upon them, hold them accountable, this is illogical, it simply won't help. Tragedies will continue to occur. Society is accountable... the masses, and the collective society has the power to prevent the sorts of upbringings that lead to such self-destructive minds from occurring. We celebrate surviving heroes, who come away "unscathed" from battles, but as soon as their wounds cause us inconvenience (in America, glorified veteran "heroes" are regularly discarded to the streets because they have PTSD)... we condemn them to the streets regardless of whether their battle was a "victory" or a loss. This is uncivilized, cruel and it's quite frankly thick/stupid to notice but make no effort to address such exemplarily atrocious "cooperation" (social interaction). It's this sort of logical fallacy/inconsistency that is fueling our inability to cooperate as a species, that's fueling our potential total self-annihilation as a species. It's our failure to work together and in turn, working against each other, that's destroying the planet. It's this total disregard for honest cooperation that's rendering populations increasingly apathetic and creating a negative feedback loop, hence the increasing sociopolitical chaos in the western world. Of whatever sort you can think of, criminals are just as much the victims as those that are hurt by their actions, who do so as a result of the rest of society neglecting their vulnerability. They are the fallen, the ones who got the short straw, who took the hardest hits due to our overall lack of competence as a species, members of the tribe we weren't able to defend only for us to just say "it was their fault that they couldn't keep up"... even though we're not talking about fleeing predators in hunter-gatherer times, we're talking about newborn children being neglected from the start and abused thereafter, crippled from the misprogramming of their psychological framework. They're more worthy of appreciation than those who go up against lesser obstacles and live to tell tales of heroic victory. Blaming them is hopelessly naive and counterproductive. If you don't look after one part of your system, the whole thing will fall apart, this is a relative universe, everything is linked like gears in a clock, this isn't complicated. Whilst some pathologised people may not be able to be rehabilitated after the damage is done, all deserve the utmost care and attention, and deserve being helped to find some quality of life in the crippled states we left them to endure until something went wrong for us, we continue to enable these tragedies every day we're pretending they are the problem, for not just magically deciding to break the second law of thermodynamics (simple cause and effect - neuroscientists are increasingly beginning to denounce free will, and believe it's all predetermined). If they can't be rehabilitated, they deserve an as comfortable as possible supervised-care program that protects them as well as others from their malfunctioning. Regardless of their inability to cooperate with and in and turn support us, we should still strive to support them as best we can. We owe it to them. We give this care to those that meet culture's current definition of handicapped, the law system does anyway, but there are still many cases of nurses abusing the elderly with dementia etc, this psychological disorder is the same illness. In reality, you're just a very angry, very afraid and very lost conforming ape (ape, like the rest of us, that's not meant insultingly) trying to exist in a world far out of your natural habitat, that you didn't spend billions of years adapting to. A program trying to function on a borderline incompatible operating system. You're glitching out. It's understandable, I don't judge you. Anger/Violence (rage) is simple a neurological response to anomalies that we can't conceive of any way to resolve and therefore get past, other than with pure destructive force. Trying to rip the door open off its hinges because you can't work out how to unlock it. This is normal considering how foreign your environment is to your brain, and how abstract and advanced the world has become. If it's all cause and effect, you're doing your best, as is the rest of the violent inciting Populus, and things will simply work out or they won't... life will have done its best. Just know that it's the hatred and blaming of others for things they cannot solve but we can, or being logical and approaching things calmly, that will make ALL of the difference between life annihilating itself or thriving and going intergalactic - overcoming the infamous "great filter". It's not easy to understand and resolve the problems of the world, how to help everyone cooperate, but I can promise you that the solution does not involve trying to hurt one and other. To deny criminals their innocence is to condemn the blind person for walking into you, even though you saw them approaching yet refused to move out of their way.f their way.

Solitary confinement is indeed a torture. But she (deliberately?) took the wrong 'lot' to advertise the idea. Most (all?) of prisoners she was talking about are violent and/or perverted animals who belong to that place which she described in such a great detail (informative, families of victims of these animals may get some comfort). On the other hand, it would've been naturally better to start with solitaries as an abuse of power from justice system towards people who eventually will be back to society, needlessly overdamaged - but somehow she did not pay much attention to that aspect. Late TED as usual...

What do you do with prisoner's who terrorize and torture other inmates daily. Some people need to be isolated if they continue committing violent crimes.

I agree we have an obligation to the inherent dignity of every human being. Remember that some of those human beings in prison also do, and many have violated that by rape, child abuse, torture, and murder.

Wow. Thank you for sharing this.

We don't put people in solitary confinement only because they're a danger to themselves, but also because they're a danger to other inmates who just want to do their time in peace. Give them a rotary phone so that they can safely interact with other inmates but not with the outside world

Thank you.

Just watched papillon and I had to know what this really is. It’s madness

I can see this being one reason why some criminals choose to go down fighting the cops rather than go back to prison.

The universe left alone creates reality

The system turns people into monsters then punishes them when they lash out!!!!!

she is crying about the guy that has been living sooo long in solitary confinement but HE made his choices what about the guy he killed and his family that had to grow up without him??

I live in Australia. They have torture here as well. I was held in a cell (cage) in a maximum security prison - the Metropolitan Remand Centre - 22 hours a day for 22 months on REMAND. Assumed innocent until proven guilty. My crime? It was alleged that I worked as a teacher for ten years, receiving well above average reviews with no complaints of any nature against me, teaching year 11 and 12 mathematics and physics but they considered I may have got my teacher's registration by misrepresentation. I am fully qualified by way - I have 4 degrees. My now ex-wife, instructed by the arresting policeman Matthew Lindsay DSC 37112, then set about isolating me from my daughter and stealing our family home through the Family Court. Oh and the reason I was refused bail? it was alleged I didn't give my residential address when arrested. Thus I spent 22 months in a cage because it was alleged I didn't give my residential address on arrest. Over four years later and I am still fighting to see my daughter. Alienating a 55 year old man from his daughter of ten (now fourteen) years is torture. State sponsored child abuse. My daughter states in the Family Court that she wants to see her father but the mother, Khaleda Barr, stops her. Welcome to the corrupt Police State of Victoria, Australia.

"Justice" is a fundamental impossibility. At least that is how I see it. If I killed a man for killing someone I liked, I would be harming those who loved said killer too by taking him from them as he did the one I liked. And thus be prone to retaliation. It would just turn into my death or an eternal cage I usurped from the beast. If he goes to jail for life you might as well kill him then, as all he has to look forward to is a life of captivity and his loved ones will never (if rarely) see him again. If he goes to jail for (X) years, then that is unfair to the victim. They are dead for eternity, while he waltzes free after only a portion of his time is taken. True justice is something we want, but will never have. I say simply, "go with your gut". That is the closest thing to "True Justice" you will ever get in this world. If you can handle being the monster you wish to slay, mantling its position, only to be hunted by those who would encage you or take the title... Go ahead. If you want to leave the monster to rot in a cage forever... Go ahead. If you want to forgive the monster who slayed the innocent... Go ahead. We will never have a perfect answer, so seek your own, and let nobody's judgement effect you.

Thank you Laura! ” torture happens in the dark” !

Poor prisoners who can't see any grass or trees... What about the people they've murdered, they're not going to see any grass or trees ever again

Reading some of the comments, me thinketh if crime did not exist, it would have to be invented to sate the public thirst for punishment.

Why maximum/high level security prison and long period of time punishment/sentence exist? Why not just execute the person instead wasting money torturing them? That kind of prison is just evil, imo

Very good talk.

Take a look around, there is no justice.

Thanks you ..

This lecture seems to purposefully avoid addressing justice for victims, many of which whose lives are ruined forever mentally and/or physically, or taken altogether.

I agree you shouldn`t keep them there. If they killed people and can`t be reinserted in society they should be terminated.

Feels like my life in my room

Spending day after day alone in my house reminds me of solitary confinement

I'm sorry if this is insensitive, but I find it hard to have compassion for prisoners in this type of situation. If you dont specify the crime committed, it makes you want to relate to them, but I cant imagine that anyone is in there for petty theft or illegal squatting or something benign. If you commit a truly awful crime- enough so that it is determined that this painful existence is assigned to someone, perhaps that is just justice for whatever they did. I think it's important that someone is only placed in these conditions under the worst circumstances, but the point is that they are punished, isn't it? No one will be deterred from committing these awful crimes if the punishment is a slap on the wrist and then they get to move into a glorified old age home. Again, I sympathise on a surface level with another human in pain, but the point of justice is to reprimand those who chose to do something truly despicable. Without knowing the crimes of the prisoners I these conditions makes this difficult to judge. She also only mentioned that the one guy murdered a corrections officer. If that is all he did, the punishment seems far too harsh (as awful as murder is), but I seriously doubt that is all it took to put someone in there... Happy to hear other people's thoughts on this topic!!

someone made the allen jackson song pop into my head "cowboys dont cry and heroes dont die good always wins again and again and love is a sweet dream that always comes true oh if life were like the movies I'D never be blue"

I really don't like how she emphasizes the fact that these "poor" people are tortured in solitary confinement while she didn't mention their crimes at least once. I think this mention would change the "so positive" thoughts of the audience. I do not and will never understand how you can protect rapists, murderers, terrorists or just some idiots with their own belives that go and kill kids - Norway as an example when the guy shot more than 70 children so they won't become politicinas in the future. You, being a parent who lost your child, would not be so indulgent. I assure you. So, my point is - ADX is a small place. They don't put all the criminals there, but probably those who committed the most heinous crimes. I'm sorry, people, I don't support her idea and yes I think they should suffer for what they have done to other innocent people and their families.

Love u guys❤

Video title is misleading. It’s a talk about torture on U.S. soil not about effects of solitary confinement. That’s only discussed very briefly

"Many of these men lost their voices after talking with us for just an hour. Their vocal cords were out of practice speaking for that long."

Let’s not forget why they are there. The focus on the victims and their families should be what the focus is on

Imagine if this lady actually had firsthand experience being locked in solitary confinement for an extended period of time.

After receiving 15 years for armed robbery Tommy Silverstein joined the Aryan Brotherhood. The first person Tommy killed was Danny Atwell. The reason why Danny had been killed was because Danny had refused to move Heroin through the prisonfor him. Shortly after this incident, Tommy was then placed in a control unit which was used for those inmates who had extreme management issues. Tommy at this time had gained quite the reputation and his nickname became "Terrible Tom". Terrible Tom soon murdered another inmate named Robert Chappelle who was part of a Black Prison Gang in Marion. At this point the Black Prison Gang National boss, Raymond "Cadillac" Smith, got transferred to the Control Unit of Marion. Tommy Silverstein stated, "Smith said he was going to kill me for what I had done to Robert." Tommy and another inmate decided to move first and Raymond Smith was stabbed 67 times killing him. In 1983, while being escorted to the showers by Correction Officer Merle Clutts, Terrible Tommy was given a shank and his handcuffs were unlocked by another Aryan Brotherhood member. Terrible Tommy stabbed Merle Clutts over 40 times killing him. Merle Clutts was 51 years old and if you look for him you'll find a gentle smiling face. Debbie Stroehlein, Merle's daughter, said that it was the worst day of her life. Merle Clutts had a wife, a daughter, two sons, and his grandson was 2 when he was killed. Pamela S Riley said this on his reflection page in 2009, "Oh, how I miss you so much." Terrible Tommy said it was for retaliation for destroying some paintings but that same day another Correctional Officer had been killed by another Aryan Brotherhood member. In total the Aryan Brotherhood launched a coordinated assault on the Correctional Facility officers killing two Including Merle Clutts, violently and injuring three senior officers and severely injuring two junior officers. From 1980 to 1983 Tommy Silverstein brutally murdered four people all of who had families that loved and cared for them. He left mothers without sons, sons and daughters without a father, and a wife without a husband. Now, you know who Tommy Silverstein was and why he was put where he was. You now know the rest of the story that was purposefully left out by Laura Rovner. I'm not here to tell you how to think or to try to lead you to a decision. I just think you should be given all of the story and not just a portion that fits an agenda shaped by the speaker above. Now, here is my opinion. If you want to have some pity party for a monster who couldn't be trusted to engage with other human beings without the fear that he would kill them then that is on you. Me, I am absolutely fine that Tommy Silverstein spent his years from 1983 onward in what could best be described as a small closet with little to no human contact. He didn't deserve to be socially interacted with. He was a monster in every sense of the word. And that is what the ADX is for... It's for those who have decided that society and human interaction is the enemy and thus they can't be trusted for even the simplest measure of interacting with one another. Nobody put them their but themselves.

I admit to being conflicted about this. I believe guards and other prisoners have a right to be safe from some really dangerous individuals who maybe have been isolated. I believe it can be used as a punishment or deterrent for some. I don’t like the thought of the long term isolation. What can be done? She doesn’t say in her talk. For those that are a danger to guards and other prisoners what do we do?

Stay away from actions which could lead you to this fate.

Long term solitary confinement is far worse than any physical torture. After a long enough time in there you'd probably even start physically torturing yourself due to mental breakdown...