A deeply disturbing and human look at the American prison system's
practice of lifelong solitary confinement, and the two killers who
changed modern day corrections. No Human Contact by the New York Times
bestselling author of THE HOT HOUSE, Pulitzer Prize finalist Pete Earley
takes readers inside the criminal justice system, examining the brutal
lives of those in solitary confinement in an eye opening narrative of
reprehensible crime, draconian punishment, and seemingly impossible
reform in the harshest depths of the country's most dangerous
prisons.
In 1983, Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain, both serving life
sentences at the U.S, Prison in Marion, Illinois, separately murdered
two correction officers on the same day. The Bureau of Prisons condemned
both men to the severest punishment that could legally be imposed, one
created specifically for them. It was unofficially called "no human
contact."
Each initially spent nine months in a mattress-sized cell where the
lights burned twenty-four hours a day. They were clothed only in boxer
shorts, completely sealed off from the outside world with only their
minds to occupy their time. Eventually granted minimal privileges,
Fountain turned to religion and endured twenty-one-years before dying
alone of natural causes. Silverstein became a skilled artist and lasted
thirty-six years, longer than any other American prisoner held in
isolation. Amazingly, both men found purpose to their existence while
confined in the belly of the beast.
Pete Earley--the only journalist to be granted face-to-face access with
Silverstein--examines profound questions at the heart of our justice
system. Were Silverstein and Fountain born bad? Or were they twisted by
abusive childhoods? Did incarceration offer them a chance of
rehabilitation--or force them to commit increasingly heinous crimes? No
Human Contact elicits a uniquely deep and uncomfortable understanding
of the crimes committed, the use of solitary confinement, and the
reality of life, redemption, and death behind prison walls.
