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Title details for No Human Contact by Pete Earley - Wait list

No Human Contact

Solitary Confinement, Maximum Security, and Two Inmates Who Changed the System

by Pete Earley
Rich Miller
Audiobook
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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. 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 in isolation.
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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 25, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798765075791
      • File size: 268768 KB
      • Duration: 09:19:55

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Rich Miller straightforwardly takes listeners through a graphic and sometimes violent examination of long-term solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system. In 1983, Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain each murdered a prison guard on the same day in the same prison. Federal prison officials used the slayings to justify the creation of "supermax" (high-security) prisons. Silverstein and Fountain were subsequently held in solitary confinement for 36 years and 20+ years. Some of the language used and violence portrayed in this audiobook is disturbing. Miller's matter-of-fact delivery is well chosen; dramatization would be excessive, even gratuitous. Miller's performance makes the content more bearable, but sensitive listeners might think twice about taking on this audiobook. G.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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