A prisoner who is known as the "most isolated inmate in the United States" revealed exactly what it's like spending almost three decades in solitary confinement.
Thomas Silverstein was originally locked up when he was 19 years old for an armed robbery but after an incident inside the prison saw him brutally murder two other prisoners and a prison guard, his sentence was upgraded to a life one.
As part of his punishment, the prisoner spent 28 years in solitary confinement where he wrote a "declaration" in order to help ban the cruel and unusual punishment.
He was trapped in a 6 x 7 feet cell where he would sit naked, just permitted to wear undergarments, with absolutely no human contact for almost three decades.
Though Silverstein died in prison back in 2019 when he was 69, his harrowing account of 28 years in solitary confinement lives on as one of the most disturbing pieces to be written by a prisoner.
After describing his cell as being "so small that I could stand in one place and touch both walls simultaneously" and adding that the ceiling was "so low", he started describing his experiences.
"Shortly after I arrived, the prison staff began construction on the side pocket cell, adding more bars and other security measures to the cell while I was within it," he wrote in the lengthy piece. "In order not to be burned by sparks and embers while they welded more iron bars across the cell, I had to lie on my bed and cover myself with a sheet."
He continued: "It is hard to describe the horror I experienced during this construction process. As they built new walls around me it felt like I was being buried alive. It was terrifying."
Silverstein then stated that during his first year, he was completely isolated from everyone.
"During my first year in the side pocket cell I was completely isolated from the outside world and had no way to occupy my time. I was not allowed to have any social visits, telephone privileges, or reading materials except a bible. I was not allowed to have a television, radio, or tape player. I could speak to no one and their was virtually nothing on which to focus my attention."
Not only that, but he started becoming "disoriented" by common internal sounds.
"In addition, the bright, artificial lights remained on in the cell constantly, increasing my disorientation and making it difficult to sleep," he said. "Not only were they constantly illuminated, but those lights buzzed incessantly. The buzzing noise was maddening, as there often were no other sounds at all. This may sound like a small thing, but it was my entire world."
"Due to the unchanging bright artificial lights and not having a wristwatch or clock, I couldn’t tell if it was day or night. Frequently, I would fall asleep and when I woke up I would not know if I had slept for five minutes or five hours, and would have no idea of what day or time of day it was," he said.
Inside the cell, he also heard maddening whispers, who he believed were from officers, and all the overwhelming sensory sensitivities pulled him into a whole other world of reality.
"In the side pocket cell, I lost some ability to distinguished what was real. I dreamt I was in prison. When I woke up, I was not sure which was reality and which was a dream," he concluded.