when was the first prison in america built
History of United States prison systems Prisoners and prisons appeared in North America simultaneous to the arrival of European settlers. Among the ninety or so men who sailed with the explorer known as Christopher Columbus were a young black man abducted from the Canary Islands and at least four convicts.[27] By 1570, Spanish soldiers in St. Augustine, Florida, had built the first substantial prison in North America.[28] As other European nations began to compete with Spain for land and wealth in the New World, they too turned to convicts to fill out the crews on their ships.[28]
Thomas Silverstein Thomas Edward Silverstein (born February 4, 1952) is an American convicted murderer. He has been incarcerated continuously since 1977 and has been convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned, one of which was overturned.[1] He has been in solitary confinement since 1983, when he killed prison guard Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities describe him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintains that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was held "in a specially designed cell" in what is called "Range 13" at ADX Florence federal penitentiary in Colorado.[2] He is currently the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons.[3]