Media Release For Release: DRAFT Contact: Chase Squires

DU law school clinic files federal Supermax lawsuit

Student law clinic looks to build on prior success in federal court

DENVER – The University of Denver law clinic that successfully challenged the federal government over conditions at Colorado’s notorious federal Supermax prison are taking on the system again, representing an inmate who’s been held in solitary confinement for more than 24 years.

The DU Sturm College of Law Student Law Office files suit today in federal court against the U.S. government, alleging the incarceration of longtime inmate Tommy Silverstein amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Silverstein, 55, has been in prison since 1975 and in solitary confinement since 1983. Convicted of killing two inmates and a guard while incarcerated, Silverstein is held in total isolation at the government’s Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colo., known as “Supermax.”

The length of time in solitary is the longest since Robert Stroud, the legendary “Birdman of Alcatraz,” who died in 1963 after 42 years in solitary. But even Stroud was allowed to interact through bars with other inmates and raised and wrote about birds. Silverstein is allowed no human contact and is kept inside a soundproof cell.

The suit alleges the government’s “deliberate indifference has resulted in Plaintiff suffering deprivations that cause mental harm that goes beyond the boundaries of what most human beings can psychologically tolerate.”

Visiting professor Dan Manville and Associate Professor Laura Rovner are working with law students Steven Baum and Amber Trzinski, who will practice under an order that permits student lawyers to appear in federal court with prior approval. Earlier this year, Rovner led a team of student lawyers, overturning a federal Bureau of Prisons rule barring inmates from publishing articles and stories under their own name.

Manville, who joins Rovner at the clinic this year, has worked for the National Prison Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, and in private practice, specializing in prisoners’ rights.

The DU Civil Rights Clinic is a year-long class. Students represent clients on a range of civil and human rights matters, including prisoners' rights, and discrimination by employers and other public and private entities, based on disability, race, gender, religion, age and national origin.

The government reports the Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, houses offenders requiring the tightest controls. The Washington Post notes other inmates held there include “shoe bomber" Richard Reid; “Unabomber” Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski; Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.

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The University of Denver (www.du.edu), the oldest private university in the Rocky Mountain region, enrolls approximately 11,117 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Denver as a Research University with high research activity.