Life of a Prisoner on Death Row

The sound of breakfast carts clanking against the concrete floors is what you hear in a maximum security prison at 5 am. The first sounds of the day - heavy metal doors slamming, electric gates clanking, and loud screams - are also the last sounds of the night. There are no soothing sounds when you're on death row. 

The first thing you see when you enter the cell is a thin, worn down, 30 inch wide mattress much like the one pictured in figure 1. Upon the mattress lays a man. He opens his eyes and approaches the hole in the heavy, metal door to receive his breakfast on a plastic tray. He looks around the room - the same four, white, bare, concrete walls - the place he calls home until his execution.

Figure 1: an actual cell of an inmate waiting on death row.

He sits on the bed with the breakfast tray sitting on his lap, picking at the scrambled eggs with his fork. After he's finished, he slides his tray through the slot in the door it entered. After breakfast, he dozes off back to sleep. Sleep seems to be the only adequate way to pass time while on death row.

The Harsh Realities of Death Row

Staying even a week in jail is probably terrifying but being sent to prison for a crime so extreme it calls for the death penalty has to be by far the most horrifying feeling one could ever feel. Being in a maximum security prison on death row is not a fun place to be. In fact, some prisons do not even have air conditioning or heat! In the winter, inmates keep warm by wrapping up in a single thin blanket the jail provides to every inmate. During the summer months temperatures sometimes reach above 100 degrees. With no air conditioning, inmates are forced to deal with the humidity as best as they can. Portable fans are allowed but unfortunately they make little to no difference. The stench of the cells on death row is hard to deal with no matter what season it is but in the summer it is especially worse. The thick, heavy, odor smells of cigarette smoke and body odor consume the air.

Spending the whole day outside when it is warm and sunny is something that's enjoyed by most people. Death row inmates are only allowed two hours of outdoor recreation and are forced to be alone. Inmates who are not on death row are given six to seven hours of outdoor recreational activity and are permitted to be with other inmates while outdoors. People

Figure 2: an inmate using a gardening tool to clean up the prison yard.

waiting on death row are also forced to work. The restrictions placed on the amount of freedom these inmates have is so strict that the jobs given to the inmates are only within their secured unit or forced to work alone. The phrase"being worked to death" has never been so literal. 

Time with family and friends is a top priority in the opinion of most people. In prison it is difficult for inmates to maintain contact with the ones they care about the most. However, in a maximum security prison for someone on death row, it is even more difficult. Inmates on death row are given three visits a week with each visit lasting only a maximum of one hour. There is never physical contact during the visits either. The inmate has to communicate with their visitor through a glass window on the telephone (figure 3).

Figure 3: a bishop visiting with a man on death row.

These phone calls are always monitored so there is absolutely no privacy whatsoever. Just being able to have non contact visits are viewed a privilege that can be revoked at any point in time. For example, if an inmate was involved in a physical altercation, he/she would most likely have their visitors privilege taken away for a period of time. The criminal justice system isn't sympathetic when it comes to inmates on death row having communication with the outside world.

"Why do we kill people 

who kill people to show 

killing people is wrong?" - unknown

Life for a prisoner on death row is not easy. From the poor air conditioning and heating system, to the limited time placed on outdoor recreation, and finally the lack of communication with loved ones, it is simple to see that is not the ideal life to live. The only way to avoid death row and prison as a whole is to avoid breaking the law. As a society we should try our best to be law abiding citizens at all times. Following the law makes for a more productive and safer environment for all. 

References

Inmates at California prison install drought-tolerant garden. (2015, October 19). Retrieved April 27, 2017, from http://www.gettyimages.com/event/inmates-at-california-prison-install-drought-tolerant-garden-586656137#california-state-prisonsolano-inmate-uses-a-hand-tool-to-pack-while-picture-id493362100

Reinhart, C. (2011, April 4). Prison conditions for death row and life without parole inmates. Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0178.htm

Shafer, S. (2016, September 20). Inside death row, inmates disagree on capital punishment. Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/16/death-row-inmates-disagree-on-capital-punishment/

Skidmore, D. (2016, December 22). Grace encountered during visit to death row. Retrieved April 27, 2017, from http://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/article/grace-encountered-during-visit-death-row