Life on Death Row in Alabama

No matter what stance they take on the death penalty, most people have never really had a view of what conditions are like for inmates on death row. In Alabama, over two hundred men and women wake up and go to sleep each day on death row. Imagine if you will, living this life for a week, a month, years, or decades, as many do.

Each inmate, after being sentenced to death row to await his or her execution is placed in a 5x8 feet cell, which includes the room taken up by a cot, toilet and sink. There is no window in the cell, so the only view is the hallway and the four walls. Inmates are issued a towel, sheets, a disposable razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap and two rolls of toilet paper. Everything else they might need is sold to them through the prison store, at inflated prices, and assuming they have someone to send them the money to buy anything. Stamps, writing paper, pencils or pens, socks, underwear, etc are not allowed to be mailed in. All of this must be purchased. So if no one on the outside agrees to send the inmate money each month to "put on their book" in the form of a credit for the store, then the inmate can never write a letter.

There is no air conditioning and without a window in the cell, heat in the Alabama summers gets up over one hundred degrees often. Some inmates have a fan, but when the heat gets so extreme, it only blows hot air. It is usual to hear of an inmate standing in the toilet trying to cool himself. The inmates are allowed out of the cell for an hour, about five days out of each week. They are taken outside by guards and allowed to walk inside a fenced perimeter. Many spend their time just looking at nature, enjoying the feel of the sun.

Hunger is common, On Sundays and holidays, inmates receive two meals per day. The portions are not adequate for grown men, and most say they have to supplement their food intake with items from the store. Boxes of food have been spotted in the kitchen marked with the words "Not fit for human consumption." The breakfast tray is delivered around 430AM, lunch about 10, and dinner at 3PM. Trays for death row inmates are served to the cell, as the inmates are not allowed into the prison cafeteria. There is a prison library with a scant supply of books, most very outdated, and the inmate can complete a form to request a book. The inmate is also allowed to receive two paperback books per month if they are mailed directly from a book store like Amazon, and if the inmate can find someone willing to buy those books for him or her.

Mentally ill inmates are common. It is said one can hear the ranting and ravings of troubled minds all day and into the night. Visitation is conducted twice a month for those six or seven people who are on that inmate's approved visitor list (immediate family and one or two friends). The visiting rooms are so overcrowded that although visiting hours say 730 AM to 2PM, one rarely gets to visit for more than two hours, even though some family members drive hundreds of miles to get there. If visitation is cancelled for that day, the visitor is unlikely to know until arriving at the prison.

I realize that these inmates are convicted criminals, and that prison is not suppose to be a fun camp. However, not every inmate on these halls are guilty, as more and more people are being exonerated each year. Recently three former Alabama death row inmates spoke at a conference I attended. Each said if the District Attorney had his way, that man would have already been executed, even though they were not guilty of the crime they had been convicted of. Statistically, with human error a definite, innocent people are executed, some with DNA evidence that could have proved their guilt or innocence not being allowed testing by the state.

To wake up each day and watch the clock, knowing your time is coming to be put to death, has to be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Many men spend decades sitting and watching men they have known and lived beside being marched to the execution chamber, and carried back by their cell on a gurney after being pronounced dead.

Whatever your views on the death penalty, pro or against, people should be treated in a humane manner. If an animal was kept in a small cage barely big enough to turn around in for 23 or more hours per day, given inadequate food, kept in excessive heat, and denied access to others except for two short visits per month, the person who placed that animal there would be violating the law. Let your legislators know that you want all humans to be treated in a humane manner,.