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There are approximately 2,900 prisoners currently experiencing life on death row. The death penalty is a legal option in 31 states, and it's also utilized in some cases by the U.S. military and government. People on death row are most likely to face lethal injection as their execution method, but there are plenty of ways to die on death row.
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Currently, the United States has around 2,900 prisoners
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living on death row. Death row remains a popular and vivid setting
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for films and TV shows. But what is it actually like for the inmates
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waiting out their final days behind bars? Today, we're going to explore the daily reality
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of what it's like to be on death row. OK, time to put in your request for a last meal
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The sky is the limit, unless we get a last minute call from the governor. The death penalty is currently legal in 31 US states
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But before condemned prisoners are sent along to the hereafter, they're typically sent to the state penitentiary first
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to spend some time in the cell block known, colloquially, as death row
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But despite what you may have seen in a few John Grisham courtroom melodramas, this process is anything but quick
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Often, prisoners wind up spending a good deal of time on death row prior to their actual executions
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if those execution days ever even arrive. In fact, the average length of time condemned inmates spend in prison is over 15 years
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That's a few presidential administrations and one and a half Game of Thrones
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An astounding 40% of all death row inmates spend more than 20 years in prison
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and several have even topped the 40-year benchmark. This can result from several factors, most notably the appeals process
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which can stretch out prison sentences for weeks, months, or even years
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because nothing moves more slowly than the wheels of bureaucracy. It's fairly common for prisoners to die on death row from natural causes before ever reaching their execution dates
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In those cases, you could say the death sentence itself is a protracted execution
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They still die in prison, just not on a specific date. Of course, that's if you're lucky enough to not be killed during your lengthy prison stay
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Despite the presence of guards and other security measures, like all the iron bars, it's still pretty dangerous to live on death row
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It's kind of the same as living in an apartment building populated entirely by convicted murderers
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Only the apartments are the size of an airplane lavatory, and nobody is allowed to leave
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25% of death row inmates actually end up dying before the sentence can be carried out
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either from natural causes, suicide, or being killed by a fellow inmate
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Even if you manage to remain physically healthy spending years on death row can also prove psychologically debilitating In most states death row inmates spend their time in isolation often in a version of solitary confinement that can last up to 23 hours a day Spending extended amounts of time alone can lead
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to PTSD, hypersensitivity to everyday stimuli, fear, and rage. Also, you'd have no way of possibly
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keeping up with Bridgerton. Many death row inmates also report being denied access to any kind of
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religious services or support, which can cause additional psychological distress. Though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners have the right to practice their
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religion, according to the ACLU, 62% of the states with a death penalty do not provide
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any such services for death row inmates. Numerous other factors, from squalid living conditions to the uncertainty of the appeals
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and execution process, can lead to a very real psychological condition known as death
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row syndrome. Symptoms include deteriorating mental and physical health, self-destructive behavior, agitation, and even psychosis
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On top of all of those additional stressors, a death row inmate has the weight of an impending execution
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looming over them at all times. And if you haven't been keeping up with the state executions
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in the United States, there's a good deal of variation within the death row and execution process state by state
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While most states currently opt for lethal injection as their execution method of choice
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firing squads remain legal in Mississippi, Utah, and Oklahoma, while New Hampshire, Delaware, and Washington
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have all kept death by hanging on the books. The last official state-sanctioned hanging
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didn't happen all that long ago. In 1996, William Bailey requested that the state of Delaware
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carry out his execution via hanging, and Delaware obliged. In other words, the actual method of execution
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in modern-day America may not be much different than what you'd face in medieval times
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Regardless of whether you're on death row or in regular old prison, you'd have
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to get used to living in a space that is proportionally the same size as a dog crate
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The typical death row cell measures just 8 by 10 feet. Most contain only a bed, toilet, and sink, though sometimes there will also be a desk
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or chair, provided there's enough space. And most cells lack any kind of window or view of the outside world, so it's basically
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the same as a studio apartment in Los Angeles. There's also no access for prisoners to any kind of climate control, such as heating or
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air conditioning. And while that may sound like a minor complaint, many states with the death penalty also happen
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to have summertime temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, and similar freezing temperatures
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in the winter. Though most prisons are outfitted with heating systems of some sort there are no guarantees that they always be functioning or turned on when needed This small often uncomfortable enclosure will usually be the inmates only surroundings for 23 hours out of a 24 day
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That single hour of time spent outside the cell per day provides the only daily chance to get a little fresh air
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move around, or speak with other human beings. It's also the only times these inmates are allowed to receive visitors or use the phone, if they have either of those privileges
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It's probably also an inmates' only opportunity to shower, provided they were scheduled for a shower that day
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Many death row inmates only get to take a shower once every 48 hours
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As for exercise, it's typically not allowed every day, even during the lone hours of activity time
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Death row inmates get an average of four hours a week to exercise, often spread over just two weekly sessions, which is probably more exercise than most of us do
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Gotta get back to that gym. In addition, the typical death row exercise area is very small
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and often designed to prevent inmates from working out together. So if you need a spotter, well, you're out of luck, unless you want to ask one of the guards
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Exercise privileges are also among the first to be taken away should a prisoner commit an
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infraction or break a rule, so none of this is guaranteed. Other amenities are equally sparse
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Death row inmates across the nation report of extremely poor food quality and lack of basic
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comforts. For instance, many death row prisoners report having no access to hot water, and 60
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say they sleep on a bed made of steel. In terms of actual perks, the most common ways to reward
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inmates are allowing them to listen to the radio or watch local TV. Typically, these TVs don't
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exceed 13 inches. Might as well be reading at that point. Often, the TV must be furnished by the inmates themselves
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rather than the state. Death Row is a BYOT situation. In some cases, TVs are only allowed
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if they're stored outside of the prisoner's actual cells, rather than inside, preventing them from changing the channel
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or adjusting the volume. Most states forbid death row inmates from accessing any kind of paid or cable programming
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denying many condemned prisoners even the simple joy of Baby Yoda. That all sounds pretty rough, made even rougher
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by the fact that death row inmates can always count on a good night's sleep. Though every state has
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different guidelines in many facilities, prisoner checks happen once or twice an hour, every hour
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even overnight. In California, any prisoner being kept in isolation, which includes death row
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inmates, gets checked 48 times a day. That's once every 30 minutes. These checks often include
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loud jangling keys, voices, and lights being turned on, making regular sleep patterns impossible to maintain
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Which brings us to the actual execution itself or at least the last meal This traditional rite of passage probably the most famous pop culture trope associated with the death penalty has actually been abolished in Texas
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where inmates just eat their normal prison dinner as their last meal. Not even a big Texas cinnamon
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bun or a piece of Texas toast. Damn Texas, that is cold. If a prisoner does make it all the way
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through the appeals process and up to the day of their execution, they still can't really relax
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as there still remains ample opportunities for things to go horribly wrong. Sometimes the
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executions themselves are simply botched, as in the 2015 case of Arizonan Joseph Wood, who received
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15 lethal injections over the course of two hours before he finally died. Technically, it doesn't
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seem like that injection is lethal if you have to give it 15 times. Just saying. Typically, the
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entire process is supposed to require just a single injection and 10 minutes, with the condemned
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passing into the next world relatively peacefully. Witnesses reported that Wood appeared to suffer
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throughout his entire ordeal. Mishaps like these aren't uncommon. This is due in part to the fact
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that there are no guidelines for the exact combination and dosage of the specific drugs involved in a lethal injection execution
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And not a lot of doctors interested in finding the best execution method, I guess
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And I'm not sure how they're going to test those dosages. Hmm, tough problem
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Each state does it differently. And oftentimes, the person responsible for selecting the drugs
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and deciding upon the dosage has no medical training. They can be lawyers working for either the prison or the state
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who are literally just guessing. and the injections themselves might be administered carelessly, even sloppily
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The infamous 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary
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was a gruesome series of mishaps, including a burst artery. It was so botched that the execution was actually halted
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and Lockett ultimately succumbed to a heart attack. Now, most of the people on death row did some pretty bad things to get there
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So it is easy to dismiss much of this as, hey, you reap what you sow
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But some estimate that in approximately 4% of US cases, people living on death row are
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innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted. Other estimates say more than half of those wrongfully convicted individuals are executed
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or die on death row before they can be exonerated. That adds up to, if those estimates prove true, to over 200 innocent people put to death
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in the US since 1973, an average of four erroneous executions per year
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And it seems if you're in the business of executions, even one mistake is probably too much
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even if they do give you a fabulous steak dinner the night before