Prison offi­cials in Texas are review­ing poli­cies cur­rent­ly requir­ing all death row inmates to be iso­lat­ed one to a cell for 23 hours a day. Executions in Texas are car­ried out in Huntsville, and the local chap­ter of the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers’ union sup­ports chang­ing death-row prac­tices. Chapter pres­i­dent Lance Lowry said, ​“The cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers and tax­pay­ers would ben­e­fit from an eas­ing of the cur­rent poli­cies. Most death row offend­ers could be housed two to a cell. Some of them could be giv­en work priv­i­leges and allowed to watch TV. An inmate who has noth­ing to lose is a dan­ger­ous inmate.” Jeanne Woodford, a for­mer war­den of California’s San Quentin prison, which hous­es the coun­try’s largest death row, agreed, ​“When inmates are per­ma­nent­ly and auto­mat­i­cal­ly housed in high­ly restric­tive envi­ron­ments — as they are in Texas — it is more dif­fi­cult to con­trol their behav­ior. To make mat­ters worse, com­plete idle­ness breeds men­tal ill­ness, caus­ing inmates to act out and putting cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers at risk.” The cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers’ union is one of a dozen orga­ni­za­tions that sup­port eas­ing the restric­tions. The oth­ers include men­tal health orga­ni­za­tions, the Texas Defender Service, and sev­er­al reli­gious groups. The coali­tion is ask­ing prison offi­cials to allow death row inmates con­tact vis­its with fam­i­ly mem­bers, com­mu­nal recre­ation, reli­gious ser­vices, and work assignments.

(M. Ward, ​“Should Texas death row inmates have more priv­i­leges?,” Austin American-Statesman, January 29, 2014). See Death Row and Time on Death Row.

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