Nancy Mullane, a reporter for KALW Radio in San Francisco, is one of the few reporters to visit California’s death row at San Quentin Prison. In the block she visited, there were 500 inmates, in 4‑by-10 foot cells, stacked five tiers high. The cells are about the size of a walk-in closet. Many of the inmates have been on death row for over 20 years. Inmates can shower every other day. One of the inmates she met with, Justin Helzer, had stabbed himself in both eyes. He later committed suicide. California has the largest death row in the country with 727 inmates. No one has been executed in 7 years. Listen to the full segment here.
(N. Mullane, “Walking death row at San Quentin State Prison,” KALW San Francisco Public Radio, April 29, 2013; segment originally aired on October 29, 2012). See Death Row and Time on Death Row.
