Conditions on Death Row

Overview 

As the time between sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion in the U.S. has length­ened from a few years to decades, the con­di­tions of con­fine­ment for death row pris­on­ers have come under clos­er scruti­ny. Some Supreme Court Justices have raised con­sti­tu­tion­al con­cerns about the phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of being held for exten­sive time in soli­tary con­fine­ment, sep­a­rate from chal­lenges to the death penal­ty itself. Many legal experts in the U.S. and inter­na­tion­al­ly have con­clud­ed that pro­longed iso­la­tion is a form of cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, com­pa­ra­ble to torture.

Many death row pris­on­ers suf­fer from men­tal ill­ness, and research indi­cates that the iso­la­tion on death row exac­er­bates men­tal health con­di­tions. Older inmates also suf­fer from increas­ing phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties that often com­pli­cate their executions. 

At Issue 

The issue of exten­sive time on death row presents a dilem­ma: If death penal­ty appeals are rushed through the sys­tem, it might lessen the time spent on death row, but more inno­cent peo­ple will be exe­cut­ed and grave injus­tices will remain undis­cov­ered and uncor­rect­ed. A thor­ough review of each case, with an open­ness to retri­al upon the emer­gence of new evi­dence, has the side effect of keep­ing pris­on­ers in degrad­ing con­di­tions for twen­ty years or more. 

What DPI Offers 

DPI pro­vides sum­maries of the con­di­tions and rules gov­ern­ing pris­on­ers on death row in each state. It also tracks the amount of time that pris­on­ers spend under these con­di­tions. Finally, DPI col­lects the impor­tant court deci­sions relat­ed to this issue.