Prisoners’ Rights Groups Accuse Oklahoma of Unconstitutional Death-Row Conditions

Oklahoma​’s prac­tice of auto­mat­i­cal­ly hous­ing death-row pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment and deny­ing them com­mu­nal reli­gious ser­vices is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and inhu­mane, a coali­tion of nation­al and local civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions says. In a July 29, 2019 let­ter to inter­im Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) direc­tor Scott Crow, the coali­tion — head­ed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma—report­ed that its two-year inves­ti­ga­tion into the state’s hous­ing of death-row pris­on­ers revealed con­di­tions that were ​“dan­ger­ous and inju­ri­ous.” The group issued a for­mal demand that the ODOC change the con­di­tions of death-row con­fine­ment — a pre­cur­sor to fil­ing a fed­er­al law­suit— but offered to work with prison offi­cials to ​“avoid the expense and delay of protracted litigation.”

Oklahoma death-row pris­on­ers are housed in the H‑Unit of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary (pic­tured) in McAlester in what the rights groups char­ac­ter­ize as ​“inhu­mane and oppres­sive con­di­tions.” ODOC’s ​“poli­cies that auto­mat­i­cal­ly sen­tence con­demned peo­ple to per­ma­nent soli­tary con­fine­ment,” they say, ​“raise seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al, human rights, and human dig­ni­ty ques­tions.” The groups’ let­ter pro­vides a detailed descrip­tion of con­fine­ment on McAlester’s death row. ​“The con­demned men,” they say, ​“are locked in their cells 22 to 24 hours a day. By pol­i­cy they are offered a 15-minute show­er three times a week and one hour of soli­tary exer­cise five times a week in an enclosed con­crete room of 20 feet by 20 feet that has an opaque sky­light-ceil­ing that obstructs any view of the sky or sun. People with approved fam­i­ly vis­i­tors may have non­con­tact vis­its on Fridays and week­ends, behind plex­i­glass and over a phone. The facil­i­ty offers no form of con­gre­gate activ­i­ty or time out­side of cells, with no pro­grams, edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices, or work opportunities.” 

Death-row con­di­tions sim­i­lar to those in Oklahoma have been chal­lenged in court in Arizona, South Carolina, and Virginia, prompt­ing those states to end their poli­cies of rou­tine­ly keep­ing all death-row pris­on­ers in soli­tary con­fine­ment. ​“Multiple states have had suc­cess main­stream­ing death-sen­tenced peo­ple or elim­i­nat­ing auto­mat­ic soli­tary con­fine­ment for them, includ­ing Missouri, North Carolina, Colorado, Arizona, and Virginia,” said Donald Specter, Executive Director of the non-prof­it Prison Law Office, which advo­cates for con­sti­tu­tion­al con­di­tions in pris­ons, jails, and juve­nile halls. ​“There is no rea­son Oklahoma can­not do the same.”

Solitary con­fine­ment has well-doc­u­ment­ed debil­i­tat­ing men­tal health effects, and the let­ter describes some of the con­se­quences of Oklahoma’s poli­cies. ​“One con­demned man we met with described his indef­i­nite con­fine­ment in H‑Unit as being ​‘buried alive,’” the let­ter states. ​“The inhu­mane and oppres­sive con­di­tions in H‑Unit have led to sui­cides and sui­cide attempts, most recent­ly in June 2018 when a death-sen­tenced man died by sui­cide.” In a recent four-year span between 2012 and 2015, the let­ter reports, ​“nine pris­on­ers at OSP-McAlester died by sui­cide, giv­ing the prison the high­est sui­cide rate in the state, six times high­er than the prison with the sec­ond high­est rate. OSP’s sui­cides in those four years rep­re­sent­ed 35% of all sui­cides of peo­ple in DOC cus­tody, even though OSP hous­es only three per­cent of the state’s prisoners.” 

Megan Lambert, a legal fel­low at the ACLU of Oklahoma, said, ​“Studies have shown that long-term iso­la­tion exac­er­bates men­tal ill­ness —or even caus­es it in those who were healthy when they entered soli­tary. The men in H‑Unit are suf­fer­ing due to the years they spend there —their minds and bod­ies are irrepara­bly dam­aged by the inhu­mane use of soli­tary con­fine­ment as they wait for the State to over­turn their con­vic­tion or exe­cute them. This pol­i­cy is need­less­ly cru­el, serves no pur­pose, and flies in the face of the Constitution.”

The rights groups also argue that Oklahoma’s denial of ​“con­gre­gate reli­gious ser­vices” vio­lates fed­er­al law. Under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the gov­ern­ment may not impose a ​“sub­stan­tial bur­den” on the reli­gious exer­cise of pris­on­ers with­out a com­pelling gov­ern­ment inter­est. Oklahoma allowed com­mu­nal wor­ship ser­vices on death row pri­or to 2009, without incident.