Death Row Syndrome

Although the total population of death row inmates across the country is very small, death row is a high-security classification that is considered resource-intensive. In most prison systems, death row inmates are housed in separate wings and do not mix with the general inmate population for any reason.

Recent litigation by death row inmates has challenged this practice, however, as they bid for incorporation into the general population and access to the full range of services and programs provided there. (Marilyn D. Mcshane, Frank P. Williams III, 1996)The separation of death row inmates is historical, legal, and practical. Theoretically, a person sentenced to death is not officially sentenced to the department of corrections, in which prisoners all receive a term of years. In many states, death row inmates technically remain under the jurisdiction of the county that sentences them, although they are housed and cared for by the state.

Because of these custody differences, death row inmates are usually not given regular prison numbers-another factor that may add to their sense of isolation in prison.Death row inmates are considered a high risk for escape and therefore are placed in maximum-security areas. These inmates are also considered a high risk for violence, because it is thought that they have no incentive to avoid engaging in high-risk behaviors. Checks and counts may be conducted more often in these units, and death row inmates are prohibited from possessing a greater number of items than is normal for the general prison population. (Marilyn D. Mcshane, Frank P.

Williams III, 1996)Life on Death RowThe routine of death row is often a cycle of eating and sleeping. Most death row inmates are locked in their eight by ten cells for twenty-three hours a day. Many do arts and crafts, read, write, and draw. Any time allotted for recreation is spent in small, fenced cages, separated from the rest of the prison. Movement within the prison, even to a recreation area, may require that the inmate be handcuffed, put into restraints, and escorted by officers. Many of the inmates receive psychological services and counseling for stress and anxiety.

Some do not believe that they will be executed.Almost all do not want to die. Because all death sentences are automatically appealed, many wait anxiously for positive news from the courts. Loved ones on the outside try to keep them optimistic and active. (Marilyn D. Mcshane, Frank P.

Williams III, 1996) Although in early American prisons executions, by design, took place adjacent to the cells of the other condemned prisoners that is not the case today. A short time before the death date, prisoners to be executed are moved to a separate area, sometimes even a separate building away from death row.When someone is executed, death row becomes an eerie and depressing place. Staff and inmates equally strain to cope with the loss and its effects on the others, and with the sudden news and administrative attention that accompanies an execution. (Marilyn D. Mcshane, Frank P.

Williams III, 1996) Few prison systems provide additional training for staff members working on death row. Some facilities provide counseling for execution teams and death row staff to help them adjust to the difficulty of the assignment.One system provides an extra pay incentive for correctional officers working with condemned inmates. Death Row Syndrome The death row phenomenon, also known as the death row syndrome, is a term used to refer to the emotional distress felt by prisoners on death row, as a social syndrome. Concerns about the ethics of inflicting this distress upon prisoners have led to some legal concerns about the constitutionality of the death penalty in the United States and other countries. en.

wikipedia. org According to some psychiatrists, the results of being confined to death row for an extended period of time, including with respect to knowing one will die and to the living conditions, can fuel delusions and suicidal tendencies in an individual and can cause insanity in a form that is dangerous.The theory of the death row syndrome may be traced to 1989, when the European Court of Human Rights agreed that poor conditions on death row in Virginia should mean that a fugitive should not be extradited to the US unless the US agreed it would not execute the fugitive should he be convicted.Additionally, the number of years that the fugitive would be on death row was considered problematic. The case is known as Soering v United Kingdom.

Earlier, however, in 1950, a justice on the United States Supreme Court in Solesbee v. Balkcomthe remarked that the "onset of insanity while awaiting execution of a death sentence is not a rare syndrome". Often the death row syndrome, being a result of a prolonged stay on death row, is an unintentional result of the long procedures used in the attempt to ensure the death penalty is applied only to the guilty.It has been noted that opposition to the death penalty through invoking the right to life has been unsuccessful since the death penalty has not been outlawed in international law.

The death row syndrome is a different type of opposition, based on freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. en. wikipedia. org As of 2005, arguments about the death row syndrome have never been successful in avoiding the death penalty for any person in the US, but the US Supreme Court has been aware of the theory and has mentioned it in their decisions.

When a serial killer named Michael Ross agreed to be executed, this had also led to a legal dispute over whether he could ever legally agree to such a thing, as the death row syndrome might have contributed to his decision. en. wikipedia. org In Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada cited the death row syndrome, along with a few other concerns about execution, to declare the risk of a prisoner being executed after he is extradited to another country to be a breach of fundamental justice, a legal right under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution of Canada.The case was United States v.

 Burns (2001). Earlier, in 1991, some Supreme Court justices had, in Kindler v. Canada (Minister of Justice), expressed skepticism about the legal argument regarding the syndrome, writing that the stress was not as severe a punishment as the execution itself, and writing that the prisoners themselves choose to appeal their sentences, thus being responsible for the prolonged stay on death row. In Burns, however, the Court acknowledged that the mere process of execution, including making sure that the sentence is carried out justly, "seems inevitably to provide lengthy delays, and the associated psychological trauma."This cast doubt on whether the risk of execution after extradition, as a whole, could be compatible with the principles of fundamental justice. en.

wikipedia. org In Jamaica, in the case Pratt v. Attorney General for Jamaica, the death penalty was overturned for two prisoners by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, who had made reference to the death row syndrome. In these judges' opinions, the prisoners had been on death row for too long, and that too many appeals were allowed to the prisoners, who were forced by instinct to attempt to appeal and were thus confined to death row for too long. en.

wikipedia. org Not enough is recognized regarding the effects of awaiting execution.It has been argued that “The death penalty in a legalistic society inevitably causes cruelty by the delay in carrying it out, and . . .

capital punishment therefore cannot be reconciled with constitutional rights and so is per se unlawful”. In the United States, the new post-Furman death sentence laws have brought so many lawsuits in their train that the average length of time spent on death row has increased from around 13 months in 1976 to over 7 years by the 1990s.In June 1992 a prisoner in Utah was executed after spending 18 years on death row since the age of 19, and in 1994 a prisoner in Arkansas had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment after 19 years on death row . Whereas the US Supreme Court has deprecated prolonged delays, it has not held such a practice to be 'cruel and unusual punishment'. Several socio-psychological studies have explained the grave stresses which prisoners suffer in consequence of a long state of uncertainty, and the problems posed for humane prison management.

The reactions of prisoners have been found to be similar to those of terminally ill hospital patients, however intensified by the physical conditions of cellular confinement for anything up to twenty-two hours a day, restricted visits, plus, in many states, no access to prison jobs, educational classes, clubs, religious services, or recreational facilities or programmes. Such conditions have been portrayed as “An austere world in which condemned prisoners are treated as bodies kept alive to be killed”.In 1994, Amnesty International examined H-Unit, a new maximum security unit within Oklahoma State Penitentiary, and affirmed the conditions on death row 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment'. Inmates were limited to their cells twenty-three hours a day during weekdays and twenty-four hours a day at weekends, and permitted a fifteen minute shower 3 times a week.

Merely a few American states, all of whom have a mere handful of prisoners, do not hold their prisoners separately on a death row.Since 1978 several prisoners in the United States have challenged their on the whole conditions of confinement on death row as an infringement of their rights under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution not to undergo any 'cruel or unusual punishment'. Limited improvement in their conditions have occurred from such lawsuit in several states, the courts have recognized the special needs of the destined and the psychological impact of needlessly harsh conditions.For instance, in Texas, in consequence of Ruiz v. Estelle (1982), a class action in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals establish that the greatly overcrowded conditions under which all Texan prisoners were held violated the Eighth Amendment, agreement was reached in 1986 to improve conditions for death row prisoners.

They were categorized, and those deemed 'work capable' (about forty per cent of the inmates) were given jobs and granted all the privileges and freedom of movement enjoyed by ordinary prisoners. For the majority not measured to be capable of work (for security, physical, or psychological reasons) conditions were as well somewhat improved.Consequently they were guaranteed as a minimum 15 hours a week out-of-cell recreation, while they were still housed separately. Several other states have laid down minimum circumstances for death row inmates, promising them of stipulated hours of out-of-cell time, recreational facilities, opportunities to work, dine, and attend religious services with the general prison population.

Death row inmates in California who are categorized 'Grade A' are entitled to 6 hours out-of-cell activity per day 7 days a week. They may as well dine outside their cells together and attend group religious services.Those not so classified may still receive 12 hours outdoor exercise per week, at least six of which are designated for outdoor exercise with sports facilities provided. However, observers have explained these improvements as mere palliatives to what 'by its very nature remains a prison within a prison'. Certainly, a survey by the National Institute of Justice and the American Correctional Association in 1989 exposed that those under sentence of death have restricted access to programs and that visitation policies and procedures vary extensively.