“The Green Mile”, wasn’t that a great movie? Modern prisons aren’t built like that anymore. Prisons with multiple tiers of bar laden cells and a guard at the end yelling, “Rack em!” are being used for lower custody inmates now. Death row and “Level 5’s” are now being put in modern state-of-the-art single man pods. These new cells have showers that roll up to the front door. They have a rear door that opens up to a “dog run” where they can exercise one hour a day. Mail is read in your cell on a video screen. In some cases, visitation is done from your cell on video as well. The inmate execution experience in my prison is much different than portrayed in “Dead Man Walking”.
Death row was moved to a new facility, a mile away but the death house stayed where it was. So you remain in your regular cell during the days and hours leading up to execution, even last meal. When the lawsuits and appeals have run out there is a deadline for execution. Media have been in front of the prison for days during the last minute appeals. The entire prison complex is on lock-down for fear of riots and media contact.
The execution is always carried out in the early morning hours (4am), The inmate is cuffed up, taken from his cell and placed in a panel van with no windows. Two identical vans are uses, on as a dummy vehicle. Here the new death row unit is over a mile from the death house. Public roadways are uses. The vans come in through the high prison walls and over to the death house. Inmate is then taken from the van into the small waiting cell just feet outside the room containing the lethal injection table. That’s it. Quite methodical and by the book. No emotion. No extras. Just calculated moves closely monitored by complex warden.
I always wonder about all the people affected. Families of inmate and victims, escort officers, person who buys the food for the last meal, judge, jury, press who witness execution, etc. Who cleans the death house? So many people touched by grief because of one person’s error, be it ever so brief. Two people are being put to death in next 30 days, a stone’s throw from my bed.
Death row was moved to a new facility, a mile away but the death house stayed where it was. So you remain in your regular cell during the days and hours leading up to execution, even last meal. When the lawsuits and appeals have run out there is a deadline for execution. Media have been in front of the prison for days during the last minute appeals. The entire prison complex is on lock-down for fear of riots and media contact.
The execution is always carried out in the early morning hours (4am), The inmate is cuffed up, taken from his cell and placed in a panel van with no windows. Two identical vans are uses, on as a dummy vehicle. Here the new death row unit is over a mile from the death house. Public roadways are uses. The vans come in through the high prison walls and over to the death house. Inmate is then taken from the van into the small waiting cell just feet outside the room containing the lethal injection table. That’s it. Quite methodical and by the book. No emotion. No extras. Just calculated moves closely monitored by complex warden.
I always wonder about all the people affected. Families of inmate and victims, escort officers, person who buys the food for the last meal, judge, jury, press who witness execution, etc. Who cleans the death house? So many people touched by grief because of one person’s error, be it ever so brief. Two people are being put to death in next 30 days, a stone’s throw from my bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment