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San Quentin State Prison officials on Tuesday provided a rare glimpse inside the country’s largest death row, where 725 inmates await a decision on a proposed one-drug execution method and a vote on whether to scrap the death penalty altogether.
Prison officials have allowed reporters a rare glimpse inside the jail for the first time since the ruling that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional.
Over 900 lags have been sentenced to death since 1978, but only 13 have been executed — yet more than 100 have died.
Sixty-nine inmates have died of natural causes and 24 have committed suicide.
42-year-old Robert Galvan told SFGate: “We are just left on a shelf, and that’s worse than being executed because you’re just waiting to die.”
Lags yelled at reporters from within their cells, screaming they were treated like ‘cows and s***’, and complained about the standards of food and hygiene.
While some prisoners choose to stay in their cells all the time, plenty others take to exercising outside.
Serial killer Wayne Ford says he rarely leaves his cell, not even to shower or exercise.
He told the Times: “I’ve lost the ability to enjoy being around other people.”
Agencies/Canadajournal
