Allen Cox describes daily life on Florida Death Row
Living On Death Row In Florida
There are around 330 Death Row inmates on Florida's Death Row. All in single cells, There are 14 cells on each wing, The front of each cell has bars so you're able to talk with any of the other 13 inmates on you're wing. There is a window about 12 feet out from each cell and 2 sets of bars in between you and the window. Depending on what wing and what cell you're in depends on what you can see out your window.
Much has changed for the better since first arriving on death row in July of 2000. #1 Now we are allowed a small tablet and there is a free app. at Jpay.com that allows anyone to see instructions on the approved Email list, music, movies, games, etc. We have no internet access, we can only send, or get email from people on the approved Jpay list. # 2 There is no air-conditioning but we are now allowed to buy a small plastic fan. #3 Now we can use the telephone to call home 2 times each month.
Having no air-conditioning makes life pure hell in July and August. Thankfully they started allowing us to buy a small 8 inch fan a few years ago. We are locked in our cells most of the time. We are allowed to go outside in a fenced-in area about the size of a tennis court 3 hour's twice each week. It has a basketball court, a volleyball court and a chin up bar and 2 kiosks for the Jpay tablets. All packed in this small space and they cram around 30 inmates out there for each 3 hour yard time.
We get a 5 minute shower 3 times a week. We are allowed visits on either Saturday or Sunday from 9am until 3pm. It's a contact visit where you sit at a small metal table and you can buy food and drinks, there are board games you can play if you want. You're allowed a short hug and kiss at the start and end of each visit. You're allowed to get photos taken for $2 each. Most of these things have been modified due to Covid for now. We can go to the law library 1 time each week, we can order books from the main library on the compound 1 time each week, we are allowed to use the phone 2 times per month and that's another privilege that's only recently been given to Death Row.
Other than these things we are always locked inside our cells. And any time you go to yard, visits, showers or lawyer visits you are always hand cuffed and shackled before you leave your cell. All meals are delivered to your cell. Breakfast around 6 AM, lunch around 12 and supper around 5 PM. Your bunk sheets get washed on Thursdays, you're allowed to turn in a laundry bag on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. They exchange your orange uniform on Tuesday and Friday. They pass out supplies to clean your toilet/sink and the cell floor on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.
We can order up to $100 from the canteen 1 time each week if you have that much money in your inmate bank account. All money orders are mailed to the Jpay office in Hollywood Fl. and that money is then placed into your inmate bank account so you can order canteen each week if you choose to or buy music, movies, games from your Jpay tablet. If you get sick you can request to see the doctor or nurse for $5. The same for the dentist.
If you get in any trouble such as fights or using drugs or caught in possession of any item that's considered contraband or other rule violations you get put on the disciplinary wing for up to 60 day's per charge AKA the hole. They take away most of your property No TV, radio, tablet, books, or canteen items, no visit's, yard, or use of the phone. Basically you're sitting in a cell with nothing to do but look at the walls. My last trip to the hole was over 5 year's ago for possession of some pot and and a positive drug test from smoking pot. I did 120 days for that and let me tell you 120 days of staring at the walls goes by very slow. And now they have built 4 cells on that disciplinary wing for guys who are considered dangerous. These cells have been modified and a steel plate wielded over the open bars on the front of each of those cells to prevent them from being able to throw anything on any of the officers or get anything passed to them from any of the other guys on that wing.
Back to the regular wings:
A officer makes a walk for security check every 30 minutes 24 - 7. So picture getting a light turned on in your face and the loud sound of a steel door banging closed every 30 minutes night and day for 20 straight years or more. Do you think that might fall under sleep deprivation? Or cruel and unusual punishment? When the judge sentenced me to death that is my punishment for my crime yet I'm still subjected to most of the same types of rehabilitation rules that inmates with regular prison time have to comply with.
So not only do I lose my life as my punishment for my crime but get subjected to all the same punishment a regular inmate has to deal with. I'm basically getting two separate punishment's for one crime.
Read more about Allen Cox's thoughts on the death penalty and prison life here
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