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Texas death row prisoners spend decades in solitary confinement. A lawsuit wants to end that “cruel” treatment.

By Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune

Texas death row prisoners spend decades in solitary confinement. A lawsuit wants to end that “cruel” treatment.” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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Texas death row prisoners are suing the state, arguing it’s unconstitutional to hold them in solitary confinement for the entirety of their metered lives with minimal health care, no regard for their mental suffering and few avenues to seek legal help.

On death row, men are shut alone in small cells between 22 and 24 hours a day, often violating the state’s own policies on how often they are let out, the lawsuit says. On good days, they get to take a shower or go outside for an hour, alone in a cage. More often, due to short staffing, they spend their days sitting on a metal bed, listening to the echoing voices of other prisoners and guards through steel doors and concrete walls. If they roll up their thin mattresses to stand on, prisoners have said they can peek out the narrow window slits at the top of their cell walls to see the sky.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a Houston federal court, claims the extended isolation deprives the prisoners of their right to access medical care and attorneys and causes severe physical and psychological harm.

Most of the 181 death-sentenced men in Texas have been on the Polunsky Unit’s notorious death row for years. About 75 have been in these conditions for more than two decades.

Texas’ male death row prisoners have been housed in isolation since 1999, soon after an infamous prison break by death-sentenced men. Before then, condemned prisoners could work, participate in educational programming and at times visit with their loved ones without a pane of glass between them.

A typical empty cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. The Polunsky Unit is where death row inmates are housed before execution.
An empty cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, home to Texas’ death row. Credit: Court filing

Now, prisoners’ attorneys argue, death row conditions are “unjustifiably severe.” The plaintiffs have all been convicted of capital murder, the only offense in Texas that can carry a death sentence.

A growing body of psychiatric studies reports solitary confinement can cause serious lasting damage, especially to those with existing mental illnesses.

At least eight death row prisoners have died by suicide in the last 20 years, according to prison records. The most recent suicide was on Saturday, when Terence Andrus, 34, was discovered unresponsive after hanging himself in his cramped cell. He had been on death row a decade, convicted of killing two people in Fort Bend County during an unsuccessful carjacking attempt in 2008.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to comment on the pending litigation. Other non-death-sentenced prisoners who have been indefinitely held in solitary confinement solely because they are gang members began a hunger strike this month to protest Texas’ isolating practices, as well.

TDCJ has not wavered in its stance in that case. A spokesperson reported Thursday only one man was still starving himself without pause after 17 days; others have taken food breaks and started the strike again.

Thursday’s lawsuit was brought by four condemned prisoners, who are asking that the court expand it to cover the entire population of Polunsky’s death row. The men have been on death row in solitary confinement from seven to 22 years, with two men having been on the less-restrictive death row prior to the escape attempt. The seven women sentenced to death in Texas are housed in another prison.

The men are represented by the law firm Hogan Lovells, which was also involved in the court challenge that changed Louisiana death row conditions in 2021. After years of litigation, Louisiana agreed to give condemned prisoners communal lunches, as well as four hours each day to socialize, shower, use the phone and send emails. The prisoners also get five hours a week in an outdoor exercise yard and are able to touch their loved ones during visits.

The law firm’s racial justice team set its eyes on Texas next.

“Texas death row conditions have been described as the most inhumane in the country, and we obviously have a large death row population,” said Catherine Bratic, a Houston attorney with the firm.

In Texas, the prisoners complain the isolating conditions on death row violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The complaint states that death-sentenced men are put in solitary solely based on their sentence, not because of any individual consideration of their crime or prison behavior.

“That Plaintiffs and Class Members have been sentenced to death does not alone justify the harmful and arbitrary conditions of their confinement compared to other prisoners held in high security at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, many of whom have been convicted of similar or even more violent crimes,” the complaint reads.

The prisoners also argue that death row does not allow them proper access to their attorneys.

Though prisoners have the right to confidential conversations with their attorneys, death row prisoners are typically not allowed visits except over phones through a film of Plexiglas. The attorneys said two private rooms for attorney visits are rarely available, and their own visits were conducted in the general visitation room with dozens of other prisoners, family members and prison employees.

“The threat of recording looms over every privileged conversation, as signs in the visitation area warn that conversations are actively monitored and recorded by TDCJ,” the complaint alleged.

The lawsuit, which has not yet been assigned to a federal judge, requests a jury trial on its claims.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/26/texas-death-row-solitary-lawsuit/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

7 Comments

  1. Tarsharn Busby on January 27, 2023 at 5:49 am

    Jesus be a fence for the prisoners. In your word you asked the people if anyone have not sinned cast the first stone and not one could when they wanted to stone the adulterous woman. These Worldly people don’t see sin in themselves just others. Thank you God for protecting them.

  2. Geary on January 27, 2023 at 6:39 am

    There on death row why should they be comfortable they took a human life and instead of keeping them on death row carry out the sentence they were given DEATH

    • Texgal on January 27, 2023 at 8:35 am

      It’s inexcusable that someone is on
      death row for 22 years. If they have been found guilty, then get on with it.

  3. Di on January 27, 2023 at 7:52 am

    Death row is death row. Even solitary is too good for them. They need to be executed sooner.
    The poor folks they murdered didn’t get even a chance to live let alone in solitary.

  4. Theresa on January 27, 2023 at 8:22 am

    Why do they spend so much time on death row not to mention spending taxpayers dollars to house and feed them? Once convicted they should have max 2 years for appeal max. Should be executed within 2 years. Why should anyone care if they get out of their cell. The people they murdered won’t fet out of their coffins

  5. Melissa Bass on January 27, 2023 at 8:48 am

    They killed someone yes. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t human. Half the time they are on drugs or alcohol or in some cases none of the above. But that doesn’t mean that you treat them worse then you would your pets or your beloved live stock. Some people do stupid stuff when they were young. Anyone of us can be in their shoes in a second. It’s a choice they made be it wrong or right. It could be your loved one. You should chose love not hate.

  6. Robbin on January 27, 2023 at 10:36 am

    You are on DEATH row for a heinous crime YOU committed! I don’t give 1 rat ass about your psychiatric status and SUFFER you should until we can finally put you to DEATH, then good riddance and may God have mercy for your soul!

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