Request from Carol King - Important!

Carol King, an inmate on Pennsylvania's death row, is asking for your help to rectify the following conditions on death row. Please contact Carol or the prison superintendent as soon as possible. The following is transcribed from a letter that Carol sent to me as per her request.  

1. More frequent use of the law library. Capital cases are only allowed to use the law library with another person 7:30 – 9:30am even though there are three other times available (11:30am – 1:30pm; 3:45 – 5:45pm; 7 – 9 pm). No weekends are allowed. Other prisoners in the Unit, however, are permitted use of the library all days and times. The reason given is security: that the Lieutenant needs to be in the Unit while the capital prisoners are out of their cells. However, it apparently is not a security issue for the people on death row to come out of their cells to clean the Unit when the Lieutenant is not there… If an inmate chooses to use the law library she cannot attend Rec or shower as these are scheduled in the morning also.

2. Medical privacy. There is no privacy to discuss medical problems. When a death row inmate signs up for sick call the Physicians Assistant comes to the cell door escorted by a guard. The prisoner must speak very loudly to discuss her condition because all areas of the cell door are sealed. The entire “Pod” can and does hear whatever is said. When a prisoner sees the Psychiatrist she is taken to the Psychiatrist’s/Lieutenant’s office where she must discuss her mental health problems while cuffed and leashed in front of two officers and whoever else might be present. Often the prisoner later hears her issues being discussed as gossip. For medical exams a death row prisoner is handcuffed behind her back and led to an area called “Triage.” There the prisoner is given her physical, breast exam/mammogram, vaginal exam/PAP smear or whatever is needed with four other people (two officers, the doctor and the nurse) present in an area approximately six feet by six feet. Carol reports that one time one of the prisoners was left cuffed during a vaginal exam. Again, in contrast, the death row prisoners are not cuffed when they come out to clean this same area that Carol says is used by all the inmates housed in the Unit and is cleaned at most once a month.

3. Keep the death row inmates housed next to each other. “After many years of personal struggle to develop a closeness with each [other] and now having accomplished this they are trying to separate the capital cases by not housing us together.” The death row “Pod” is also used to house lack of housing inmates (prisoners new to the institution waiting to be medically cleared. Their lack of medical clearance puts the entire “Pod” at risk healthwise. To make matters worse the blankets that are used by transfers and lack of housing inmates are reused for the next inmate without being laundered.); out of state parole violators (who can sometimes be there for up to six months waiting for pick-up); transfers waiting to be transferred to another women’s prison; and overflow disciplinary inmates. Usually it is the disciplinary inmates who launch verbal attacks on the death row women. “All we can do is sit and listen to it day in and day out and pray for it to end.” There are only four death row inmates. They are asking to be house next to each other to lessen the abuse they have to endure from other prisoners.

4. Provide sanitary work and laundry conditions. The death row women clean cells that have bodily fluids and feces, a job for which they received approximately 10-15 minutes of training. They were told that when they had to clean such cells they would be given blood and body kits. The kits are not available and the women clean the cells in the same jumpsuit and shoes that they wear in their own cells. All of the items removed from the cleaned cells, no matter how urine or blood-soaked or filled with feces they may be, are laundered along with the rest of the laundry from the Unit. Some of the jumpsuits and shoes are blood-stained and still given back for reuse. To come out of her cell for a shower or to go to the Rec area a death row inmate is cuffed and tethered, but not for cleaning detail even though cleaning details usually take place when the Lieutenant is not in the building (her work hours are 8am - 4pm).

5. Keep the Rec kennel tops open. There are plans to cover the tops of the Rec kennels. These kennels are the only opportunity the death row women have to experience sunlight.  Since the kennels are enclosed on all sides by a fence or brick wall covering the tops would also take away their only “view” of the outdoors – the sky.

6. Put two guards back on the death row unit. As of April 2006 one guard was removed from the unit housing death row. This has greatly effected its operation. Formerly the death row women had “group” once a week with a counselor or psychologist, but now that is held only if staffing permits. “Group” is held within the death row “Pod” and the women wear waist chains to be in an area with each other. Visitors for the death row women have longer wait times because the unit is short staffed. It is Carol’s opinion that removing a guard from the death row unit does not make sense as it is the highest security unit and is being used to house a so many different levels of prisoners.

7. Give the death row women an hourly wage. The women on death row are not paid for the cleaning details they perform, but are given “idle pay” which ranges from $12 to $15 per month. They have been told that they will not be paid by the hour like other inmates doing the same work they are doing. With this monthly “idle pay” they must pay for all sick call/medical sign-ups; also medicines, personal hygiene items and postage. It doesn’t matter how much they work, they will not receive more than $15/month.

8. Stop phone call disconnects. Phone use is shared with the youth offenders Pod, also housed in same unit as death row. Often the youth offenders will pick up the phone while someone from death row is using it and thereby the call is disconnected. Conversations can be overheard on both sides, but the youth offenders Pod has the dominant line because death row can’t disconnect youth offender calls, but youth offenders can disconnect calls being made by death row inmates. Death row inmates are only allowed a 15-minute phone call, and if disconnected are often not permitted to redial. If she does redial the death row inmate is often charged the initial fee for most long distance calls ($3.50/first minute and $.47 for each minute thereafter).

9. Mail privacy. Unit officers are allowed to read all requests, paperwork. Emails received by inmates are not delivered in envelopes.

Please contact Carol for more information or contact the prison's superintendent to place your concerns on above matters. Addresses are listed below. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this letter.

Visit Carol's profile

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