Skip to main content

The captivity experience, l'expérience de la captivité



The captivity experience

My name is Travis, I am 31 years old and I am sitting on Death Row in Texas.

Can the experience of relating how it feels to be in captivity be only understood thru actual confinement? With that in mind I feel my experiment is the next best thing to captivity, so a person can get a general idea of what it’s like to be in solitude. First thing is to pick a weekend, Saturday or Sunday, where someone will be at your home/theirs. The bathroom in the apartment is going to be used as your cell. At 6pm on a Friday take a book, magazine or newspaper to the bathroom for reading purposes. Also take a sheet and blanket to lay on the floor as your bed. Once you are inside the bathroom you cannot come out for any reason (not at all) until 6:00pm on Sunday. The person there with you, is to bring you 3 meals each day. Breakfast is to be at 3:00am of 3 pancakes (palm size), 4 ounces of oatmeal and 4 ounces of apple sauce. Lunch is at 10:00am. With 3 different vegetables of 4 ounces each, one small meat course and 2 slices of bread. Dinner is at 4:00 pm and the food option is the same as lunch. You will love it! When the person serves your meals they are not talk to you in anyway. Just open the door, give you your food. If there is a shower, in the bathroom you can use it once a day. If not, you can leave the bathroom for a shower but must come right back after. Whatever you choose to do to occupy your time is up to you. About once an hour the person there with you should open the door and look in to check on you but say nothing. If you want you can also take a pen a paper with you also. As you come out on Sunday evening write down your feelings and thoughts of what you felt. Did this help you better understand my situation? Freely, give me your opinions on the blog!

Traduction disponible sur le blog :

Je m'appelle Travis, j'ai 31 ans et je suis incarcéré dans le couloir de la mort du Texas.

Je souhaiterais partager avec vous ce que l’on ressent en captivité. On ne peut le comprendre sans se retrouver réellement enfermé. Voici un petit exercice qui vous permettra d’avoir une idée générale de la vie enfermée avec comme seule amie, la solitude.
Tout d’abord, choisissez un week-end, un samedi ou un dimanche, où quelqu'un sera à votre disposition à la maison. Réquisitionnez votre salle de bains pour en faire votre cellule. Vendredi, 18h00, équipé d’un livre, un magasine ou un journal direction la salle de bains. N’oubliez pas de vous munir d’une couverture… Une fois enfermé, il n’est plus question de sortir pour un oui ou un non et ce jusque dimanche 18h ! La personne, conjoint, copine, frère ou mère a pour mission de vous apporter 3 repas par jour. Voici les horaires : Le déjeuner doit être servi à 3h00 du matin, au menu 3 pancakes, 4 cuillères de céréales et un peu de sirop d’érable. Le déjeuner vous sera servi à 10h00 : Avec 3 sorte de légumes, un peu de viande et 2 tranches de pain. Enfin le dîner servi à 16h00, le repas est le même qu’à midi. Vous allez adorer ! On s’entend sur le fait que la personne qui sert vos repas, n’en profite pas pour bavarder ou vous tenir compagnie ! Entrouvrez la porte, et c’est tout ! Les douches sont autorisées : une fois par jour. Vous pouvez libérez la salle de bain, et oui les autres peuvent se laver mais n’en profitez pas pour mettre un terme à l’expérience. Vous êtes libre de vous occuper comme vous le souhaitez. Au fait, une fois par heure votre « gardien » doit ouvrir la porte qui vous sépare de l’extérieur et regarder à l’intérieur pour vérifier ce qui se passe. Vous pouvez emporter un stylo et du papier de manière à noter vos impressions, vos sentiments et surtout de m’en faire part par la suite via le blog. Racontez-moi également si cette expérience vous a rapproché de moi… sentez-vous libre de me dire ce que vous en pensez !

Voir le blog de Travis : In Death Row : ma vie dans le couloir de la mort

Comments

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025, highest number on record

Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year. Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Riyadh’s “war on drugs”, with some of those arrested in previous years only now being executed after legal proceedings and convictions. Official data released by the Saudi government said 243 people were executed in drug-related cases in 2025 alone, according to a tally kept by Agence France-Presse.

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths. Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Georgia parole board suspends scheduled execution of Cobb County death row prisoner

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application.  Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester.  Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

M Ravi, the man who defied Singapore regime's harassment, dies

M Ravi never gave up despite the odds stacked against him by the Singapore regime, which has always used its grip on the legal process to silence critics. M Ravi, one of Singapore's best-known personalities who was at the forefront of legal cases challenging the PAP regime over human rights violations, has died. He was 56. The news has come as a shock to friends and activists. Singapore's The Straits Times reported that police were investigating the "unnatural death".

Iran | Executions in Shiraz, Borazjan, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Ardabil, Rasht, Ghaemshahr, Neishabur

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 23, 2025: Mahin Rashidi, Abbas Alami, Naser Faraji, Tohid Barzegar and Jamshid Amirfazli, five co-defendants on death row for drug-related offences, were secretly executed in a group hanging in Shiraz Central Prison.  According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men and a woman were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 17 December 2025. Their identities have been established as Mahin Rashidi, a 39-year-old woman, Abbas Alami, 43, Naser Faraji, 38, Tohid Barzegar, 51, and Jamshid Amirfazli, 45, all Kashan natives.

USA | Justice Department Encourages New Capital Charges Against Commuted Federal Death Row Prisoners

On Dec. 23, 2024, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commuted the sentences of nearly all federal death row prisoners, sparing 37 men from execution. Just 28 days later, on Jan. 20, 2025, newly inaugurated President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order encouraging state and local prosecutors to pursue new charges against those same prisoners, reopening the possibility of capital punishment in state courts.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Singapore | Prolific lawyer M Ravi, known for drug death-penalty cases, found dead

Ravi Madasamy, a high-profile lawyer who represented death-row inmates and campaigned against capital punishment, was found dead in the early hours, prompting a police investigation into an unnatural death KUALA LUMPUR — Prolific Singapore lawyer Ravi Madasamy who tried to save Malaysian drug traffickers from the gallows found dead in the early hours with police investigating a case of unnatural death. Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who had previously represented 56-year-old Ravi in court and described him as a friend, said he was deeply saddened by the news.

California | Convicted killer Scott Peterson keeps swinging in court — but expert says he’s not going anywhere but his cell

More than two decades after Laci Peterson vanished from her Modesto, California, home, the murder case that captivated the nation continues to draw legal challenges, public debate and renewed attention. As the year comes to a close, Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son Conner, remains behind bars, serving life without the possibility of parole. His wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, and a few months later, the remains of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay.