Louisiana tests relaxed restrictions on death row inmates

Prisoners on Louisiana's death row are now allowed to socialize face-to-face for the first time in decades -- some state corrections officials think it might be the first time ever. Plus, the amount of time they spend outside of their cell without restraints has been quadrupled through a pilot program at the state penitentiary in Angola.

As Louisiana shifts its treatment of low-level, nonviolent offenders accused of drug possession and theft, it has also quietly been making changes to the way it deals with its prisoners convicted of the most violent crimes. The state prison system is experimenting with a less restrictive way to house its inmates who are facing execution. 

The changes took effect May 15, less than two months after three inmates sued the state over isolating conditions on death row. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections says the lawsuit was not the impetus for loosening  restrictions. Angola had been working for several months before the lawsuit was filed on a plan to experiment with less restrictive housing on death row, said Joseph Lamartiniere, an assistant warden at Angola.

For decades, inmates condemned to death have been confined 23 hours a day to windowless cells about the size of a household bathroom. For the one hour they were allowed out, they could walk a death row hallway, which Angola officials call a tier. Three times a week, the inmates could spend their hour outside. Whether inside or outdoors, each inmate spent their hour alone.

Angola's death row is divided into six tiers, each housing 12 to 13 men, with a total of 72 inmates. Under the previous system, two inmates were never allowed out of their cells together. The hour spent outside the cell did not occur at the same time every day. Because guards had to cycle through 12 or 13 inmates, tier time could fall early in the morning or late at night.

While exercising outside in the yard, inmates were kept in separate pens and could only socialize with each other through a fence. The lawsuit over death row conditions likened these pens to dog cages. 

Most of the time when death row prisoners left their cells, they had to be in shackles, even if they were only walking a short distance.   

Starting May 15, men living on a tier have been let out of their cells together for four hours each day. Group tier time comes  at 7 a.m. and again around noon. Two tables with three chairs each have been placed on every tier to help prisoners socialize. 

Inmates are taken to the yard two hours a day, twice a week now. While outside, they are no longer kept in separate pens. They can exercise together, 12 or 13 men at a time, and play basketball or lift weights, Lamartiniere said. Shackles aren't always necessary when inmates move around within the death row complex, and they don't have to be fully restrained to walk to the yard.  

For now, the changes to Angola's death row are temporary. The looser restrictions were initially approved as a pilot program for 90 days. The prison system recently extended its experiment another six months, ending in February. It's not clear whether the changes will be made permanent, but Lamartiniere said Angola officials consider the program a success so far. 

"They seem to be  more cheerful. They seem to have a lot of energy," Lamartiniere said of the men on death row. "We've had no problems. Everything is going great." 

Louisiana's only woman awaiting execution, Antoinette Frank, isn't housed on death row and hasn't been able to participate in the pilot program. She's staying with a handful of other women in another building at Angola under the prior restrictions at the men's death row complex.

Louisiana is hoping to shift toward using less restrictive imprisonment in general, not just on death row, said Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc. Prisoners are better behaved and more productive -- causing fewer problems for correction officials -- when they aren't confined as much, he said. 

"I know if you put me in a cell and give me only an hour out," LeBlanc said, pausing briefly, "I'm probably not going to like it that much."

Though the public may perceive death row inmates to be the most dangerous, Angola officials said they rarely cause disciplinary problems.

"If you look at their conduct records, a lot of them are immaculate," Lamartiniere said.

There's increasing concern about the stress solitary confinement puts on inmates' physical and psychological health. Two Supreme Court justices, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer, have raised concerns about the use of prolonged isolation in American prisons. 

"Solitary confinement literally drives men mad," Kennedy said in 2015, according to the lawsuit brought against Louisiana about death row conditions.

The United Nations has said solitary confinement -- defined as being kept in isolation for at least 22 hours per day for more than 15 days in a row -- should only be used in "exceptional cases" and as a last resort.

The lawsuit brought against Louisiana's prison system argues that the prolonged use of solitary confinement on death row has brought irreversible damage to inmates.

"Prisoners housed in solitary confinement report difficulty with thinking, concentration and memory, intrusive obsessional thoughts, increased anxiety and nervousness, overt paranoia, severe and chronic depression and problems with impulse control," it says. 

The recent changes to death row won't stop the inmates' lawsuit from moving forward, especially because the relaxed policies are still temporary. The inmates in the lawsuit were also asking for more changes than the pilot program has brought, including access to education programs, religious services and jobs. 

The new pilot program has restricted access to religious services somewhat. Death row inmates used to be able to attend religious services in their outdoor yard. They were placed in the separate pens for the service. Now that the yard is open, prison officials think the services present some security challenges. Meanwhile, inmates can watch religious services broadcast on the prison's closed-circuit television station every Sunday.

There are other states that keep their death row prisoners in far less restrictive conditions than Louisiana. Missouri's 28 death row inmates are completely integrated into their general population at a maximum security prison. North Carolina's 156 death row inmates are kept separate from other prisoners but have access to the same education programs and resources as prisoners serving life sentences. They can spend up to 16 hours per day together in a common room and dine together.

Missouri's approach to condemned inmates followed a lawsuit challenging death row conditions and has been in place since the early 1990s. North Carolina has had a less restrictive death row for over a decade. In both cases, prison officials said they have seen a decrease in disciplinary problems.

Since Angola's relaxed policies went into place in July, every man on death row has participated in the group time on the tier or in the yard at least once. Lamartiniere said many prisoners were tentative to do so initially, especially on the first day. After years of being locked up, a few men took awhile to come out of their cells.

Now, most are enthusiastic about the program and there have been only a couple of minor problems since it got off the ground.

"They are really appreciative for what we did," Lamartiniere said. "Why would they want to mess it up?" 

Source: nola.com, Julia O'Donoghue, October 25, 2017. Julia O'Donoghue is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. 

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