Some death row inmates at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas are holding a non-violent protest against the inhumane conditions they are confronted with daily.
They protest by initiating “sit-in

Some of the issues the inmates are protesting for are things like :

· A working program, since Polunksy death row inmates are no longer allowed to work after the Ellis One escape in 1998. Although the prison administration has said that the stop of the work program was temporary, 5 years later it is not running.

REQUEST: Reactivate the Work Capable Program

· Contact visits, many Death Rows in the United States have contacts visits and according to the protesting inmates it’s reasonable to deduct that contact visits could be implemented to maintain good behavior.

REQUEST: Contact visits be implemented.

· Medical Treatment, The medical treatment is outright harmful on this unit. Inmates that suffer from allergies, strokes and other ailments are unbelievably given aspirin and ibuprofen. The medical staff acts with indifference and cruelty because of the status of death row. Men have died in their cells from strokes and heart attacks. There have been cases of inmate’s appendix bursting and it was brushed off without treatment. Regardless of one’s death row status humane medical treatment should be given.

REQUEST: Proper medical treatments be given equally and immediately.

The lists set up by the protestors have 24 requests of change in total. The conditions of the Polunksy Death row have been a topic of discussion for quite some time now and the inmates, as well as their families who also suffer from those conditions, are tired of them. The fact that these men are on death row does not justify any kind of dehumanizing treatment, they are human beings after all and they are fighting for the concept that human dignity is inviolable.

Although the protest is non violent, the response to it from prison staff has been extremely violent -inmates who are taking part in this protest apparently have been gassed, beaten and told “We can’t wait to kill you“. The rights of the inmates are being strongly violated.

Prisons have been set up to protect society from crime and to hold the offenders responsible for their actions- but to treat them as inhuman monsters, surely doesn’t do this goal justice. Instead it brutalizes those on both sides even more.

These men need to be heard in their very reasonable requests for change of conditions on death row. Lend them a voice !