The Fort Worth Star-Telegram looks at Ronald Chambers, who has spent nearly 32 years on Texas death row. He is scheduled to be executed later this month. LINK
When Ronald Curtis Chambers went to prison in 1976, Death Row was housed at the Ellis Unit north of Huntsville. Men awaiting execution participated in work programs and were permitted to attend religious services and exercise in groups. Chambers worked in the garment factory.
On Thanksgiving night in 1998, seven Death Row inmates attempted a breakout. Six were captured, but murderer Martin Gurule managed to scale two 10-foot fences topped with razor wire. His escape from Death Row was the first in Texas in more than 60 years. His body was found a week later about a mile from the prison after he apparently drowned in a creek.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice moved Death Row to its present location in Livingston in 1999.
Situated east of Huntsville, the Polunsky Unit is a somber complex of putty-gray concrete buildings trimmed in blue on 470 fenced acres. Visitors are first stopped at a checkpoint outside the maximum-security facility. An armed guard inspects each incoming car, searching the trunk, under the hood, in the glove compartment.
Visitors may not bring tobacco products, cellphones, pagers or paper money inside the prison.
The Polunsky Unit is named after Allan Polunsky, a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. (It was called the Terrell Unit, but it was renamed at the request of Charles T. Terrell, also a former TCJ board chairman, who expressed growing concerns about the reliability of capital murder convictions.)
At Polunsky, the 380 men on Death Row have less freedom and fewer privileges than they did at the Ellis Unit.
Each inmate is isolated and not permitted to work.
Chambers spends 23 hours a day in a cell equipped with a thin plastic-covered mattress, stainless steel sink/toilet and a small table built into one wall. His world has one small rectangular window.
He is allowed outside his cell only to shower and exercise in a yard or dayroom, or for visitation. Every time he leaves his cell his hands are cuffed behind his back and he is escorted by two correctional officers armed with batons and pepper spray. One officer holds the inmate's arm at all times. Death Row prisoners are locked down 24 hours a day on weekends.
They aren't allowed to watch television. Chambers has a radio.
The article notes that Chambers' co-defendant was given two life sentences. It does not mention whether he has already been released.
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