Admin Note: Via personal correspondence, I asked Wendell Grissom to educate me on Death Row in Oklahoma. I received a letter back in response and I’m sharing an edited version of it with his permission. I am deeply shocked and disturbed by what he’s described and I imagine you will be too. I hope you will leave a comment for Wendell and be moved to stand up against the conditions that he and so many others endure.
Hello,
I figured today would be a good day to sit down and write a bit about the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and their Death Row. I don´t know exactly what you´d like to know, but I´ll try to tell you what all I can.
First, I´ve been on Oklahoma´s Death Row since June 30th of 2008. It wasn´t good when I first got here and it´s only gotten worse since. Please don´t mistake what I have to say as just an inmate who’d like to tell a bunch of lies to try to make Oklahoma look bad. What I have to say is true, or at least, has been my experience. If there´s praise to be given, I most certainly would give it, but unfortunately there´s not much to “praise about” here.
Oklahoma´s Death Row is located on the H-Unit, which is separate but still part of the Oklahoma State Prison, better known as “OSP.” OSP has a very long and dark history. Anyone with a computer and internet access can read it for themselves. But the H-Unit was built for Death Row and Disciplinary Unit (D.U.). Oklahoma treats their death row inmates the same as they do their D.U. inmates, yet most on death row, in spite of what we’ve done, are not the type of inmates that the D.U. is normally receiving and dealing with. D.U. is for troublemakers, gang related inmates and the like. Most all the inmates here on death row are quiet and don´t really cause any problems. We do have a few knuckleheads, but they´re usually only acting up when one of the corrections officers working here does something to provoke them.
The H-Unit is underground. My cell is four cement walls and a cement ceiling. The only window I have is in the door and it looks out into the hallway. We are supposed to receive one hour of recreation every day, but there´s no “yard” to go to here. All that is available for us is roughly 18´ X 25´ cement. You can´t see anything because of the 25-30 foot cement walls, and the only opening is at the very top, which allows fresh air and if the sun´s out, a little sunlight (if you go at the right time of day). There´s no place to sit, and no restroom either. Inmates just have to go on the ground if it´s an emergency, because the c/o´s (corrections officers) aren’t going let you come back in. I personally don´t go to the yard here, because to me, it´s not worth going. So yes, if you´re wondering, I´ve been in this cell since 2008. The only times I leave it are for visits or medical appointments. Also, the c/o´s try to discourage inmates from going to the yard by making us strip down – handcuffed and shackled, then once you´re on the yard, they go into your cell and tear it all up. I´ve learned it´s better to just stay in my cell.
The H-Unit was built and designed for inmates to move on their own, and when I first got here, it was that way. But some inmate on the D.U. side did something, so now whenever we leave our cells, we’re stripped and chained all up.
I´m sure you´ve probably heard some of the controversy regarding the executions here in Oklahoma in the past two or three years. Oklahoma was making mistake after mistake. This is public record. Look up the executions of inmates Clayton Lockett, Charles Warner and the three attempts to execute Richard Glossip. Oklahoma has no qualifications to properly carry out an execution. The State was trying to literally use whatever they wanted, ignoring its own protocol and guidelines. This caused inmate Clayton Lockett an unbearable amount of pain and suffering. At the time of his execution, I was in the cell located directly under the execution chamber and Richard Glossip was my cellie then. We could hearClayton Lockett screaming, it was so loud and horrible. It took Clayton Lockett roughly 45 to 60 minutes to die, and it wasn´t by the lethal injection drugs OSP used, it was finally from a massive heart attack because of what they were doing to him. Now, I know all this sounds unreal. I´m sure people think that OSP is surely more trained and professional than that, but the simple truth is, they aren´t. And yet they´re in charge of it all. You or anyone else who would like to read about it, if you have any doubts, can go look it up and read it with your own eyes. Clayton Lockett’s execution brought worldwide news and coverage. OSP and the DOC came under investigation. Then came inmate Charles Warner´s execution. OSP used non-approved drugs to kill Mr. Warner. It was not only un-approved, but illegal as well. This brought on even more trouble for the state of Oklahoma. Then came Richard Glossip´s execution. The first and second execution dates got stayed by the courts, but on the 3rd attempt, they took Mr. Glossip all the way, right down to where they strapped hi down and put the needle into his arm. Then they let him literally lay there for two hours, thinking that at any minute he was going to die. He kept asking, “What´s wrong?” No one would give him an answer. Then they finally came and got him, took him out and put him back in with me in my cell. As I told you, we had been cellies for over four years. That two hour experience up there really affected Richard’s state of mind. I´m no psychologist but it did something to him, and he´s still not the same up to this very day. If you´d like to read more on Richard Glossip and his story, go to: www.RichardGlossip.com.
Like I said, all I´ve been telling you is public record. The Department of Corrections (DOC) here in Oklahoma went through a huge change. The Head Director of Oklahoma DOC was fired, our warden here was forced to retire, a whole lot of people were hired to “fix” Oklahoma, they´ve come up with new execution protocols and soon it´ll be up and going again, but at the moment, it´s all still on hold.
But all I´ve been talking about so far, is executions. Let´s talk about other issues here.
- The canteen dept. here will sell you something then not bring it to you. Yet when you ask about it, they say they brought it, end of story. There´s nothing you can do either, because no one cares here about you, the inmate.
- My friend, Raymond Johnson, ordered $60 in songs for his MP3 and $20 for a new set of headphones, back in April of 2017. He´s never got them, nor has he received a refund of his money. I myself lost a $28 hobbycraft order due to “OSP lost it.” I never did get it and, of course, no refund either. It happens a lot here, the “system” beating us out of our money in some way or another, but no one holds them accountable for it. We can´t do anything, and no one else cares to try on our behalf.
- My friend, Raymond Johnson, has written down some of his concerns as well, they are as follows:
a. Wrongful death lawsuits (not for botched executions).
b. Guards (c/o´s) facing felony charges for not helping an inmate who was inside his cell on fire. They simply let him burn to death, when all they had to do was, open the door and put it out. (All public record!)
c. The Trust fund department controlling our money, won´t give us statements when we ask for one. I personally believe it´s because they don´t want us having a record of our money and where it goes, basically to cover their own butts.
d. Visitation: Our families come from long distances, mine from Arkansas, Raymond´s from Kentucky. Yet sometimes they´ll be turned away for no legitimate or reasonable reason at all. Some of the excuses have been: no sandals or certain types of clothing items, no jewelry, any excuse they can find. My mother, who´s 79 years old, dressed as a 79 year old dresses, has been turned away on 3-4 different occasions. Last being, she had to go to the bathroom, and they made her leave. Here at the H-Unit, we have no physical contact at all. I have absolutely no way to touch my mother or anyone else who comes to visit. We both have to yell at each other through a small hole in the Plexiglas in order to talk or hear each other.
e. The administration here covers up for one another. The inmate can clearly be in the right, but we will always be in the wrong. - Inmate Mail: When we write a letter, we have to give it to a c/o to put into the mailbag. And a c/o brings us our incoming mail. There have been guards deliberately tossing our outgoing and incoming mail into the trash, yet no one does anything. They do whatever they want, and they´re not held accountable.
I could literally go one and on, one of my biggest issues here of late was over the lack of dental care. They will not give us any dental care. All they do is pull out our teeth and just to get them to do that takes an act of God. In the past month, I have had to get three teeth pulled out and it took me over a year and extreme pain to get it done. My attorneys finally called up here and made them take me out to pull my teeth. I could of kept them if only they´d filled a simple cavity five years ago. And if you’re in pain, sorry, no pain meds for inmates.
Now, as for the medical department, here, I have no complaints. The medical department has always helped me if I needed it. I guess they don´t think we deserve dental care though, which is a whole other department.
You know, I realize where I´m at, in prison. It´s not supposed to be like a summer camp experience. But our punishment is being here, and for some, eventually being executed. Yet, these c/o´s come in intentionally, just trying to make our every single day here a living hell in whatever way they can. We´re still human beings. People don´t treat dogs the way we´re treated here. The food is always cold, nasty. They butcher horses here in Oklahoma and the meat goes to the prison system. I´m not going to eat a horse. I did once by accident, it wasn´t very good at all. Hell, what´s next? Dogs? Cats? It all almost seems too bizarre, yet I tell you the very truth.
My friend Jared Jones, who lived in the cell next to me, he took his own life about six months ago. He felt that suicide was better than to go another day in here. To tell you the truth, I´ve been fighting suicidal thoughts myself a lot here lately. I´m tired. I just sit in a cement square box day in and day out, year after year. I´ve been in here since June of 2008.
You know, it was once said that you can judge a society by how they treat their lowest citizens in it.
Also, Paul Harvey, a respected radio personality, said once over the radio, that “If you want to see the real scum of the earth, go to any prison at shift change.” How true that is.
Yes, I did some horrible things and even though I was intoxicated beyond any sense or reason, there´s absolutely no excuse for it. But I didn´t try to get away with what I did, once I sobered up, I felt so bad that I confessed to it all. I admitted what I had done and I´ll pay for it with my own life when Oklahoma executes me. All I ask, all of any of us ask, is to be treated with the respect we give you, to live out what we have left to live in peace.
I´m in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is supposed to be considered the Bible Belt. Well, I´d like to meet some of these so called Bible people, because all I´ve known since being here is mean, spiteful, hateful people. I haven´t seen nor met the prison chaplain even. I honestly don´t think we even have one here. All I´ve seen here in Oklahoma is people who are just waiting to kill us. Oklahoma´s so kill happy that they even went as far as to put the State´s right to kill as punishment into the State´s Constitution, and guess what? On voting day, 70% of Oklahomans voted for it. Sounds to me a whole lot of people have no problem with killing a human being. Wasn´t one of the 10 Commandments “Thou shalt not kill”? Guess these Bible Belt Christians missed that one, and the one about mercy and forgiveness. But I don´t hate them, I´m just telling you how it is here in Oklahoma. It´s really sad people believe and are the way they are. Our world is full of hate, anger, revenge. I almost welcome my upcoming execution, be it when it is, just so I can leave this place, even if it´s through death. This isn´t no life, hell, I´m already inside my tomb, only I´m not dead yet, is all. I even sleep on a cement slab.
Though it is the way it is here in Oklahoma, I´ve chosen not to hate back. What use would that do? I would only become like them, and I sure won´t stoop down to their level. We all (every single citizen in the world) have sinned and broken the law at some point or another. I know a lot of these so called self-righteous people watching over me, some actually should be in here with me.
The human race will never be perfect. It´s in our genes to fail, be it in any manner, it keeps pushing forward and growing as we go mentally, spiritually and emotionally. I hate where I´m at, I´m sincerely regretful for what I´ve done and if I could give my own life to undo it, I would, in a minute. But the reality of it is, I can´t. But I can accept the responsibility of what I´ve done and do all within my power to try to help bring peace to the victims involved. If I have to die for them to find closure, peace, healing then as soon as the state´s ready, I will be too. I only wish that they could see and understand the sorrow, regret and sadness I feel for what I´ve done, then maybe they could understand and see that I´m not the monster they think I am and truly understand the pain that I feel for what I have done to them.
Well, I guess this is it. Is this what you were wanting? I did not know what to really write, this is just what came out as I went. If you would like to ask me specific questions, I could answer them for you? Or give me an idea of what else you’re looking for……..
No Comments