What’s Life Really Like for Idaho’s 8 Death-Row Inmates?

The 8 Inmates on Idaho Death Row

Today, Idaho Department of Corrections reports there are eight inmates under the sentence of death. Of the eight, seven are males incarcerated within the Idaho Maximum Security Institution of south Boise, while the female resides in the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center. The following are Idaho's eight inmates on death row:

• Thomas Creech - #14984
• Timothy A. Dunlap - #35385
• James Hairston - #50337
• Erick Hall - #33835
• Gerald Pizzuto - #23721
• Jonathan Daniel Renfro - #90162
• Robin Row - #40171

With a death-row roster as low as Idaho's, we wondered how many executions had taken place in recent history.

Surprisingly, IDOC reports only "three executions have occurred since Idaho enacted a new death penalty statute in 1977." Compared to Texas, where 563 of the state's death row inmates have been executed since 1976, Idaho's number of terminations during the same time period remains conservative.

Despite Idaho having recently become the fifth state to allow firing squads for executions, it appears Idaho's death row inmates aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Once again, we're left wondering what that means for the structure and quality of the aging inmates' lives.

What is an Idaho Death Row Inmate's So-Called Life?

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, living conditions for those serving life sentences under the penalty of death is worse than we imagined.

While on death row, those serving capital sentences are generally isolated from other prisoners, excluded from prison educational and employment programs, and sharply restricted in terms of visitation and exercise, spending as many as 23 hours a day alone in their cells.

In light of the severe nature of the inmates' punishment, DPIC raises an interesting question: are death-row inmates subjected to two distinct punishments?

The organization reasons the uncertainty of the death sentence itself coupled with the "years of living in conditions tantamount to solitary confinement" that's typically limited to short periods of time for general-population prisoners, account for two separate punishments.

On the bright side, if there is such a thing in this instance, death-row inmates are typically allowed the following privileges and materials:

• Medical care
• Periodic visitations
• Exercise time
• Media interviews
• Legal & social phone calls (after a death warrant is signed)
• Daily mail (excluding holidays and weekend)
• Snacks
• and radios as well as 13" TVs (but no cable)

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