Personal diary of Dan Caldwell
San Jose Prison,California,U.S.
Wed.May 27
Could you live 23 hours each day in a cell only six feet long and ten feet wide? With only one small window? With no radio, television, or air conditioning? You spend all day just sitting in the heat,reading...trying to sleep. To talk to your neighbor , you have to shout because of the noise. Well, that's what my life is like on death row here in California. Here is my normal day.
5:30 a.m. A guard brings breakfast. Like all food here, it's terrible. Maybe an hour later, the guard collects it.
7:00 a.m. The noise starts as people go to the exercise yard - the noise of the doors opening and closing , people shouting. I get one hour a day in the yard , from 8:00 till 9:00. Then I read or write letters. I don't have a TV or radio. I have no money to buy one.
10:00 a.m. A guard brings lunch-some bread and usually meat in a paper bag. Sometimes I take a shower (we can take three a week).
1:00p.m.-5:00p.m. I can leave my cell only when I have visitors.Saturday through Sunday we can have "regular visits."These are visits from family. But I can't hug my wife or children when they visit.We have to talk on a phone,looking through a glass window. I usually see them once a month.
5:00p.m. A guard brings dinner. It is usually beans,rice or noodles -always cold.After the guard collects the garbage,my day is finished. I try to sleep,but every two hours the lights come on. A guard asks for my name and number (we all have a number). Sometimes they give me clean clothes,or toilet paper,soap,and so on. I try to sleep but can't. I wait for the next day.