The open-ended interviews elicited the prisoners' perceptions of the human experience of death row confinement and explored the dominant problems and pressures. The discussions revealed three broad themes in the death row experience: powerlessness, fear, and emotional emptiness. 'Living death' was the term many condemned prisoners used to capture the essential or cumulative death row experience. Analysis of the personal lives of capital offenders suggested that many pathways existed to death row, whose inmates' lives were characterized by failures, blocked opportunities, and other serious problems. The text describes the physical setting of death row as intimidating and isolating. Inmates view the guards as both agents of custody and agents of execution. The book considers the social world and mission of death row. Case examples show how some prisoners deteriorate dramatically. With emphasis on implications both for correctional reform and for the larger moral issues of capital punishment, the text examines the human costs of confinement and the death penalty. An index, chapter notes and extensive quotations from the interviews are provided. Transcripts of two interviews are presented in an appendix. A bibliography lists 81 references.