TEXAS, USA. MEXICANS COMPLAIN OF ABUSES ON TEXAS DEATH ROW

several Mexican inmates on death row on the penitentiary in Texas, known as the Polunsky Unit, said their isolation for 23 hours a day in a small cell amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
"For them we are less than animals," 44-year-old Hector Garcia said. "Much less."
A native of Rio Bravo in northern Mexico, Garcia had already spent 15 years on death row awaiting execution for the killing of a an employee during a convenience-store robbery.
"My mama comes as often as she can. They (mothers) are the ones who never leave us," said Garcia, one of 411 death-row prisoners at the institution in Livingston, which holds more than 2,000 inmates in total.
Garcia spoke of spending 23 hours a day in a 6-by-10 cell, where he passed the time by reading and writing while being careful not to violate any of the numerous rules and regulations.
"If they ask you to shave today and you don't, or if you don't leave the food tray in the exact place on the bed where they want it, they put you on report," he said. "I write, read the same magazine several times, walk from one side to the other, review my case ... all so as not to go crazy."
He described a situation of near-complete isolation, where an inmate could make himself heard only by shouting through a small opening in the steel door of his cell.
"We cannot chat or talk about our fears, not even commiserate with any of our companions. And the only communication we have with anyone is when we receive a visit, which with the passage of time becomes more and more sporadic," Garcia said. "We are robbed, besides, of any trace of dignity," Garcia said in the correct Spanish that he acquired from reading newspapers during his more than 15 years behind bars. "The steel toilet bowl is placed in such a way that even when we go to the bathroom, we can be observed," Garcia said, claiming that anyone who tries to conceal the commode in search of privacy is punished.