What Christmas is like for criminals on death row including their festive dinner
For many, Christmas is a time to come together with friends, family and loved ones, but for many prisoners across the US their Christmas looks a little different.
As of Janaury 1 this year, there were 2,331 inmates on death row in the United States. For some, separated from friends, family and even children, it can be a particularly gruelling time of year.
Over the years, prisoners past, present and exonerated have opened up about their own experiences of spending Christmas behind bars awaiting their execution. One of these was Michael Lambrix, 57, who spent more than 30 years on death row after being convicted of killing two people after a night of partying.
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He was executed on October 5, 2017, by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Bradford County. During his time on death row, he took to writing about his experiences, and in December 2009, he took the time to reflect on Christmas.
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Lambrix spoke about the Christmases of his childhood, reflecting on how- after he left home he never experienced another Christmas. He wrote: "At 46 years old, this is now my twenty-sixth Christmas in a cage; the past 23 Christmas' have been spent condemned to death in a cage on death row."
'Each Christmas becomes more depressing'
He explained: "Condemned to death I am not allowed to celebrate Christmas in any traditional sense. In the early years I would anxiously await the Christmas cards from family and friends, then hang each upon my cell wall and share the Spirit of Christmas with the few who chose to remember me.
"But as the years slowly passed the cards became fewer and fewer, even most of my brothers and sisters have now long forgotten me and given me up as dead."
Mike Lambrix wrote about his experiences spending Christmas on death row (Facebook)Lambrix said that when he first arrived on death row, they were allowed to celebrate Christmas and it was something the inmate looked forward to. He said: "Each December we would be allowed to receive two packages from the outside world containing various necessities such as winter clothes, a pair of shoes, cosmetics and toiletries, and even a nice watch or ring."
When it came to food, he said: "The Christmas meal would be traditional style, real turkey with all the trimmings and various pieces of cakes and pies." However, he said "conservative politicians found out about the 'special treatment' given to prisoners at holidays and made careers by campaigning against these things."
Lambrix said: "One by one every holiday privilege was eliminated and out of vindictive malice and spite the Spirit of Christmas was banned from prisons." He added that he used to have a photo of a Christmas tree he'd tape to his back wall above his sink "until one Christmas Eve a guard made an issue of it".
Inmates in some prisons are allowed access to TVs where Christmas films are played (Getty Images)"I was ordered to remove it, but refused," he said. "A few hours later as I was taking a shower that guard went into my cell and removed that picture - ripping it into small pieces then throwing it into my toilet.
"That one small semblance of Christmas I so cherished was lost forever as that Spirit of Christmas was overcome by malice and spite. Now each Christmas becomes more depressing as I become even more isolated from the world outside."
Christmas dinner for inmates
One former prison guard, who retired in 2011, shared that: "Christmas and Thanksgiving day in jail has better food than normal, but not dramatically better."
But, he said in his experience he had seen some "downright incredible" Thanksgivings and Christmases in Federal Prison before he retired. Saying: "l "The meal rotation is extended so inmates can go back for seconds, or even thirds."
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"I've eaten more than one Christmas dinner in prison," he continued. "They've always had a better spread than chain places like Cracker Barrell and Dennies."
Ron Keine was one of four men wrongfully convicted and sentenced to die for the murder, kidnapping and rape of a University of New Mexico student in 1974. As a result, he spent two years on death row being being released in 1976, when the murder weapon was traced to a police officer who admitted to the killing.
Ron Keine was exonerated after spending two years on death row having been wrongfully convicted (deathpenaltyinfo)Reflecting on his time spent on death row at Christmas, he wrote: "While the children are opening presents on Christmas morning, reveling in bliss, miles away in some forgotten dungeon cell, a tear runs down my cheek. As the family sits down, heads bowed for the meal's prayer, I sit alone on my steel bunk and try to picture the lone bare table setting that my mother arranged in my honour.
"There will be no Christmas dinner for me this year. My prison issued dinner looks sickening as it defiantly slides down the windows and walls outside of my cell as if it was trying to rejoin the steel tray laying on the floor beneath it."
Texas inmate Mark Stroman, spent 10 years on death row before being executed for the 2001 murders of two men in a 9/11 'revenge' shooting spree. He later said he made a "terrible mistake" and had destroyed his victims' families "out of our anger and stupidity" before being executed in July 2011 by lethal injection.
Thousands of people will spend Christmas behind bars on death row (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Speaking of his experience on Christmas 2009, he said he had enjoyed a "loud and somewhat cheerful" Christmas Eve. "No one can get angry if someone is loud on a holiday," he wrote from his cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livington. "Hell, for many it's their last."
The food was an improvement on the usual fare, as they were given a slice of brisket, pork sausage and stuffing with a slice of chocolate cake and peach cobbler for dessert. Stroman was "impressed and grateful", adding: "They did good and have fed us like humans."
Seeing loved ones
Those in prison typically have a "holiday visiting schedule" according to the former prison guard. He added that "many inmates discourage visits on those days" since their only food options, in that case, would be from the vending machine, falling "far short of the holiday meal they will miss".
"I've always strongly encouraged inmates not to have their children visit on Thanksgiving or Christmas," he continued. "I've watched children sitting in misery in the Visiting Room on many Christmas Days. They've been taken away from their Christmas trees, presents, and warm homes to sit in a sterile visiting room."
Many inmates discourage loved ones from visiting on Christmas (Getty Images)Another former inmate in a maximum security prison, shared he spent two-and-a-half years incarcerated. He commented: "My son and daughter-in-law flew in from NYC, my wife and other two children drove 6 hours from Chicago, together staying at a nearby hotel on Christmas Eve.
"With excitement, they arrived at the gate on Christmas morning, only to be greeted with a sign, 'Lock Down, No Visits!!'.
"Meanwhille inside, The CO greeted us on Christmas morning shouting as he walked through the dorm, 'Merry f**king Christmas you a**holes! Ho Ho Ho you c**ksuckers, Feliz f**king Navidad you f**kers! and on and on and agonizing[ly] on.
My family was helpless to visit me, I was helpless to see them. It's all part of prison life, but without question - the worst Christmas for my family ever!!"
'Holidays get harder with each passing year'
Michael Nelson was sentenced to life in prison when he was just a teenager. At 15, he snuck up behind a middle-aged man and cracked his skull with a baseball bat before watching his friend finish the victim with a knife.
Nelson was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in 1998 to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life. He was sent to San Quentin where he said "the holidays [seemed] to get harder with each passing year".
Many inmates have given up on celebrating holidays as it becomes a painful reminder of what they're missing (Getty Images)"I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or that I'm feeling more lonely; where i once convinced myself that a holiday was just another day, I now dread each major holiday because they make me want more in my life, and also remind me of what I don't have," he wrote from San Quentin.
"The holidays take me to a place of family memories, smells, football, laughter, and good food," he continued. "None of that can be replaced or duplicated in here, but I have met some really great people that I am fortunate to spend my holidays with, people that will forever be in my future memories of when I look back on past holidays."
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