A New Florida Attraction: Virtual Death Row Tours
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The first thing you notice about the small room is the starkness.
To the left is a single bunk with a blanket and pillow. In the background is a stainless steel sink and toilet. Thick bars stretch across the front.
Welcome to a cell on Florida’s death row, where 368 men and three women spend their lives, leaving only for showers, short visits and recreation periods.
They’ve been joined to date by more than 5,000 virtual inmates, who get a brief death row experience via the Internet.
The online prison tour was added to the Florida Department of Corrections Web site in September at the request of Michael Moore, the department’s secretary.
You won’t see any inmates on the tour. Nor their meager possessions, including the black-and-white television sets that are doled out according to a waiting list.
Death row inmates are housed at three Florida prisons. Men await execution by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, near Starke, or at Union Correctional Institution, about a mile away. The women’s death row is at Broward Correctional Institution, near Pembroke Pines.
On the Web site, a camera slowly pans every inch of a death row cell for about 80 seconds. There are also tours of other cells, cellblocks and dormitories.
“The virtual tour will answer numerous inquiries from the public and press about what prison cells look like,†said Moore said. “It also reflects our policy of providing as much insight into our institutions as possible.â€
During the tour’s first 10 days, 8,648 people clicked onto the virtual prison tour section and 5,492 visited a death row cell.
Spencer Mann, an investigator for the State Attorney’s Office, sees value in the tour: “It is another way to get the message out to people that this is someplace they do not want to be.â€
Mann said he has taken numerous groups on prison tours to emphasize the same point, even allowing them to talk to inmates about what life behind bars is really like.
Among the most popular features on the Web site is a database of the state’s 71,000 inmates.
The site includes pictures of inmates, their crimes, where they are being held and tentative release date. It also includes sections on gangs, escapes, releases and crime victims.
*
On the Net, Florida Department of Corrections: www.dc.state.fl.us
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
