Stop violation of human rights for women on death row within Mountain View Unit, Gatesville, Texas

* The inmates are unable to sleep through, because of permanent checks all 30 minutes throughout the night. During the checks, the riot door is being opened and slammed shut loudly, huge key rings are clanging up and down the run, lest the inmates have to be waken up every 30 minutes. At 4:00 a.m. they are waken up again for breakfast and then once again at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for work.
The constant broken sleep leads to mental and physical health problems for the women.
We understand that checks may be necessary, but ask to do them without interrupting the sleep.

* Those who need medication have to get out of bed at 3:00 a.m. in the night to take their medicine. Additional to the early time they have to take the medication, the huge flood lights are turned on for a mouth check. They have to open their mouth and stick out their tongue and raise their tongue to inspect whether or not the adult persons were able to swallow their medicine.
Why arent they given the medication together with breakfast?

* There are daily cell-searches, often combined with humiliating strip searches. Sometimes the women are forced to strip off their clothes several times a day, and get searched even by male prison personnel, which is degrading and has to be refused as a violation of their female intimacy and human dignity. Mountain View and all US-prisons should join international standards in making sure that women are only get searched by female staff.

* Since short in-cell-crafting has been taken away from the inmates, they are not allowed to crochet, knit, do needlework or any other kind of craft in their cells, which was most of all their solace and distraction. This restriction also cut the women off the possibility to do handicrafts for their childrens birthdays or Christmas gifts to their relatives.
The women who decided to work are allowed for group recreation in a common room from 6 to 8 p.m. after work. They are only allowed to do crafting during this recreation time. With the TV playing on high volume its hard for the women to concentrate. The women who do not work, have no chance to do any crafting.
We ask to take off this restriction and allow in-cell-crafting again.