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Rules of Engagement
By: Dale Recinella
It is not unusual for me to cover four hundred or more solitary cells
in a seven-hour shift. Ten to twelve percent of the men in those cells will be Catholic. One-half to three-fourths of those Catholics will desire Communion.
Kneeling on the concrete floor and administering the Eucharist at cell front, one-at-a-time through a hole in the door, to two or three-dozen men in a day, is not overwhelming. Actually, the most daunting task, with over 1200 solitary cells and a constantly changing population, is ferreting out who is really Catholic.
For some denominations, anyone who has been baptized or says he accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is an eligible recipient. With Catholic Communion, however, it is at least necessary that the intended recipient has been initiated into the Church through Baptism and has made his First Confession and First Communion. Once that threshold is established, the additional issues of state of grace and appropriate disposition are to be addressed.
October 17th - Newsletter
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With Jesus In My Pocket. . .
By: Dale S. Recinella
Grinding. Reverberating. Numbing. Metal against metal punctuates my twenty-minute sojourn into the bowels of the prison. Ten massive steel-barred doors now separate me from the prison entrance. One more security door stands between me and death row. The officer with the key swings it open. He nods. I step through.
The heavy steel bolts clang shut, locking me in on the beige corridor of death row cells. Like a stray cosmic noise from another world, the spongy soles of my Rockports announce my arrival with muffled squeaks against the hot, damp concrete.
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An Instrument of His Peace
By: Dale S. Recinella
7:20 pm. We’ve been sitting in the witness room seats for one and a half hours – the longest wait in the history of Florida executions. In absolute silence, without motion or distraction. Staring at our own reflections in the window. Reflecting on the man who will be lying behind the closed curtain, stretched out on a gurney on the other side of the glass window.
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A Glimpse of Harvest
By: Dale S. Recinella
Some of my initial encounters on death row were difficult. But few were as dramatic as the first time I met one man in particular.
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Interview on Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio Midday Show (worldwide English)
Friday 8 October 2004
Dead Men Talking
Vatican Radio: Hello and welcome to today’s program.
The city of Montreal in Canada is currently hosting the 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty, to try and push for an abolition of state executions worldwide. more
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A Space-time Continuum
By: Dale S. Recinella
It’s 8:15 am on a Monday morning. Today my first stop is a special one-on-one appointment at the Crisis
Stabilization Unit, psychiatric solitary. The appointment
had to be set up with the sergeant and the medical staff a week in advance.
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Into the Eye of the Needle
By: Dale S. Recinella
It’s my first visit to Florida State Prison, home to Florida’s infamous electric chair. They claim security here is stricter than at any other prison in the state. It seems true.
After leaving our car, we enter the compound through double outside gates. The two barriers cannot be opened simultaneously. The first grinds open. We step in between thousands of pounds of screeching, moving metal. It shuts behind us. We are surrounded by heaps of razor sharp saw teeth, coiled mounds of glistening concertina wire. The second gate grates open. There are some noises I’ve never heard anywhere except in prison.
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