Psychiatry on Death Row: Interviews From the Inside

Interview with Jarvis Jay Masters

Jarvis Jay Masters was convicted of armed robbery and incarcerated in 1981 at the age of 19. In 1985, a corrections officer was stabbed to death. Mr Masters was accused of sharpening a piece of metal allegedly used to make the weapon that stabbed the officer. He received the death sentence in 1988 and was sent to death row in 1990.

Mr Masters has consistently maintained his innocence. Multiple appeals have been filed and rejected. A habeas corpus appeal containing new evidence supporting his innocence has been filed. He has been waiting for 6 years for the appeal to be heard.

While on death row, Mr Masters was introduced to Buddhist writings and became a Buddhist practitioner. He has authored 2 books: That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row,⁵ a memoir, and Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row,⁶ a series of essays describing his spiritual transformation and his experiences on death row.

Through his 37 years of incarceration, 28 of which have been on death row, Mr Masters has interacted with numerous psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, as well as with mentally ill prisoners. Psychiatry Advisor interviewed him to gain further insight into challenges and struggles faced by inmates and how psychiatrists can be most helpful and effective.

Psychiatry Advisor: What would make you, as an inmate, more inclined to open up to a psychiatrist?

Mr Masters: When I was in juvenile detention and sat in front of a psychiatrist in a suit, who had lots of plaques and credentials on the wall, it used to highlight the feeling that I was a failure. It placed the psychiatrist on a different level than me. And all I wanted to do was to run in the other direction — which is what I did.

Many of the psychiatrists here now are more relaxed than the psychiatrists used to be when I first came to San Quentin State Prison in California. They dress professionally, but they dress down, so it feels more normal, like this is someone who can understand me.

I have never really needed a psychiatrist but if I did, I would definitely go. Some people really need them. I have seen inmates go crazy. One guy even stabbed himself in the eye with a pen and eventually committed suicide by hanging himself. I am glad there were psychiatry techs and psychiatrists who tried to take care of him. That also gives me a sense of security knowing that if I needed it, I would also get care.

Psychiatry Advisor: Were you ever in segregation?

Mr Masters: Yes, from 1985 to 2007 — that is almost 23 years. I was put there right after being charged with murder, and then throughout my whole trial and after my conviction.

When you are a prisoner in the general program, you are outside your cell from morning to night, and you just sleep in your cell. You can walk around, have contact visits, receive or make phone calls, go to the lower yard, go to the commissary, have a television and typewriter, be on baseball or football teams, or get paid for a job.

Death row feels like an institution within the larger institution. People on death row can do the same things as the general prison population, but with a few differences. Instead of eating together, you eat in your cell. You also can get exercise in the yard, but that yard is only for death row inmates. And there isn’t only one yard. There are several yards, and prisoners who use those yards are grouped together for compatibility. Another difference is that death row prisoners are in hand restraints from the moment they leave their cell until the moment they go into the yard.

In segregation, you are in your cell roughly 23 hours a day. You can still get books, shower, buy toiletries, write and get letters, and go to the law library to research your case. You can exercise in the yard for about 2 hours, 2 to 3 times per week. Cells are adjacent to each other, so it is not like you are totally isolated, but you are in your cell almost the whole time. You are not allowed to make phone calls. So you get lonely for family and friends, and feel really cut off.

Psychiatry Advisor: What are your perspectives on segregation?

Mr Masters: I have mixed feelings. It is definitely cruel and unusual punishment for many people. I cannot even count how many people I have seen who have broken down, gone really crazy, started cutting themselves, tried to or succeeded in committing suicide. And the more they act out, the more they end up right there again, and their mental health gets worse each time. My feeling is they do not belong in a prison. My feeling is many of them belong in a hospital.

But for me, segregation had some benefits. I got into a very serious studying habit because I started doing a lot of reading. I began looking at maps, studying astronomy, and following stars. But I always went back to my own silence and processed what was going on and how I got there. I began thinking a lot about masculinity and how men are taught to behave and cope in certain situations. What is the definition of manhood? One of the essays in my book Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row is about the scars on the bodies of the other prisoners and how being beaten and abused shaped us and brought us to where we are today. Being in isolation also enabled me to do my Buddhist meditation practice.

Psychiatry Advisor: How did you become a Buddhist?

Mr Masters: During my death penalty trial, someone sent me books on how to meditate, how to deal with pain and suffering, and how to keep my mind quiet. I began getting up early to calm my mind and became committed to a meditation practice. I received a Buddhist magazine with an article by a Tibetan Buddhist lama named Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. I also read his book Life in Relation to Death.⁸

Right away, I connected with what he wrote. I began writing to his center and various senior students responded. The senior students began guiding me closely and interpreting what Rinpoche said because his English was broken.

Rinpoche visited me in prison several times and I felt like the luckiest person in the world because his time was so valuable. Eventually, I had an empowerment ceremony with Rinpoche and formally became a Buddhist.

Since Rinpoche passed, Pema Chödrön, also a Buddhist and a bestselling author, is my teacher, but she is more like a mother to me. I have my daily meditation practice and I try to use Buddhist teachings to guide everything I do.

Being Buddhist has given me the keys to open the locks of my life story and I thought, “This is my experience. It belongs to me. It comes out of this key called awakening.” That is what made me decide to write my story.

Buddhism has helped me deal with anger. I realized how poisonous it is. I’m not saying I never get angry. Being Buddhist doesn’t mean having patience all the time and being a saint. But it’s given me a handle on anger that I never had before.

Psychiatry Advisor: What frightens you on death row?

Mr Masters: I am afraid of breaking down. I have seen it happen to many other people. I am afraid of dying in prison. That happens a lot on death row, while people wait years for their appeal. As time drags on without a date for my habeas corpus to be heard, I feel more and more worried that I will die before I ever have a chance to be free. I am even more worried that I will die knowing that I am innocent and before I can prove my innocence. That is what hurts the most. What kind of legacy will I leave behind? I was definitely thinking about that when I wrote my books. They were a testament to who I was as a human being on death row. A death penalty is not only something that happens when a person is strapped to a chair. Dying in prison, especially if you are innocent, is a kind of death penalty right there.

I think Buddhists are not supposed to have fear of dying. We always say that from the first breath we take, we begin the process of dying. For me, that’s a practice and not something I automatically accepted. Death is close to me, and in everything I do, I think about where it will live after I am dead. Facing death is a process of learning how to die without fear. Death itself is a scary proposition, but it’s something we all work with. How do we get to a point where it’s acceptable? To me, that’s a practice.

Psychiatry Advisor: How would you like psychiatrists to relate to people on death row?

Mr Masters: Treat everyone as a human being, even though we are on death row. All our lives we have been dehumanized, but you can show respect and care. And do not just throw pills at people. Some people need medication, but others just get drugged out and need other kinds of help such as talking, meditation, and quieting the mind.

Psychiatry Advisor: Do you have any other suggestions for psychiatrists?

Mr Masters: I always ask the psychiatrists, “How’re you doing?” Some of them say I’m the only guy who asks that. Then they remind me in the nicest way that I am the one who is supposed to be talking to them. But I am sincere when I ask that question.

A lot of the psychiatrists are almost like heroes to me. They are on the forefront of everything I am looking at, everything I am experiencing. There are not enough words you can say about people like that if they are sincere. Their training gives them the permission, the license to treat people, but there is something about their own nature that wants to help people in prison. I think they are real bodhisattvas. Bodhisattva is a Buddhist word for someone who could reach Nirvana and stay in that state of bliss, but chooses to wait and stay in the world of human interactions and pain out of compassion, in order to save other suffering beings.

Psychiatrists in prison also have to worry about their own security. The way they balance that — wow! Walking up and down the tiers, they can be attacked. They can walk up to a prisoner’s cell front and have boiling water thrown at them, or have the prisoner spit in their face.

And they are talking to people day in and day out, people who have lost a lot of bolts, people where half the engine’s gone. They hear all these stories — of prisoners who committed unimaginable things or others on death row who did not have the mental capacity to defend themselves and explain to their lawyer what happened or where they were when it happened. Or they have to talk to prisoners like me and others who are innocent and trapped in the system. Some of these psychiatrists have been to the best schools in the world but at some point, school will not give you answers to everything you are hearing on death row. Yes, it is a job, but it is not just a job. You need compassion to do this job. And to keep being compassionate, you have to take care of yourself too. So I say, take care of yourself. Find ways to find peace.

Further information about Jarvis Jay Masters can be found at: http://freejarvis.org.

Since the original interview with Mr Masters, there have been 4 suicides on death row at San Quentin (2 in November 2018⁹ and 2 in December 2018¹⁰). Although the second set of deaths that took place in December have been attributed to drug overdose¹⁰ and not formally classified as suicides, Mr Masters was personally acquainted with the deceased inmates and told Psychiatry Advisor that both men had attempted suicide on multiple prior occasions using other means.

References

1. University of Michigan Law School. National Registry of Exonerations. Exonerations in 2015. http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/documents/exonerations_in_2015.pdf. February 3, 2016.Accessed: October 15, 2018.
2. Fenton R. Stolen Years: Stories of the Wrongfully Imprisoned. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, Inc.; 2015.
3. Fenton R. Top reasons people are falsely imprisoned. New York Post. November 15, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2019.
4. The Innocence Project. Compensating the Wrongly Convicted.https://www.innocenceproject.org/compensating-wrongly-convicted/. 2019. Accessed January 30, 2019.
5. Masters JJ. That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers;2009.
6. Masters JJ. Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row. Junction City, CA: Padma Publishing;1997.
7. May A. Jewish doctor who treated accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter: ‘He’s some mother’s son.’ USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/31/jewish-doctor-treated-pittsburg-synagogue-shooter-viral-interview/1830273002/. October 31, 2018. Accessed January 7, 2019.
8. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. Life in Relation to Death. 2nd ed. Junction City, CA: Padma Publishing House; 2000.
9. Croft J. 2 death row killers die in apparent suicides, San Quentin says. CNN.  https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/us/san-quentin-death-row-suicide/index.html. November 6, 2018. Accessed January 7, 2019.
10. Cassidy M. 2 more Death Row inmates die; San Quentin officials probe possible contraband drugs. San Francisco Chronicle. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Another-death-row-inmate-dies-San-Quentin-13446017.php. December 5, 2018. Accessed January 7, 2019.