On death row pt. I. Pictures : The row ; Food ; In the J-23 dayroom ; A volleyball game in the cage ; Hands and mirrors ; Eight who were resentenced to life and are now doing time ; Three who are still there, one who was resentenced to life and then paroled, and one who was set free after twenty-one years and then exonerated ; Twelve dead men
pt. II. Words : Being there ; Killable killers ; Dangerous people ; Good time and hard time ; The prisoner Jack Smith and the late Excell White ; Terminology ; Getting to J ; Ellis's yellow line ; Visitors ; Counts ; Recreation ; Porters, floorboys, building tenders ; Noise ; Night, Brandon, Emily, and George ; Violence ; Craziness and boredom ; All the things a man might do on the row ; Sockets and glass ; Nowhere land ; Time ; Living space and killing space ; The death house ; Getting off the row ; Why execute? ; Equity: Callins v. James ; Giving up on death ; Trends ; Records
pt. III. Working : Avoiding the row ; An invitation ; Building tenders ; Documenting the row ; Bona fides ; "I'd like to cut your fuckin' throat" ; Trust ; Why talk? ; Punishing Diane ; Testifying ; Screening Death Row ; Brent Bullock Jr. and Norman Mailer ; In This Timeless Time
Appendixes : 1. Layout of Ellis Unit inside the Fence ; 2. The DR three-ring binder ; 3. Justice Thurgood Marshall's dissent in Gregg v. Georgia
