Thinking about how hard is the death penalty itself, we can hardly imagine that there are extremely rigid rules, which affect the life of people imprisoned for that reason. Instead these rules exist and are applied arbitrarily. Usually a prisoner is defined in Level 1 if he hasn't committed any violation of the rules.
On the other hands, if he commits anything wrong, he moves to Level 2 or 3 according to violation. To be punished is even too easy. For instance Eugene was transferred to second Level because they found 10 cigarettes in his cell during an inspection

Some years ago prisoners were allowed to smoke in their rooms, then it was forbidden, regardless of how little prisoners can do during the day. Therefore Eugene didn't comply with new regulation and he was immediately punished.

They also can only purchase one hygiene items like one deodorant, one shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. every 30 days and five bars of soap every 14 days and it's also forbidden to order any book.

When they are on Level # 2 they can't have special visit (a special visit is two 4 hours visits with anyone that travel to visit over 500 miles). This is a great problem also for the visitors who might not want to come visit knowing all they can have is one 2 hours visit once a week whereas they would get 2 four hour visits within that week otherwise. If, instead, they are on Level # 3, they can't buy any hygiene items, but only stationeries.

When you are classified in one of these Levels the prisoner is subject to several kinds of deprivations: the prisoner receive the mail very late or never, it's very hard to buy stamps as well as anything useful to write to friends or relatives as the purchase is restricted. The food is served cold and it is mainly sandwich or uncooked food.
The inspections are innumerable and many prisoners end up losing patience and control of their nerves, and scenes of insanity are common.