Corrections Officials Warn Arkansas Leaders About Psychological Trauma From Unprecedented Execution Schedule

As Arkansas moves toward attempt­ing to con­duct an unprece­dent­ed eight exe­cu­tions in eleven days, for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cials from across the coun­try are warn­ing Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson of the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll the com­pressed exe­cu­tion sched­ule could take on prison personnel. 

Dr. Allen Ault (pic­tured), for­mer war­den and cor­rec­tions com­mis­sion­er in Georgia who over­saw five exe­cu­tions in that state, said “[t]he rapid sched­ule will put an extra­or­di­nary bur­den on the men and women required by the state to car­ry out this most solemn act, and it will increase the risk of mis­takes in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber — which could haunt them for the rest of their lives.” 

Dr. Ault joined 22 oth­er for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cers in send­ing a let­ter to Governor Hutchinson, urg­ing him to ​“recon­sid­er the pace of the planned exe­cu­tions to pro­tect the pro­fes­sion­als who will car­ry them out and to ensure that the pro­ce­dures are legal and humane.” They cau­tion, “[a]s for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cials and admin­is­tra­tors — some of whom have direct­ly over­seen exe­cu­tions — we believe that per­form­ing so many exe­cu­tions in so lit­tle time will impose extra­or­di­nary and unnec­es­sary stress and trau­ma on the staff respon­si­ble [for] car­ry­ing out the executions.” 

Frank Thompson, a for­mer war­den of pris­ons for the Arkansas Department of Corrections and super­in­ten­dent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, spoke of the men­tal health prob­lems he has wit­nessed in prison offi­cials who par­tic­i­pat­ed in exe­cu­tions, say­ing, ​“There is absolute­ly no way to con­duct a well-run exe­cu­tion with­out caus­ing at least one per­son to lose a lit­tle bit of their human­i­ty, or to start at least one per­son on the cumu­la­tive path to post-trau­mat­ic stress. So for Arkansas to do this eight times in 10 days, to me that is unimag­in­able – it is com­pound­ing the stress, lay­ing trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences on top of each other.” 

Jerry Givens, who car­ried out 62 exe­cu­tions for the state of Virginia, said sim­ply, ​“I just ask the gov­er­nor a favor.… [J]ust have some heart for the offi­cers that have this task that they want them to car­ry out. Think about their lives afterwards.”