New Podcast: Rethinking Public Safety, A Conversation with Former Nevada Prison Doctor, Dr. Karen Gedney

In 1989, Nevada prison doc­tor, Dr. Karen Gedney (pic­tured) refused a request by state offi­cials to write a pre­scrip­tion for exe­cu­tion drugs, believ­ing that doing so vio­lat­ed her med­ical oath to do no harm and her duty to pro­vide med­ical care to pris­on­ers. In the sec­ond episode of the Discussions With DPIC podcast’s Rethinking Public Safety series, Dr. Gedney speaks with DPIC Managing Director Anne Holsinger about this and oth­er issues she encoun­tered in her three decades as a doc­tor in the Nevada prison system. 

Holsinger and Gedney explore a range of issues dur­ing the pod­cast, includ­ing how prison con­di­tions affect the phys­i­cal and men­tal health of pris­on­ers, how prison bureau­cra­cy deter­mines the qual­i­ty of care that pris­on­ers receive, and how exe­cu­tions take a toll on prison staff. Today, Dr. Gedney advo­cates for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, and she explains how her career influ­enced her views on capital punishment.

Dr. Gedney began her career in Nevada’s Department of Corrections in 1987, as part of a four-year assign­ment with the National Health Service Corps. After build­ing a strong rap­port with pris­on­ers and see­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve the qual­i­ty of care offered to them, she turned that short-term assign­ment into a 30-year career. During that time, she observed first-hand how prison con­di­tions — from low-qual­i­ty food to iso­la­tion from oth­ers — adverse­ly affect­ed the phys­i­cal and men­tal health of her patients.

Gedney tells the sto­ry of being asked to write a pre­scrip­tion for exe­cu­tion drugs in 1989, which she refused to do. ​“That’s not my role as a doc­tor to write drugs to kill some­one,” she said. ​“I was put there by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to give con­sti­tu­tion­al health care, not to be part of exe­cu­tions.” After state offi­cials unsuc­cess­ful­ly attempt­ed to ​“pres­sure” her to pre­scribe the drugs, they found a doc­tor who was not affil­i­at­ed with the prison who was will­ing to write the pre­scrip­tion for a $500 fee.

In dis­cussing the impact of the death penal­ty on the med­ical deci­sions she was required to make, Gedney recount­ed the sto­ry of a death-row pris­on­er dying from metasta­t­ic lung can­cer. Given the late stage of the prisoner’s dis­ease and the near impos­si­bil­i­ty of suc­cess­ful treat­ment, Gedney saw it as her duty to present his options, which includ­ed hos­pice care. ​“There were some peo­ple who want­ed me to keep him alive, so he could be exe­cut­ed,” she said. ​“And when he died, peo­ple were angry at me, you know, for not pro­long­ing it, so he could get exe­cut­ed. … Really, they affect­ed me like, wow, is revenge that strong that dying from a mis­er­able can­cer and being dead, is dead? … It’s just, I did­n’t quite get it as a doc­tor, as a per­son at all that revenge piece.” She also attrib­uted Nevada’s high rate of pris­on­ers who ​“vol­un­teer” for exe­cu­tion to the geo­graph­ic iso­la­tion of the state’s death row. ​“Guys will look at death as pref­er­en­tial to liv­ing a life with­out parole, if they are 100% hope­less, and 100% mis­er­able,” she explained, not­ing that the facil­i­ty where death-row pris­on­ers were incar­cer­at­ed was ​“away from all the major cities in Nevada. So, for fam­i­ly mem­bers to vis­it, it is incred­i­bly ardu­ous for them to vis­it,” she said.

Since retir­ing, Gedney has advo­cat­ed for prison reform, includ­ing an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. She said she oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as part of a ​“holis­tic” view of reform, espe­cial­ly after learn­ing more about its appli­ca­tion. She ques­tioned the deter­rent val­ue of the death penal­ty, say­ing, ​“It does not deter these heinous acts, or deter these vio­lent emo­tion­al acts, because it’s emo­tion, it’s not log­ic.” She also not­ed the inequities in who gets sen­tenced to death, say­ing, ​“if you’re poor, you’re une­d­u­cat­ed, you men­tal­ly can’t defend your­self, you’re a minor­i­ty, you are at high risk.” The mis­con­duct of Nevada pros­e­cu­tors, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Clark County (Las Vegas), also con­tributed to her view. ​“You have these pros­e­cut­ing attor­neys, who just want notch­es in their belt. You will see in cer­tain coun­ties, it’s incred­i­bly dis­pro­por­tion­ate,” she said, going on to cite a Fair Punishment Project study that found mis­con­duct in 47% of Clark County’s death sentences.