Former prison war­den, Frank Thompson, has urged repeal of Delaware’s death penal­ty. In an op-ed for The News Journal of Delaware, the for­mer war­den, who has per­son­al­ly over­seen two exe­cu­tions, describes ​“the immea­sur­able bur­den that th[e exe­cu­tion] process places on cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers” and the trau­ma expe­ri­enced by cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers who must car­ry out exe­cu­tions. Thompson says, ​“Many of us who have tak­en part in this process live with night­mares, espe­cial­ly those of us who have par­tic­i­pat­ed in exe­cu­tions that did not go smooth­ly. Correctional offi­cers who car­ry out exe­cu­tion can suf­fer from post-trau­mat­ic stress, drug and alco­hol addic­tion, and depres­sion.” He explains that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment does noth­ing to ​“increase the safe­ty of prison staff or inmates.” ​“Every war­den in America knows the estab­lished pro­to­cols that effec­tive­ly keep pris­ons safe for cor­rec­tions staff and inmates,” he says. ​“These include pro­grams to treat inmates with alco­hol and drug depen­den­cy or men­tal ill­ness­es, appro­pri­ate inmate-to-staff ratios for the prop­er super­vi­sion of pris­on­ers, ade­quate activ­i­ties and work pro­grams, and effec­tive clas­si­fi­ca­tion sys­tems that pro­vide guid­ance on how to prop­er­ly house and pro­gram inmates…I am not aware of and have not heard of a sin­gle prison admin­is­tra­tor who would trade any of these pro­grams or resources in order to keep the death penal­ty.” Thompson con­cludes by call­ing on the Delaware leg­is­la­ture to ​“repeal its death penal­ty and lead the way on smarter crime pre­ven­tion pol­i­cy by rein­vest­ing the mil­lions of dol­lars that the state cur­rent­ly spends on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment into pro­grams that will actu­al­ly improve pub­lic safe­ty.” Read the full op-ed below.

Ex-warden: Death penalty doesn’t make guards safer

More than once, dur­ing a heat­ed dis­cus­sion about the death penal­ty, I have heard some­one exclaim, ​“I would pull the switch!” or ​“Who cares if these guys suf­fer dur­ing exe­cu­tion!” I cer­tain­ly under­stand – and even share – the desire to hold peo­ple who com­mit bru­tal and vio­lent crimes account­able, but as a for­mer war­den who has car­ried out two exe­cu­tions, I can hon­est­ly say that the death penal­ty just isn’t worth the human and finan­cial toll it takes on the state and its employees.

As some­one who has led an exe­cu­tion team and giv­en the order to ​“pro­ceed,” I am acute­ly aware of the immea­sur­able bur­den that this process places on cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers, and I am con­tin­u­ous­ly being informed, by those who have been per­son­al­ly and direct­ly involved in exe­cut­ing some­one, of the awful, life­long reper­cus­sions that can occur as a result in car­ry­ing out executions.

Many of us who have tak­en part in this process live with night­mares, espe­cial­ly those of us who have par­tic­i­pat­ed in exe­cu­tions that did not go smooth­ly. Correctional offi­cers who car­ry out exe­cu­tion can suf­fer from post-trau­mat­ic stress, drug and alco­hol addic­tion, and depression.

I also know from expe­ri­ence that the death penal­ty does­n’t increase the safe­ty of prison staff or inmates. There is no rela­tion­ship between hav­ing the death penal­ty and oper­at­ing safe prisons.

Every war­den in America knows the estab­lished pro­to­cols that effec­tive­ly keep pris­ons safe for cor­rec­tions staff and inmates. When vio­lence takes place in a prison, it is most often because of either human error or neg­li­gence, or it is because there was insuf­fi­cient fund­ing in the sys­tem to have well known and estab­lished vio­lence pre­ven­tion tools and protocols available.

Cutting back on effec­tive pro­grams can cre­ate an unsafe envi­ron­ment for staff and inmates. These include pro­grams to treat inmates with alco­hol and drug depen­den­cy or men­tal ill­ness­es, appro­pri­ate inmate-to-staff ratios for the prop­er super­vi­sion of pris­on­ers, ade­quate activ­i­ties and work pro­grams, and effec­tive clas­si­fi­ca­tion sys­tems that pro­vide guid­ance on how to prop­er­ly house and pro­gram inmates. The known vio­lence pre­ven­tion tools also include hav­ing ade­quate train­ing for staff, hav­ing well-designed cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties, and hav­ing ade­quate staffing pat­terns for all institutions.

I am not aware of and have not heard of a sin­gle prison admin­is­tra­tor who would trade any of these pro­grams or resources in order to keep the death penal­ty. During my more than two decades of run­ning cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties, I saw the pop­u­la­tion of those who are capa­ble of extreme vio­lence up close. I have no doubt that these offend­ers did not think about the death penal­ty for one sec­ond before committing violence.

Right now, Delaware has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to repeal its death penal­ty and lead the way on smarter crime pre­ven­tion pol­i­cy by rein­vest­ing the mil­lions of dol­lars that the state cur­rent­ly spends on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment into pro­grams that will actu­al­ly improve public safety.

Study after study has shown that the death penal­ty is far more expen­sive than lock­ing up pris­on­ers for life with­out parole – with­out pro­vid­ing any addi­tion­al ben­e­fit to soci­ety. If Delaware redi­rects the enor­mous amount of tax dol­lars that are cur­rent­ly spent try­ing to exe­cute a hand­ful of offend­ers who are already safe­ly behind bars to law enforce­ment agen­cies so that they can solve more cas­es and fund the pro­grams need­ed for keep­ing our cor­rec­tion­al insti­tu­tions safe, we will all be better off.

Replacing the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole does not excuse the hor­rif­ic acts these indi­vid­u­als have com­mit­ted. This is a severe pun­ish­ment that allows Delaware to use its lim­it­ed pub­lic safe­ty dol­lars more wise­ly, and removes the mon­u­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty placed on cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers to take a human life in the name of a pub­lic pol­i­cy that does not work.

Frank Thompson has worked in cor­rec­tions for 22 years. He pre­vi­ous­ly worked as an assis­tant direc­tor of insti­tu­tions and super­in­ten­dent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, and as war­den of pris­ons for the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

(F. Thompson, ​“Ex-war­den: Death penal­ty does­n’t make guards safer,” The News Journal, April 1, 2015.) See New Voices and Deterrence.