Hidden Casualties: Executions Harm Mental Health of Prison Staff

In March, Oklahoma offi­cials asked the state’s high court to increase the time between exe­cu­tions from 60 to 90 days, cit­ing the last­ing trau­ma” and psy­cho­log­i­cal toll” of exe­cu­tions on cor­rec­tions offi­cers. But Judge Gary Lumpkin dis­missed these con­cerns, telling offi­cials that prison staff need­ed to suck it up” and man up.” A few weeks lat­er, Brian Dorsey was exe­cut­ed in Missouri after the gov­er­nor ignored the pleas of an unprece­dent­ed 72 cor­rec­tions offi­cers to grant him clemen­cy. We are part of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty who believe in law and order…But we are in agree­ment that the death penal­ty is not the appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment for Brian Dorsey,” the offi­cers had writ­ten. Mr. Dorsey was exe­cut­ed not on death row, but 15 miles away at a dif­fer­ent prison; the state moved the exe­cu­tion cham­ber in 2005 in part because of the effect on morale for death row staff who had to exe­cute the same peo­ple they had spent years look­ing after. These exam­ples illus­trate how some cor­rec­tions staff are adverse­ly affect­ed by exe­cu­tions, fac­ing men­tal health chal­lenges that the legal sys­tem often fails to take seriously.

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