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Officers afraid to speak in favor of sparing inmates

Guards’ ‘code of silence’
hinders clemency efforts

Officers afraid to speak
in favor of sparing inmates

By RON McANDREW - Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle - Feb. 26, 2009, 8:43PM

If Willie Pondexter, Jr., is executed on Tuesday, part of the reason will be that the truth about his rehabilitation and dangerousness (or lack thereof) has been kept under lock and key. When it comes to assessing these factors of a person on death row, we should listen and give weight to the opinions of the prison officers who know him best.

But that doesn’t ordinarily happen because there is code of silence among corrections officers enforced by their supervisors and employers. The average correctional officer fears both the prison hierarchy — it could ruin his career or get him fired to say something out of line — and the corrections officers who keep prisoners and other correctional officers in their place through violence and other terrible means. The average correctional officer lives every day of his career with an absolute fear of speaking up.

I know because I worked in Florida prisons for almost 25 years, starting out as a corrections officer and rising through the ranks to supervise three state prisons, including Florida’s death row. I also know it would be very unlikely to find a Texas prison warden willing to blow the whistle on the unspoken, but enforced, code of silence.

I admire the few rare corrections officers who step forward and give decision-makers critical information, especially about clemency. In Pondexter’s case, one such courageous officer came forward and reported that Pondexter is not a danger to anyone, stays calm even in challenging situations, does everything that is asked of him and “could safely live out his days in a structured environment.” In fact, this correctional officer said, if Pondexter were a free man, he would be willing to give him a job working on his property.

This is the kind of information the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the governor and the courts need to hear, but almost never do.

Significantly, this officer also said: “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone to say something bad about Pondexter.

If people are not talking, it is probably because they are scared to lose their jobs or scared of being written up.” This remark about the code of silence that prohibits corrections officers from speaking the truth, even when a man’s life is at stake, is consistent with all I know from my quarter-century in corrections.

There are likely dozens of other corrections officers who feel the same way and believe Pondexter’s life should be spared. They are not cooperating in Pondexter’s clemency case because they are afraid of being disciplined, losing their jobs, health care and pensions because they did what they thought was right, even on their own time. As a result, Pondexter is being denied the ability to investigate, gather evidence and present his case for clemency.

The recommendation of whether Pondexter lives or dies should be a decision for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The decision of whether to accept or reject that recommendation should be the governor’s. In a very real sense, however, this decision has been taken away from them, the legally authorized decision-makers, because the code of silence keeps critical information from the light of day.

Texas has the right to execute people convicted of murder. But if it sets up a process to make sure only the worst offenders receive the death penalty, it must let the process work.

It is an irrevocable wrong to send a man to his death without giving a fair hearing to favorable information about his demeanor, rehabilitation and lack of dangerousness to prison employees and other inmates. But that’s exactly what may happen on Tuesday.

McAndrew is the former warden of three Florida state prisons and an expert in prison and jail issues throughout the South, including Texas.

Nebraska news : Former prison warden on lethal injection

LINCOLN, NE (2009-02-26)
Opponents of capital punishment got some support today (Thursday) from an unlikely source - Ron McANDREW, a former prison warden who's presided over several executions.
From the Capitol, Sarah McCammon

Listen to this new interview here.

Gov. O'Malley To Testify Against Death Penalty in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Map, News) - Gov. Martin O'Malley will argue for a repeal of capital punishment in a Senate committee hearing.

The bill has been stalled in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee for the last two years. O'Malley is hoping a state commission's recommendation for repeal will help persuade enough lawmakers to support a ban in what is building up to be a close vote. The committee hearing is set for Wednesday.

But the swing vote on the committee has been elusive, and O'Malley called on the religious community to petition lawmakers to support repeal on Monday.

Watch the video here.

A Wave of Executions, The Yomiuri and Japan’s Death Penalty

Unmasking Capital Punishment: A Wave of Executions, The Yomiuri and Japan’s Death Penalty

David McNeill and the Yomiuri Shimbun

Introduction

One morning this September, Mantani Yoshiyuki, Yamamoto Mineteru and Hirano Isamu were told by prison wardens they would shortly be dead. As is common under Japan’s death penalty system, the three men, all in their sixties, were given about an hour to get their affairs in order before being blindfolded and hanged. Their deaths brought the total number of people executed in Japan this year to 13 and ended any hope by anti-death penalty advocates that new justice minister Yasuoka Okiharu might slow the pace of executions. Two more executions on October 28 brought the number this year to 15, the largest number in 33 years according to the Japan Death Penalty Information Center.
More on this here.

Respect Life Conference: In their own words

TALLAHASSEE | When all was said and done, the dozen speakers at this year’s Florida Respect Life Conference in Tallahassee offered participants inspiration, education and affirmation, with a special emphasis the groundbreaking 1968 declaration, “Humanae Vitae,” for the occasion of its anniversary.

Here is what some of the speakers and participants had to say – in their own words... :

http://www.thefloridacatholic.org/rop/2008_rop/2008_roparticles/20081015_rop_rl_said_5.php

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Richardson reconsidering stance on death penalty

• AP NewsBreak: NM gov. reconsiders death penalty

  The State - Mon Feb 16, 8:37 pm ET

  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Monday he has softened his stance on the death penalty and may sign a repeal bill if it reaches his desk. The Legislature is considering a measure that would abolish capital punishment and replace it with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
  

"Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death"

"An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life."

Albert Camus---"Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death" (1966)

Death Penalty Quiz

Death Penalty Quiz

State by State Information

Welcome to DPIC's new State-by-State information database. Here you will find the information once maintained on several individual pages.

DEATH PENALTY SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Ron McAndrew is available for speaking engagements on the subjects of prisons, jails, the death penalty and related matters anywhere in the world. Air/ground transportation/hotel and a modest stipend to defray expenses is all that is needed. Ron can present his speeches in both English/French.


Ron's current 2009 calendar update:

• January 22 - 25, 2009, Helena, Montana; Ron has two speaking engagement during evenings of 23rd & 24th in Helena with publicly advertised events and will speak to the Montana State Senate Judiciary Committee Chair & Members on July 25th.

• February 25, 2009, Gainesville, Florida, speech on the death penalty to The Retired Faculty of the University of Florida

• February 26th, 27th, 2009, Lincoln, Nebraska; Ron will speak at a public event in Lincoln during evening of 26th on My Life as a Pro Death Penalty Warden and Why I Became an Abolitionist." Ron will speak to the Nebraska State Legislature on February 27th relative to Legislative Bill 306.

• March 4, 2009, 7 PM Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, Ocala, FL, Speech on Death Penalty Church # 629 8092 x 207 for additional information.

• March 7, 2009, Diocese of St. Petersburg, Venice, Florida, Leaven Conference (speaking at two work shops during conference) Times to be announced.

• October 3, 2009, Human Writes Foundation, Ron will speak on the death penalty in the USA, 34 Downsview Crescent, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 1 UB, London, England

More information here : http://www.ronmcandrew.com/p1148001.htm