91. A Warden Reflects on the Lasting Guilt of Prison Executions

All The Wiser

Kimi Culp

Society & Culture, Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.9 • 652 Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is it like to witness the darkest corners of our justice system? Dr. Allen Ault is a former warden and commissioner of corrections. He recounts his experience with the death penalty and the lasting emotional impact on those involved in the process. He also gets deeply personal about his own struggle with feelings of guilt as a result of “murdering somebody,” and his subsequent journey grappling with the moral implications of capital punishment.

In this episode:

The culture of the Georgia prison system.
Building relationships and trust within the system along with the prisoners.
The impact of the death penalty and the emotional toll it takes on the correctional staff.
Thoughts on why the death penalty still exists.

Links & Resources

Washington Post Article: The hidden victims of the death penalty: Correctional staff

\Movie: There Will Be No Stay

Charity: First Christian Church Richmond, Children & Youth Ministries

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Transcript

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0:53.6	It's about keeping
0:54.4	everything secure. I hadn't expected this, but the thing that I found when the inmate was jolted
1:07.3	and slumped over, it really hit me hard that I had just murdered somebody because that's all you can call it.
1:13.6	It's one of the most premeditated murders. It's all scheduled and scripted and even the coroner's report comes back as a homicide as a cause of death.
1:26.6	And murdering somebody, if you have a conscience whatsoever,
1:31.2	it really weighs heavy on you. And that's what I went through on five different occasions.
1:39.7	That was Alan Alt. He's a former warden and commissioner of corrections for the state of Georgia.
1:47.3	He ran the whole prison system, all the prisons, the staff, and the inmates.
1:54.3	It's a big job. But the smallest, teeniest part of his job, the part that gave him nightmares and a lifelong struggle with trauma
2:03.9	were the executions. I've forgotten who the philosopher was, but he said if you're going to seek
2:11.7	revenge, dig two graves, one for the one avenged and one for the Avenger.
2:19.1	And it's really how you feel is that you were the Avenger,
2:24.3	but you feel like you want to die.
2:28.0	You feel so guilty for murdering somebody.
2:34.1	Today on the show, we're talking about one of the lesser known impacts of the death penalty,
	...

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