8mo ago

Prison officers traumatized by rate of executions in US death penalty states

www.theguardian.com Prison officers traumatized by rate of executions in US death penalty states

Pursuit of ‘non-stop executions’ causing psychological distress to corrections staff as states urged to widen gap between executions

Pursuit of ‘non-stop executions’ causing psychological distress to corrections staff as states urged to widen gap between executions

The relentless pursuit of “non-stop executions” by a rump of US death penalty states is exposing prison staff to extreme levels of psychological and physical stress, according to traumatized corrections officers who are appealing for help.

Though capital punishment is generally on the wane in America, with only five states carrying out executions last year, those states that remain active are showing a renewed determination. In some states, the pace of judicial killings is now so intense that prison guards are kept in an almost permanent state of readiness, with mock executions staged on a rolling basis.

In Oklahoma, officers at the state penitentiary in McAlester, which houses the death chamber, are so stretched by the schedule of 25 executions set in 2022 by the Republican-controlled state that the state’s own attorney general and the head of the prison service have appealed to the courts for a more staggered approach. They have requested that the gap between executions be widened from 60 to 90 days, so far to no avail.

The unprecedented move to try to cool the pace of executions followed a joint letter to the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, from nine former senior corrections officials. They warned that staff were being subjected to “lasting trauma” and a “psychological toll” that included post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse and distress due to the “non-stop executions”.

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Any day now a Republican will propose they solve this "bureaucratic inefficiency" by switching to ovens.
- I'd say don't give them ideas, but I'm guessing that they've already had this idea and are prepping it.

Turns out regularly murdering people takes a toll on you. Imagine that.

Interesting to see this. I live in Texas and the online comments every time they kill an inmate cause me to envision thousands of pro death penalty guys unzipping when it happens.
I guess having to face it in person affects the stimulative properties. Who'd a thunk it?

25 per year (call it one every two weeks?) really doesn't seem that high, esp with their wording of "non-stop executions".
Guess that really speaks to how messed up these execution methods are.
As I type this, I can't help but wonder how the mass executions during the French Revolution affected people's psyche (seems like a well built guillotine would be able to go through closer to 25 executions per day). Anyone have info on that?
- I mean yes the headline is sensationalized but that still averages to one every 2 weeks, enough to be considered a pretty regular occurrence. Imagine if every other week your work has a power outage that needs a 4-hour manual reset to fix. After working there for a year would you describe it as an every so often problem or "our power is fucked it goes out all the time"?
- In those days most people would be considered heavily traumatized by modern standards. The kind of thing that would send you to multi year therapy these days was just a regular Tuesday back then.
- I've never killed anyone. So yeah, one per two weeks is high.
  Even most soldiers kill 0 people.
  
  And I would argue that this is different than if a soldier kills someone.
  Like, when you kill as a soldier, generally the other person is trying to kill you (or you can at least tell yourself that afterwards. When you're an executioner.....well let's just say they are known for wearing hoods for a reason.
- As I type this, I can’t help but wonder how the mass executions during the French Revolution affected people’s psyche
  I don't know if it affected their psyche, but seeing old ladies knitting in front of a guillotine and being completely unflinching about getting coated with blood gushing out of the neck that just had a head severed from it would freak me the fuck out.

mock executions staged on a rolling basis.
I feel like a sweet summer child, but what are mock executions and probably more importantly, why are mock executions? Edit: looked it up. Holy shit. Just unreal.

It wouldn't surprise me if somebody came up with the idea to charge spectators to perform the executions instead. Could Bezos or Elon be in on this?
- Totally imagining them unironically pitching the running man as their "original idea"
  
  They wouldn't call it an original idea on its own, they'd pitch it as 'The Running Man but with AI' and call that an original idea.

Does anyone know if there exists a list of what crimes/cases lead to executions?
Would be curious to see the specific data that leads to murder, sorry, “lawful execution”
- The death penalty can only be imposed on defendants convicted of capital offenses – such as murder, treason, genocide, or the killing or kidnapping of a Congressman, the President, or a Supreme Court justice. Unlike other punishments, a jury must decide whether to impose the death penalty.
  https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/sentencing
  
  Note: This is just for Federal crimes. State crimes are separate.

Sure, let's just literally make it a robot's job to kill people, that's so fuckin murican I can not even

Trump...automate the process! I automated many many things. Some say the best automation we have never seen. One time a big corrections officer came to me with a teary in his eyes. He asked if we could have a conveyor belt prison going into a gas section so he didn't have to drag the criminals all by himself.

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