Death Row Correctional Officers

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808322323
• Date: 01 December 2008
• Author: Melissa Benningfield,Kelly L. Brown
• Published date: 01 December 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

524

Death Row Correctional Officers

Experiences, Perspectives, and Attitudes

Kelly L. Brown

Indiana University, Kokomo

Melissa Benningfield

Indiana State University, Terre Haute

Capital punishment has received much scholarly attention; however, very little is known about

correctional officers who work on death row. This research attempts to fill this gap in our knowl-

edge by exploring the experiences, perspectives, and attitudes of correctional officers who have

worked on death row. The findings reveal that working on death row is a paradoxical experience.

The results suggest that correctional officers who work on death row experience both strain and

pressure while at the same time, they find death row work is easier and has fewer problems than

other assignments in the prison. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Keywords: correctional officers; death row; capital punishment

Capital punishment has captured, and held, the attention of scholars and the public for

centuries. Regardless of the reasons for the public’s fascination with the death penalty,

the attention it has garnered is not likely to recede in the near future. Although the research

on capital punishment is extensive, there are still areas of capital punishment that are fairly

unexplored in the literature. This research investigates one of these largely unexplored areas

of capital punishment, namely, the experiences, perspectives, and attitudes of correctional

officers who work on death row.

The extant research on capital punishment covers a large and diverse range of topics. The

history and current practice of capital punishment, including methods, laws, case studies, and

issues have been well documented (e.g., Bohm, 1999; Von Drehle, 1995) as have descriptions

of capital punishment, including the number of executions, distribution of death row inmates,

and descriptions of death row inmates (e.g., Bonczar & Snell, 2005). Researchers have inves-

tigated the effects of the death penalty on the families of victims and the families of the con-

demned (Bohm, 1999; King, 2005), witnesses to executions (Blaustein, 1997; Zelenka,

1993), and the condemned themselves (e.g., Johnson, 1981). Some scholars have examined

the effects of executions on future criminal behavior (Cochran & Chamlin, 2000), whereas

Authors’ Note: This research was supported in part by grants from the Faculty Development and Grants

Committee at Indiana University Kokomo and the University Research Committee at Indiana State University.

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. Please address correspondence

to: Kelly L. Brown, PhD, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Kokomo, 2300 South

Washington Street, PO Box 9003, Kokomo, IN 46904-9003; e-mail: kelkebro@iuk.edu.

Criminal Justice Review

Volume 33 Number 4

December 2008 524-540

© 2008 Georgia State University

Research Foundation, Inc.

10.1177/0734016808322323

http://cjr.sagepub.com

hosted at

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Brown, Benningfield / Death Row Correctional Officers 525

others have investigated public support and opposition to the death penalty (e.g., Sandys &

McGarrell, 1995; Whitehead, 1998). Still others have explored the role of health care profes-

sionals in the execution process (Federman & Holmes, 2000). Finally, there has been some

work on the execution process itself including discussions on the administrative aspects of

supervising executions (e.g., Flack, 1993; Martin, 1993), the experiences and effects of par-

ticipating in the execution process (Cabana, 1996; Gillespie, 2003; Gursky, 1988; Johnson,

1990; Kroll, 1989; Payne, Pray, & Damis, 1990; Thigpen, 1993; Vasquez, 1993), and the

management of media interest in executions (Kindel, 1993).

Notably lacking in the research on capital punishment are examinations of correctional offi-

cers who are assigned to work on death row. Correctional officers are given the ominous task

of securing and supervising offenders who are living under a sentence of death. Theirs is not a

pleasant task, nor is it one that society, on any level, generally considers. The correctional offi-

cers are not afforded the “luxury,” as is the rest of society, of forgetting the offenders once the

sentence has been pronounced. Foster and Forsyth (2001) argue that what happens after sen-

tencing is not important in capital cases as the death sentence in symbolic. The death sentence

is society’s way of denouncing any redeemable quality is the offender and stating the

offender’s behavior is so evil that society wants nothing to do with him or her, and the offender

deserves to die. Thus, the purpose of the death sentence has been served, and society can wash

its hands of the offender regardless of whether or not the offender is actually executed.

Yet, despite the violence for which they have been convicted and the little attention given

to the offenders after their sentence has been pronounced, society affords them time to appeal

their cases. There are more than 3,300 convicted offenders living on death row in the United

States (NAACP, 2007). Offenders living under sentence of death in this country are incarcer-

ated an average of nine years (Death Penalty Information Center, 2008). Some offenders live

on death row more than a decade before they are executed or their sentence is commuted.

The life of a death row inmate is characterized by loneliness, powerlessness, hopelessness,

dehumanization, demoralization, boredom, tension, apathy, decay, emotional turmoil, and

extreme psychological pressure (Johnson, 1990, 1981). Johnson (1981) refers to life on death

row as a living death. Inmates have called living on death row “a slow death” or “a very cruel

way of life” (Gillespie, 2003, p. 37). The inmates on death row struggle with inactivity, a com-

plete lack of control, and the inability to make any decision for themselves (Gillespie, 2003).

Additionally, they must cope with the knowledge that their death is imminent.

These are the offenders who correctional officers must guard and the environment in which

the officers must work. Correctional officers who are assigned to death row must interact with

offenders who experience this “living death” and who have been convicted of such heinous

crimes that society pronounces them undeserving of life. Yet little is actually known about the

correctional officers assigned to death row. With few exceptions, the research has been largely

silent on this topic. Much of the work in this area has centered on executions specifically (e.g.,

Gillespie, 2003; Johnson, 1990; Payne et al., 1990; Thigpen, 1993) or on the offenders who

live on death row rather than the correctional officers who guard them (e.g., Johnson, 1981).

The correctional officers interviewed by Johnson (1990) reported that the experience of

working on death row was filled with tension, boredom, and fear. The correctional officers

expressed concern about officers who, out of fear, were involved in relationships with the

death row inmates that were either too abusive or too lax. In either situation, these correc-

tional officers created problems. On one hand, abusive or overbearing officers create trouble