PODCASTS RULE XD !!!

I loved listening to the podcasts about Criminal Injustices for this class. It's fascinating to hear personal stories directly from those within who live and work within the walls of a prison. My favorite podcast that I listened to focused on the death penalty and the effect it has on the workers in the prison. This podcast consists of an interview with a man named Frank Thompson who worked at the Oregon State Penitentiary as the Superintendent. When he was offered the job, there hadn't been any death penalty sentences in 32 years. Within 18 months of Thompson working at the prison, there was a prisoner sentenced with the death penalty. During the 32 years, the protocol had changed for the method of killing those sentenced to death from a gas chamber to lethal injection. So no one in Oregon knew how to use lethal injection to kill for the death penalty ever. 

Thompson was given the job to re-right the protocol, fly people in from other states to teach him how to do it, hire a staff of people willing to work with him and run simulations over and over again to practice all the steps. Eventually, when Thompson and his team were prepared, they conducted the death penalty on the prisoner sentenced. Thompson said he practiced over and over again what he would be done during the process, but he never practiced what he would do after the fact that he had killed a living soul. He highlights the dramatic effect it had on himself, for he felt a void in his heart, and the effect it had on his staff. He had members leave because it became too mentally and emotionally damaging for them to experience. 

When we talk about the death penalty, usually our minds are focused on the human being killed. People either feel that it’s inhumane to force death upon someone, or that its an effective way to punish those convicted of crimes. But we don't think of the humans who have the job of conducting this process. I don't think many people realize that the death penalty creates “another set of victims”, which is what Thompson concluded after he retired. What it takes to kill another human just because you're asked to is indescribable. I’m glad I listened to this podcast because it educated me not only on the damages within prisons but about the scars that are carried out.