WARDEN ELBERT V. NASH
February 7, 1945 Thomas Whitecotton a former Captain with the Missouri Highway Patrol, accepted the position of Warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary. His mission? “clean up” the penitentiary.
A year later, Missouri formed the Department of Corrections. Whitecotton, became its new Director. Together with Missouri Governor Phil Donnelly, the two set out to take control of Missouri's prisons.
Prisoners at MSP rioted in September of 1954. The Missouri Highway Patrol and local law enforcement entered the prison to quell the riot, before all the buildings were burnt to the ground.
In the aftermath of the disturbance, four inmates lay dead, 29 injured and four guards assaulted. Administrators estimated the damage at over 5 million dollars.
Director Whitecotton resigned as Director and less than a year later, Governor Donnelly appointed James D. Carter as the new Director of Corrections in March of 1956. The Director appointed former Highway Patrolman Elbert V. Nash as the new Warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary.
Nash, a former World War II Veteran, school teacher and Highway Patrolman, eagerly accepted the job. Mr. Nash had every intention of making the penitentiary a safer, more productive and less violent institution.
Warden Nash over-saw the State executions of; Thomas Moore, Sammy Aire Tucker, Ronald Lee Wolfe and Charles H. Odom. I mention these executions because as a Correctional Officer, I have seen my share of death. It goes with the job. Its never easy watching a man die or finding him after hes killed himself.
Warden Nash knew these men personally. He spoke to them, listened to their pleas of mercy and he watched them die in the chamber.
By the 1960s, MSP embraced another rash of violence. To...
... middle of paper ...
...e party described the Warden's demeanor as “normal” but it was far from normal.
After the party, Elbert Nash shook hands and walked across the street to his home with his wife. Depressed, emotionally distraught, the media crucifying his moral character, Mr. Nash walked to his bedroom, placed a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. It was over. The media and politicians had finally got their pound of flesh. Warden Nash killed himself. They could do as they pleased.
According to the book “Somewhere In Time” by Laurie A. Stout, a few days later, Representative Peter J. Rabbitt (Yes, Peter Rabbitt) from St. Louis, released a full report stating that Warden E.V. Nash was “wholly lacking in administrate ability.”
Enemies sought to destroy the penitentiary Warden, and in my opinion; they succeeded. If I am right, and I hope I'm not, may God have mercy on their souls.
Unable to get official permission to interview and write about correctional officers, Ted Conover, author of the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, “got in" by applying for a correctional officer position. After training, he and his fellow rookies, known as "newjacks," were randomly assigned to Sing Sing, one of the country's most famous -- and infamous -- prisons. Sing Sing, a maximum-security male prison, was built in 1828 by prisoners themselves, kept at their task by frequent use of the whip. Today, the chaos, the backbiting, the rundown building and equipment, the disrespect and the relentless stress that Conover experienced in his year at Sing Sing show, quite well, how the increase of prisons in the U.S. brutalizes more than just the prisoners. Some of the individuals in Conover's entering "class" of corrections trainees had always wanted to work in law enforcement. Others were ex-military, looking for a civilian job that they thought would reward structure and discipline. But most came looking for a steady job with good benefits. To get it, they were desperate enough to commute hours each way, or even to live apart from their families during the work week. Their job consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, hassle and abuse them. Sometimes, the prisoners' requests are simple, but against the rules: an extra shower, some contraband cigarettes. Other times, they are appropriate, but unbelievably complicated: it can take months to get information about property lost in the transfer from one prison to another. Meanwhile, the orders officers give are ignored. Discipline -- even among the officers themselves -- is non-existent. And with the money and benefits of this "good" job come nightmares and family stress, daily uncertainty about one's job and duties, and pent-up frustration that, every so often, explodes in violence -- instigated by staff as well as by prisoners.
Lance has been actively coordinating political action for prison reform since 2007. He is President of the AFSCME, a union for correctional employees throughout the state of Texas. The AFSCME has national representation with 1.6 million members; Lance represents about 5000 Texas correctional workers, about one-eighth of Texas’s total correctional staff, which includes non-correctional employees like parole, victim services, etc. There are roughly 26,000 Correctional Officers in Texas, but whether the state is staffed to that capacity is open to debate. There are typically officer shortages, give or take 3000 at any given time. Today, Texas faces the most severe shortages of correctional staff they have seen. I asked Lance why he thought the Texas Prisons were in such storage for Correctional ...
... by the end of the book believes the inmates are prone to violence and his sole purpose is to maintain order among a dehumanized group. It is far-fetched to ask someone like Conover to become a convict but I do believe that their perspectives would be insightful.
After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests. Working in a reception facility, this is a facility where inmates are brought in from the county jails to the state intake facility, we deal with a lot of requests and questions. At times, with the phone ringing off the hook from family members and inmates with their prison request forms, you get a little cynical and tired of answering the same questions over and over. As I read the book I begin to understand some of the reason for the questions. Inmate(s) now realize that the officers and administrative personnel are in control of their lives. They dictate with to get up in the morning, take showers, eat meals, go to classes, the need see people for different reason, when to exercise and when to go to bed. The lost of control over their lives is a new experience for some and they would like to be able to adjust to this new lost of freedom. Upon understanding this and in reading the book, I am not as cynical as I have been and try to be more patient in answering questions. So in a way I have changed some of my thinking and understanding more of prison life.
Warden Cain uses an unusual system at Angola. He strives on the motive that his inmates will improve themselves at Angola and have a free, fulfilled life post prison as a result. Rather than lock the prisoners up in their cells for hours on end, he has amplified the opportunities for visitors, the use of the library, work on the prison grounds and a variety of special programs. He is able to wake up in the morning and come to work because of the inmates. His desire for their improvement is highly incomparable. Many woul...
One of the first topics discussed by Jacobs is the history of the prison and prison organization. The beginning days of Stateville
Gourley, Catherine. The Horrors of Andersonville: Life and Death Inside a Civil War Prison. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century, 2010.
Chapman’s research shows evidence of 211 stabbings taking place in three years at one prison in Louisiana. Bloody riots, rape, robberies, and exhortation are just a few of the everyday occurrences that can be expected when entering a penitentiary.
They find meaning in their lives.Before purpose and survival or redemption and salvation can be discussed, an idea of what Angola is must be produced. The warden of Angola is a large man by the name of Burl Cain. Some believe that he is the reason for Angola being what it is. Bergner believes different:The striking tranquility at Angola—confirmed by the ACLU’s National Prison Project and Louisiana’s own watchdogs—could not be credited to Warden Cain alone. Twenty-one years ago conditions had been so anarchic and murderous a federal judge had ruled that the prison "shocked the conscience" and breached the Eight Amendment’s guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. Reform had begun then.
The prison reform started January 1st 1870 and ended December 31st 1970. This reform bettered the prison system and changed prison and mental institutions not only in America but as well as Europe. Some successes that came from this reform was the widespread establishment of mental institutions, increased attention to prisoner’s rights, redefining prison procedure, and the attempt to cure mental illness although Dorothea Dix’s federal bill did fail. This reform swept the country and it all begin with Dorothea Dix thanks to her the prison system was changed
Ralph, P.H.(1997). From Self Preservation to Organized Crime: The Evolution of Inmate Gangs. In J.W. Marquart, & J.R. Sorensen (Eds.). Correctional Contexts: Contemporary and Classical Readings (pp. 182-186). Los Angeles: Roxbury
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
In Roger Prays essay we see how our prison system has come to where we are at now. He shows how history of prisons worked and how our basis of the prison system came about over the last 200 years.
Dye makes strong points that I agree with completely. I think people often overlook that people on death row could have acted out of passion, mental illness, or while they were intoxicated. A repetition of their crimes can be avoided by medication, therapy, and even just an elongated
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.