Word: warden
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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WHEN JOHN WHITLEY WANDERS INTO the courtyard of Camp H, he is not just any visitor. He is the warden. The Man. Yet his presence stirs hardly a ripple. He inspects a flower bed, points to some asbestos dangling from a pipe. Mostly he just loiters, signaling that he is open for business. Slowly, as if they have all the time in the world (which, of course, many of them do), half a dozen inmates drift his way. One complains about missing laundry; another asks that recreational time be extended. All are polite, but none display the eagerness of someone...
...impartial, considerate. In a closed society where everyone constantly scrutinizes everyone else, he merits the highest compliment: he is straight up. "With Whitley, what you see is what you get," says veteran inmate Wilbert Rideau, who edits the prison's hard- hitting magazine, the Angolite. "He's the best warden we've ever had." Whitley earns praise even from those who know he may preside over their execution. "The warden's pretty cool people," says Curtis Kyles, one of 35 inmates on death row. "He sees people as individuals, not throwaways...
...that date, Whitley presided over Louisiana's final execution by electric chair. Later the same day, orders reached the prison metal shop to construct the gurney that would henceforth be used for lethal injections. Two inmate welders balked; then 375 convicts joined their "work buck." Confronted by every warden's worst nightmare -- a prisoner rebellion -- Whitley did the unthinkable: he backed down. He publicly called the idea a bad one and said a private contractor would build the table instead. "He admitted he was wrong," says lifer Patrick DeVille. "Wardens just don't do that...
Whitley thinks otherwise. "They need to feel an advocate within the system," he says, "and that's the warden." To burnish Angola's image, Whitley started up a touring rock band and theater group. To help prisoners make better use of their free time, he added basic reading and college-level computer and paralegal courses. To encourage good conduct, he offered concrete rewards: increased visitation, telephone and TV privileges...
...ally on the issue of greatest concern to lifers: parole eligibility. Inmates are lobbying Baton Rouge for laws that would grant lifers the opportunity for a supervised release, a practice common in most states. "Others saw us as subversive," says Norris Henderson, who heads the inmate effort. "This warden agrees with the things we're doing." Whitley maintains that his interest is practical. Currently two-thirds of Angola's inmates are serving life terms; in another 15 years, the prison will be filled with people who can never leave. "Put someone in prison for life with no hope - of getting...