Former San Quentin warden honored for speaking out against death penalty



Richard Halstead
Posted: 05/22/2009

During her stint as warden of San Quentin State Prison, Jeanne
Woodford oversaw the execution of four death row inmates without ever
discussing her personal feelings about the death penalty.
On Thursday night, however, Woodford received an award from Death
Penalty Focus for her courage in speaking out against capital
punishment. Woodford, who went on to serve as both director and
undersecretary of the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, began sharing her thoughts about the death penalty
about a year after retiring in 2006. Others honored by the San
Francisco-based nonprofit included New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
and former California Attorney General John Van De Kamp.
Singling out Woodford and Van De Kamp, Death Penalty Focus director
Lance Lindsey said, "They're courageous because they're coming out of
communities that are often associated with a knee-jerk tough-on-crime
position. What they represent is a smart-on-crime position."
Woodford, 56, said she has always opposed the death penalty.
"Initially for me it was just a matter of, does this really make
sense to be killing people to avenge the death of someone else?"
Woodford said in an interview this week.
She said it is a debate that will never be settled.
"Some people believe in an eye for an eye, and some people don't,"
she said.
Woodford, who started her career as a prison guard at San Quentin,
said there are more practical reasons for opposing capital punishment.
She said the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent because of the
time it takes to execute condemned prisoners. She said that due to
improvements in prison security, capital punishment is no longer
needed to protect the public from the possibility that killers might
escape. She noted that prisoners can now be sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility of parole. And, she said, it costs far
more to execute a condemned prisoner than to keep one in prison for
life.
"I just really worry about the state of California," Woodford said.
"I worry about the fact that we continue to spend so much money on
issues that aren't giving us any benefit. The death penalty is one of
those."
Woodford said the state also can no longer afford to incarcerate
nonviolent offenders or to skimp on mental health and drug treatment
programs, which keep people out of prison. She said money is being
wasted by sending parole violators back to state prison for minor
violations.
"We're not making intelligent choices about who should be in state
prison and who shouldn't," Woodford said.
During her stint as warden at San Quentin from 1999 to 2004, Woodford
initiated a number of experimental programs aimed at reducing
recidivism.
"We currently look back on that time with some nostalgia," said
Jacques Verduin, executive director of the Insight Prison Project, a
San Rafael-based nonprofit that works with San Quentin to provide
rehabilitative programs.
"Jeannie was one of the first to understand that the community could
play a larger role in this prison, or prisons period," Verduin said.
But Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal
Foundation in Sacramento, disputes Woodford's economic critique of
capital punishment. The foundation is a public interest law
organization that files friend of the court briefs to speed the
implementation of executions.
"The argument assumes that the present costs are necessary and will
continue and that is not a valid assumption," Scheidegger said. "The
costs can be greatly reduced. The appeals don't need to last 20
years. Virginia does it in five."
In a guest editorial that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in
October, Woodford recalled presiding over the execution of Robert Lee
Massie. Woodford said she chose to write about Massie "because he
would be the poster child for why people say we need a death
penalty." Massie was originally sentenced to death in 1965, but his
sentence was later commuted to life. He was paroled in 1978, murdered
a liquor store owner during a robbery eight months later, pleaded
guilty, and was once again sentenced to die.
Massie was one of several death row inmates who effectively
volunteered to be executed by dropping their appeals, Woodford said.
"So it's really like assisting with their suicide," Woodford said.
"What that ought to say to people is that permanent imprisonment
isn't an easy punishment for anyone."

Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij. com

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