Word: whitleys
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...Whitley describes himself as "very conservative" on crime. He favors the death penalty and believes executions would serve as a deterrent if they were carried out more swiftly. He has presided over two executions. After each, he says, he went home and fell into a deep, undisturbed sleep. Whitley also says that his No. 1 concern is security and that he has "no moral problem locking up an inmate for life, as long as citizens understand that it'll cost them...
...starry-eyed corrections rookie, Whitley admits, "I was going to save them all." Twenty-two years later, he thinks it's a "complete farce" to speak of rehabilitating inmates; they must do that for themselves. "All we can do," he says, "is provide the opportunity." Does he believe a person can really change? "Sure, I've seen it. They've aged. They've matured. They've shown they can handle their emotions." Would he give some of them a second chance? "Sure." Coaxed, the warden allows that there are "a couple hundred" he could set free tomorrow without reservation...
Some of those men were inmates back in 1970 when Whitley first started out at Angola as a classification officer. Armed with sociology and zoology degrees from Southeastern Louisiana University, he tried and failed to secure an appointment to the state police. Disappointed, he settled for a corrections job. After nine years at Angola, he moved to Louisiana's Hunt Correctional Center, where in 1983 he became The Man. "I never really had a desire to be a warden," he says. "I just kept being promoted up." (Sybil, his wife of 17 years, counters, "He says he's not ambitious...
These days Whitley's stiffest challenge is finding time to himself. The 28- sq.-mi. domain over which he reigns is as demanding as any small town. There are fire and sanitation departments, a civilian population of 300 (mostly security staff and their families), a cemetery, a community , swimming pool and even a post office with its own zip code. Although Whitley, his wife and their seven-year-old daughter Susan live in grand isolation in a spacious brick house atop a hill overlooking Angola, the sense of privacy is illusory. "He can't even see Susan's swim meet...
...Whitley is not one to kick back with the guys. Free time means family time: computer games with Susan, gangster movies with Sybil, history books. He speaks from experience when he says, "If you don't keep family in mind in this business, you lose them." A first marriage fell apart during his early years in corrections, when he had not yet learned to leave the strains of the job at the office. "I had a bad temper," he says. "I'd carry it home and let it rip." Now he refuses to discuss office problems at home...