March 18
TEXAS----new book
Warden
Texas Prison Life and Death From the Inside Out
Price: $24.95
Hardcover with jacket
1-931721-50-5
6" x 9" 208 pages
55 b&w photographs Criminal Justice/Corrections/Penitentiary, Prison
History, Biography and Texas History
February 2005
by Jim Willett and Ron Rozelle
Jim Willett never intended to preside over more legal executions than
anyone else alive.
Warden is the story of Willetts 30-year career in Texas prisons, from his
first night as a shotgun-wielding guard to the last man he accompanied to
the death chamber. He saw first-hand the Carrasco hostage crisis, the
longest prison siege in the history of the United States. He worked as an
internal-affairs investigator, earning the resentment of his colleagues as
he asked questions about guards abuse of prisoners. And he watched the
crowds gather when Texas reinstated the death penalty.
In Warden, Willett remembers not just the big events of his career but the
small ones that give prison life its texture. Most chillingly, Willett
describes some of the 89 afternoon visits he paid to the condemned as they
prepared for death. In measured but powerful prose, he describes the
efficient actions of the tie-down team; the prisoners often meandering
last words; and the way that he himself lifted his glasses from his nose
to signal the executioner to start the IV flow.
Jim Willett is now director of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville,
Texas. He narrated the radio documentary Witness to an Execution, which
aired on NPRs Morning Edition and won a Peabody Award in 2000. Ron
Rozelle, Jim Willetts former college roommate, teaches creative writing.
His novels include A Place Apart and The Windows of Heaven.
