Warden

"Warden is the story of Jim Willett's thirty-year career in Texas prisons, from his first night as a shotgun-wielding guard to the last man he escorted to the death chamber. He saw firsthand the carnage of the Carrasco hostage crisis. He worked as an internal-affairs investigator, feeling the hot resentment of colleagues as he asked questions about guards' abuse of prisoners. And he rose to be warden of the Walls Unit, the flagship of the Texas prison system." "Using journal excerpts, Willett reconstructs the duty he hated most as warden of the Walls: the eighty-nine times he accompanied condemned men to the death chamber. Some of those executed were famous, such as Gary Graham; others were hardly noticed. Some remained vicious to the end; others apologized to their victims' relatives. Some cursed; some prayed." "But to the prison system, those differences didn't matter. After the tie-down crew secured the condemned, after the medical crew inserted IV lines, and after the man spoke his last words, it was Willett's turn to do his part. Sometimes he pressed a hidden button. Sometimes he simply lifted his glasses from his nose. But always his signal meant the same thing. It was time for the executioner to begin, time for the deadly fluids to flow, time for the state to end a man's life."--Jacket.