John Whitley

John P. Whitley (born January 1944 in Hammond, Louisiana) is a former Louisiana corrections officer who served as the warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary (or Angola Prison), the largest maximum-security in the United States, from 1990 to 1995. Time magazine credited Warden Whitley with turning around hopelessness and violence at Angola with "little more than his sense of decency and fairness." Early life and education John Whitley attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana, and graduated in 1968. He enlisted in the United States Army that year, and served during the Vietnam War before his discharge in 1970. Shortly after, he began his career in corrections. Career Whitley started his career as a corrections officer at Angola in 1970. He rose through the ranks during the prison's most violent years, becoming Deputy Warden.