Louie L. Wainwright

Louie Lee Wainwright, Sr. (September 11, 1923 – December 23, 2021) was an American corrections administrator. He was secretary of the Florida Division of Corrections from 1962 to 1987. He was most familiar for his progressive approach to Corrections and being the respondent in the famous U.S. Supreme Court Landmark Case Gideon v. Wainwright.

His tenure as Secretary is noted for a shift in corrections philosophy away from centuries of barbaric treatment of those incarcerated. As Florida’s corrections leader he established prisoner’s education and job training, and pushed for transparency of the entire system.  He believed that in no other position would he have had the freedom and obligation to solve problems and help people on a daily basis. He would often say it was his calling. 

Whether helping those who were incarcerated or supporting the dedicated staff across the prison system, his passion for human rights always guided his decisions, regardless of political consequences. 

His legacy includes an enduring chapter of Florida’s history for ensuring appropriate operations, employee treatment, offender program quality, and inmate health and safety as well as his leadership within the American Corrections Association (ACA). He was the driving force in the early to mid-seventies for the ACA’s national campaign to establish the Corrections Accreditation Commission. Florida’s Institutions, then totaling 24, were the first in the nation to achieve accreditation in 1981. In 1984, the Florida Department of Corrections' Central Office earned its accreditation, making Florida the first correctional agency in the nation to be fully accredited. 

He was acknowledged as the Dean of American Correctional Administrators. He was the longest-serving Correctional Secretary or Director in the United States. He has received the American Correctional Association’s highest tribute, the E.R. Cass Award for his outstanding service. His efforts in support of accreditation in Florida and nationwide earned him the 1986 Accreditation Achieved Award from the Commission of Accreditation for Corrections. 

Wainwright is most famous for being named the respondent in two US Supreme Court cases. The first was Gideon vs Wainwright, in which the United States Supreme Court held that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee a right of legal counsel to anyone accused of a crime. Time magazine called the Gideon decision one of the ten most important legal events of the 1960s. Gideon remains one of the most familiar names to students of habeas corpus law. He is also remembered for the Ford vs Wainwright decision, in which the United States Supreme Court approved the common law rule prohibiting the execution of the insane. 

Wainwright died in Tallahassee, Florida, on December 23, 2021, at the age of 98.

References

Category:1923 births
Category:2021 deaths
Category:Politicians from Florida