ALCATRAZ PRISON
SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDS PRISONERS ESCAPES FACILITIES SIEGE MOVIES AMERICAN
INDIAN MOVEMENT AIM
SOFTBOUND BOOK in ENGLISH by ROBERT CAMERON
A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL ANT CONTEMPORARY
PHOTOGRAPHS, DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF ALCATRAZ – THE SECURITY
SYSTEM, INTIMIDATION, THE PRISON, DUNGEONS, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AND ISOLATION
THE LIFE OF A PRISONER – DAILY ROUTINE, THE
EXERCISE YARD, SHAVING, READING, MOVIES, RELIGIOUS SERVICES, VIOLENCE,
HOLIDAYS, CANDY, CIGARETTES, MEALS, BILLIES, HANDCUFFS, BLACKJACKS, CELLHOUSE
LAWYERS AND THE REAL TERROR OF ALCATRAZ – BOREDOM
RUNNING ALCATRAZ -THE EMPLOYEES, A GUARD’S LIFE,
COUNTS, TIER DUTY, THE TOWERS, ATTENTION TO DETAIL, CONTRABAND, DRUGS, SEX,
DEALING WITH THE CRAZIES, THE BARS, DISCIPLINARY MEASURES, RUNNING THE MOVIES,
VISITORS, SICK CALL, NICKNAMES
NOTORIOUS PRISONERS – MACHINE GUN KELLY, FLOYD
HAMILTON. CLARENCE CARNES, CHARLES BERTA, CREEPY KARPIS, THE NAZIS, MURDER
INCORPORATED, HARMON WALEY, ROY GARDNER, BASIL BANGHART, JOHN PAUL CHASE, CECIL
WRIGHT, AL CAPONE, ROBERT STROUD – THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE PRISONER
MENTALITY
DEMONSTRATIONS AND ESCAPES – EARLY ESCAPE
ATTEMPTS, THE BLAST-OUT, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ AND THE LAST ESCAPE
------------------------
Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also
known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock was a maximum security federal prison on
Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco,
California, United States, the site of a fort since the 1850s; the main prison
building was built in 1910–1912 as a United States Army military prison.
The United States Department of Justice acquired
the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on 12
October 1933. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and
security increased. Given this high security and the island's location in the
cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed
Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's strongest prison.
The three-story cellhouse included the four main
cell blocks – A-block through D-block, the warden's office, visitation room,
the library, and the barber shop. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet
(2.7 m) by 5 feet (1.5 m) and 7 feet (2.1 m) high. The cells were primitive and
lacked privacy. They were furnished with a bed, desk, washbasin, a toilet on
the back wall, and few items other than a blanket. African Americans were
segregated from other inmates in cell designation due to racism during the Jim
Crow-era. D-Block housed the worst inmates, and six cells at its end were designated
"The Hole". Prisoners with behavioral problems were sent to these for
periods of often brutal punishment. The dining hall and kitchen extended from
the main building. Prisoners and staff ate three meals a day together. The
Alcatraz Hospital was located above the dining hall.
Prison corridors were named after major U.S.
streets, such as Broadway and Michigan Avenue, of New York and Chicago,
respectively. Working at the prison was considered a privilege for inmates.
Those who earned privileges were employed in the Model Industries Building and
New Industries Building during the day, actively involved in providing for the
military in jobs such as sewing and woodwork, and performing various
maintenance and laundry chores.
After being closed in 1963 as a prison, Alcatraz
has been reopened as a public museum. It is one of San Francisco's major
tourist attractions, attracting some 1.5 million visitors annually. Now
operated by the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area,
the former prison is being restored and maintained.
History
The main cellhouse was built incorporating some
parts of Fort Alcatraz's citadel, a partially fortified barracks from 1859 that
had come to be used as a jail. A new cellhouse was built from 1910 to 1912 on a
budget of $250,000 (approximately $6,800,000 in 2021). Upon completion, the 500
feet (150 m) long concrete building was reputedly the longest concrete building
in the world at the time. This building was modernized in 1933 and 1934 and
became the main cellhouse of the federal penitentiary. The building closed in
1963.
When the new concrete prison was built, many
materials were reused in its construction. Iron staircases in the interior and
the cellhouse door near the barber's shop at the end of A-block were retained
from the old citadel and massive granite blocks originally used as gun mounts
were reused as the wharf's bulkheads and retaining walls. Many of the old cell bars were used to
reinforce the walls, causing structural problems later due to the fact that
many placed near the edge were subject to erosion from the salt air and wind
over the years.
Entrance
After the United States Army's use of the island
for over 80 years, it was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which
hoped an escape-proof jail would help break the crime wave of the 1920s and
1930s.[5] The Department of Justice acquired the Disciplinary Barracks on
Alcatraz on 12 October 1933, and it became a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility
in August 1934. $260,000 was spent to modernize and improve it from January
1934.[6][7] George Hess of the United States Public Health Service was
appointed chief medical officer and Edward W. Twitchell became a consultant in
psychiatry for Alcatraz in January 1934.
The hospital was checked by three officials from
the Marine Hospital of San Francisco. The Bureau of Prisons personnel arrived
on Alcatraz in early February; among them was acting chief clerk Loring O.
Mills. In April 1934, the old material was removed from the prison; holes were
cut in the concrete and 269 cell fronts were installed, built using four
carloads of steel ordered from the Stewart Iron Works.
Two of four new stairways were built, as were 12
doors to the utility corridors and gratings at the top of the cells. On 26
April, a small accidental fire broke out on the roof and an electrician injured
his foot by dropping a manhole cover on it. The Anchor Post Fence Company added
fencing around Alcatraz and the Enterprise Electric Works added emergency
lighting in the morgue and switchboard operations.
In June 1934, the Teletouch Corporation of New
York began the installation of an "electro-magnetic gun or metal detecting
system" at Alcatraz; detectors were added on the wharf, at the front
entrance into the cellblock, and at the rear entrance gate.[7] The correctional
officers were instructed on how to operate the new locking devices in July
1934, and both the United States Coast Guard and the San Francisco Police
Department tested the new radio equipment.[7] Final checks and assessments were
made on the first two days of August.
Early history
Alcatraz was intended for prisoners who
continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. It would be a "last
resort prison", to hold the worst of the worst who had no hope of
rehabilitation.[8][9] On 11 August 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners
arrived at Alcatraz from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas,
having traveled by rail to Santa Venetia, California. Before being escorted to
Alcatraz, they were handcuffed in high-security coaches and guarded by some 60
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents, U.S. Marshals, and railway
security officials.[7][10] Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers,
counterfeiters, or murderers.
Among the first inmates were also 14 men from
McNeil Island, Washington.[7] On 22 August 1934, 43 prisoners arrived from
Atlanta Penitentiary and 10 from North Eastern Penitentiary, Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania. On 1 September, one prisoner arrived from Washington Asylum and
Jail and seven from the District of Columbia Reformatory in Virginia, and on 4
September, another batch of 103 prisoners arrived by train from Leavenworth.[7]
Prisoners continued to arrive, mainly from Leavenworth and Atlanta, into 1935
and by 30 June 1935, the penitentiary's first anniversary, it had a population
of 242 prisoners, although some inmates such as Verrill Rapp had already been
transferred from Alcatraz some months earlier.
On Alcatraz's first anniversary, the Bureau of
Prisons wrote, "The establishment of this institution not only provided a
secure place for the detention of the more difficult type of criminal but has
had a good effect upon discipline in our other penitentiaries also. No serious
disturbance of any kind has been reported during the year." The metal
detectors often overheated and had to be turned off. After the Teletouch
Corporation failed to address the problem, their contract was terminated in
1937 and they were charged over $200 for three new detectors supplied by
Federal Laboratories.
On 10 January 1935, a severe storm caused a
landslide on Alcatraz, causing the Model Industries Building to slide. This
prompted a series of changes to the structures on the island. A riprap was
built around the Model Industries Building, it was strengthened, and a guard
tower added to the roof in June 1936. That same month, the barracks building
was remodeled into 11 new apartments and nine single rooms for bachelors; by
this time there were 52 families living on Alcatraz, including 126 women and
children. The problems with the Model Industries Building and continuing
utility problems with some of the old buildings and systems led to extensive
updates in 1937, including new tool-proof grills on the ventilators of the cell
house roof, two new boilers installed in the power house, and a new pump for
salt water sanitation and guardrails added to stairways.
In 1939–40, a $1.1 million redevelopment was
begun, including construction of the New Industries Building, a complete
overhaul of the power house with a new diesel engine, the building of a new
water tower to solve the water storage problem, new apartment blocks for officers,
improvements to the dock, and the conversion of D-block into isolation
cells.[7] The changes were completed in July 1941. The workshops of the New
Industries Building became highly productive, making Army uniforms, cargo nets,
and other items in high demand during World War II. In June 1945, it was
reported that the federal penitentiaries had made 60,000 nets.
Reputation
Alcatraz gained notoriety from its inception as
the toughest prison in America, considered by many the world's most fearsome
prison of the day. Former prisoners reported brutality and inhumane conditions
which severely tested their sanity. Ed Wutke was the first prisoner to commit
suicide in Alcatraz. Rufe Persful chopped off his fingers after grabbing an axe
from the firetruck, begging another inmate to do the same to his other hand.
One writer described Alcatraz as "the great
garbage can of San Francisco Bay, into which every federal prison dumped its
most rotten apples". In 1939, the new U.S. Attorney General, Frank Murphy,
attacked the penitentiary, saying, "The whole institution is conductive to
psychology that builds up a sinister ambitious attitude among prisoners."
The prison's reputation was not helped by the
arrival of more of America's most dangerous felons, including Robert Stroud,
the "Birdman of Alcatraz", in 1942. He entered the prison system at
age 19, and never left, spending 17 years at Alcatraz. Stroud killed a guard,
tangled with other inmates and spent 42 of his 54 years in prison in solitary
confinement. Despite its reputation, with many former inmates calling it
"Hellcatraz", some prisoners reported that the living conditions
there were much better than most other prisons in the country, especially the
food, and many volunteered to come to Alcatraz.
On 3 December 1940, Henri Young murdered fellow
inmate Rufus McCain. Running downstairs from the furniture shop to the tailor's
shop where McCain worked, Young violently stabbed McCain in the neck; McCain
died five hours later. Young had been sent to Alcatraz for murder in 1933, and
was later involved in an escape attempt during which gangster Doc Barker was
shot to death. He spent nearly 22 months in solitary confinement as a result,
but was eventually permitted to work in the furniture shop. Young went to trial
in 1941, with his attorneys claiming that their client could not be held
responsible for the murder, since he had allegedly been subjected to
"cruel and unusual punishment" by prison guards prior to the act. The
trial brought Alcatraz into further disrepute. Ultimately, Young was convicted
of manslaughter and his prison sentence was only extended by a few years.
Final years
By the 1950s, conditions at Alcatraz had improved,
and inmates were gradually permitted more privileges, such as playing musical
instruments, watching movies on weekends, painting, and radio use; the strict
code of silence became more relaxed, and prisoners were permitted to talk
quietly.[13] However, it was by far the most expensive prison in the United
States, and many still perceived it as America's most extreme jail.[15][7] In
his annual report for 1952, Bureau of Prisons Director James V. Bennett called
for a more centralized institution to replace Alcatraz.
A 1959 report indicated that the facility was over
three times more expensive to run than the average American prison; $10 per
prisoner per day compared to $3 in most other prisons.[16] The problem was made
worse by the buildings' structural deterioration from exposure to salt spray,
which would require $5 million to fix. Major repairs began in 1958, but by 1961
engineers considered the prison a lost cause. Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy submitted plans for a new maximum-security institution at Marion, Illinois.
The June 1962 escape from Alcatraz led to
acrimonious investigations. Combined with the major structural problems and
expensive operation, this led to its closure on 21 March 1963.[16] The final
Bureau of Prisons report said of Alcatraz: "The institution served an
important purpose in taking the strain off the older and greatly overcrowded
institutions in Atlanta, Leavenworth and McNeil Island since it enabled us to
move to the smaller, closely guarded institution for the escape artists, the big-time
racketeers, the inveterate connivers and those who needed protection from other
groups."
The former prison and island are now a museum. It
is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions drawing in some 1.5 million
visitors annually (2010).[17][18] Visitors arrive by boat and are given a tour
of the cellhouse and island, and a slide show and audio narration with
anecdotes from former inmates, guards and rangers on Alcatraz.[19] The
atmosphere of the former penitentiary is still considered to be "eerie",
"ghostly" and "chilling".[19] Protected by the National
Park Service and the National Register of Historic Places, the salt-damaged
buildings of the former prison are now being restored and maintained.
Escape attempts
According to the prison's correctional officers,
once a convict arrived on the Alcatraz wharf, his first thoughts were on how to
leave. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed that no
prisoner successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts,
two men trying twice; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their
escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed
drowned".
The first escape attempt was made on 27 April
1936, by Joseph Bowers, who was assigned to burn trash at the incinerator. He
was scaling a chain link fence at the edge of the island when noticed. When he
refused orders of the correctional officer located at the West Road guard tower
to come down he was shot. He was seriously injured in the fall from over 15 m
(50 ft) and consequently died.
The second escape attempt was on 16 December 1937,
by Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe. During their work assignment in one of the
workshops, they cut the flat iron bars of the window and climbed into the bay.
It was a stormy day and the sea was rough. They were thought dead by the prison
authorities, who believed that they drowned in the bay and their bodies were
swept out to sea.
The prison initially had a staff of 155, including
the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden Cecil J. Shuttleworth,
both considered to be "iron men".[10] None of the staff were trained
in rehabilitation but were highly trained in security.[10] The guards' and
staff's salaries varied. A new guard arriving in December 1948 was offered $3,024.96
per year, but there was a 6% deduction for retirement taxes a year (amounting
to $181.50).[29] The guards typically worked 40-hour weeks with five 8-hour
shifts.
Guards who worked between 6 pm and 6 am were given
a 10% increase and guards doing overtime had to be reported and authorized by
the warden.[29] Officers generally had to pay 25 cents for meals and were
charged $10 to rent an apartment on the island, to include laundry service,
although larger families were charged anything from $20–43 a month for larger
quarters and charged additional for laundry.[29] In 1960, a Bureau of Prisons
booklet revealed that the average prison population between 1935 and 1960 was
263; the highest recorded was 302 in 1937 and the lowest recorded was 222 in
1947.
The main administration center was at the entrance
to the prison, which included the warden's office. The office contained a desk
with radio and telegraph equipment, typewriter, and a telephone.[31] The
administrative office section also had the offices of the associate warden and
secretary, mail desk, captain's desk, a business office, a clerk's office, an
accounting office, a control room which was added with modern technology in
1961, the officer's lounge, armory and vault, and a visiting area and restrooms.
The basement of Alcatraz prison contained dungeons and the showers. The main
stairway to the dungeon lay along Sunrise Alley at the side of A-Block, but the
dungeons were also accessible by a staircase in a trapdoor along the corridor
of D-Block. All visits to Alcatraz required prior written approval from the
warden.
A hospital had originally been installed at
Alcatraz during its time as a military prison in the late 19th century. During
its time as a federal penitentiary, it was located above the dining hall on the
second floor. Hospital staff were U.S. Public Health Service employees assigned
to the Federal Prison Service at Alcatraz. Doctors often lasted fewer than
several days or months at Alcatraz, because few of them could tolerate the
violent inmates who would often terrify them if they failed to be given certain
drugs.[34] Prisoners in ill health were often kept in the hospital, most
famously Stroud and Al Capone, who spent years in it.
Security
Gun Gallery
When the Bureau of Prisons established the Federal
Penitentiary on 1 January 1934, they took measures to strengthen the security
of the prison cells to make Alcatraz "escape-proof", and also to
improve living conditions for their own staff. Up-to-date technologies for
enhancing security and comfort were added to the buildings. Guard towers were
built outside at four strategic locations, cells were rebuilt and fitted with
"tool-proof steel cell fronts and locking devices operated from control
boxes", and windows were made covered with iron grills. Electromagnetic
metal detectors were placed at the entrances of the dining hall and workshops,
with remote controlled tear gas canisters at appropriate locations, remote
controlled gun galleries with machine gun armed guards were installed to patrol
along the corridors.
Improvements were made to the toilet and
electricity facilities, old tunnels were sealed up with concrete to avoid
hiding and escape by prisoners, and substantial changes and improvements were
made to the housing facilities of guards, wardens and captain to live with
their families, with quality relative to rank. Warden Johnston, U.S. Attorney
General Homer Cummings, and Sanford Bates, first director of the Bureau of
Prisons, collaborated very closely to create "a legendary prison"
suited to the times, which resulted in the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary
being nicknamed "Uncle Sam's Devil's Island".
Guards of Alcatraz
Despite Alcatraz being designed to house the
"worst of the worst" of criminals who caused problems at other
prisons, under the guidelines and regulations set by the strict prison
administrators, courts could not direct a prisoner to be directly sent to
Alcatraz, however notorious they were for misbehavior and attempted escape from
other prisons. Prisoners entering Alcatraz would undergo vigorous research and
assessments prior to their arrival. Security in the prison was very tight, with
constant checking of bars, doors, locks, electrical fixtures, and other
physical security.
Prisoners were normally counted 13 times daily,
and the ratio of prisoners to guards was the lowest of any American prison of
the time. The front door was made of solid steel, virtually impossible for any
prisoners to escape through. The island had many guard towers, most of which
have since been demolished, which were heavily guarded at various points in the
day at times when security may have been breached. For instance, there were
guard towers on each of the industry buildings to ensure that inmates didn't
attempt to escape during the work day shifts.
The recreation yard and other parts of the prison
had a 25-foot fence around it topped with barbed wire,[11] should any inmates
attempt to escape during exercise. One former employee of the jail likened his
prison job to being a zoo keeper or his old farm job, due to the fact that
prisoners were treated like animals, sending them out to "plow the
fields" when some of them worked during the day, and then counting them up
and feeding them and so on.[38] He referred to those four years of his life
working in the prison as a "total waste of his life".[38] The
corridors were regularly patrolled by the guards, with passing gates along
them. The most heavily trafficked corridor was "Broadway" between B
and C Block, due to its being the central corridor of the prison and passed not
only by guards but other prison workers.
At the end of each 20-minute meal in the dining
hall, the forks, spoons and knives were laid out on the table and carefully
counted to ensure that nothing had been taken as a potential weapon. In the
earlier years as a prison, prisoners were forbidden from talking while eating,
but this was later relaxed, provided that the prisoners communicated quietly.
The gun gallery was situated in the Recreation
Yard and mounted on one of the dining hall's exterior walls. There was a metal
detector outside of the dining hall for security purposes. The dining hall had
tear-gas canisters attached to the rafters of the ceiling which could be
activated by remote control, should prisoners riot or attempt to escape. The
first warden, James A. Johnston, always entered the dining hall alone and
unarmed, due to heavy guarding around him. Several riots did break out in the
dining hall during Alcatraz's history. Those prisoners who were not involved in
the fighting hid under the dining hall tables to escape possible gunfire.
An inmate register reveals that there were 1,576
prisoners in total held at Alcatraz during its time as a Federal Penitentiary,
although figures reported have varied and some have stated 1,557.[55][56] The
prison cells, purposefully designed so that none adjoined an outside wall,[12]
typically measured 9 feet (2.7 m) by 5 feet (1.5 m) and 7 feet (2.1 m)
high.[57] The cells were primitive with a bed, a desk and a washbasin and
toilet on the back wall and few furnishings except a blanket.[57] An air vent,
measuring 6 inches (150 mm) by 9 inches (230 mm), covered by a metal grill, lay
at the back of the cells which led into the utility corridors. [57] Prisoners
had no privacy in going to the toilet and the toilets would emit a strong
stench because they were flushed with salt water. Hot water taps were not
installed until the early 1960s, shortly before closure.
The penitentiary established a very strict regimen
of rules and regulations under the title "the Rules and Regulations for
the Government and Discipline of the United States Penal and Correctional
Institutions" and also a "Daily Routine of Work and Counts" to
be followed by the prisoners and also the guards. Copies of these were provided
to the prisoners to read and follow. Inmates were basically entitled to food,
clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else was seen as a
privilege. Inmates were given a blue shirt, grey pants (blue and white in later
years), cotton long underwear, socks and a blue handkerchief; the wearing of
caps was forbidden in the cellhouse.
Cells were expected to be kept tidy and in good
order. Any dangerous article found in the cells or on inmates such as money,
narcotics, intoxicating substances or tools which had the potential to inflict
injury or assist in an escape attempt was considered contraband and made the
prisoners eligible for disciplinary action. It was compulsory for prisoners to
shave in their cells three times a week. Attempting to bribe, intimidate, or
assault prison officers was seen as a very serious offense.[55]
African-Americans were segregated from the rest in cell designation due to
racial abuse being prevalent.
Toilet paper, matches, soap, and cleanser were
issued to the cells on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and inmates could request hot
water and a mop to clean their cells. The bars, windows and floors of the
prison were cleaned on a daily basis. In earlier years there was a strict code
of silence but by the 1950s this had relaxed and talking was permitted in the
cellhouse and dining hall provided conversations were quiet and there was no
shouting, loud talking, whistling or singing.
Prisoners would be woken at 6:30 am, and sent to
breakfast at 6:55 am. After returning to the cell, inmates then had to tidy
their cell and place the waste basket outside.[55] At 7:30 am, work started in
the shifts for those privileged enough to do so, punctuated by a whistle, and
prisoners would have to go through a metal detector during work shifts.[38] If
assigned a job, prisoners had to accept that line of work; prisoners were not
permitted to have money in their possessions but earnings went into a
prisoner's Trust Fund.
Some of the prisoners were assigned duties with
the guards and foremen in the Laundry, Tailor Shop, Cobblers Shop, Model Shop
etc. and in gardening and labor. Smoking, a privilege, was permitted in the
workplace providing that it would not be hazardous, but inmates were not
permitted to smoke between the recreation yard and work. Lunch was served at
11:20 am, followed by a 30-minute rest in the cell, before returning to work
until 16:15.
Dinner was served at 16:25 and the prisoners would
then retire to their cells to be locked in for the night at 16:50. Lights went
off at 21:30. After being locked in for the night, 6 guards usually patrolled
the four cell blocks. Many prisoners have compared their duration at Alcatraz
to hell and would have preferred death to continued incarceration.
Alcatraz Library was located at the end of
D-Block. Upon entering Alcatraz, every inmate was given a library card and a
catalog of books found in the library. Inmates could place orders by putting a
slip with their card in a box at the entrance to the dining hall before
breakfast, and the books would be delivered to and from their cell by a
librarian.[61][62][59] The library, which utilized a closed-stack paging
system, had a collection of 10,000 to 15,000 books, mainly left over from the
army days.
Inmates were permitted a maximum of three books in
addition of up to twelve text books, a Bible, and a dictionary.[59] They were
permitted to subscribe to magazines but crime-related pages were torn out and
newspapers were prohibited.[62] Sex, crime and violence were censored from all
books and magazines, and the library was governed by a chaplain who regulated
the censorship and the nature of the reading material to ensure that the
material was wholesome. Failure to return books by the date given made the inmate
liable to removal of privileges.
The average prisoner read 75 to 100 books a year.
Every evening, inmates would generally read books loaned from the library and
usually an hour or 75 minutes was allocated to the practicing of musical
instruments, from the guitar to the accordion. A prison band often practiced in
the dining room or auditorium above it. Al Capone famously practiced the banjo
in the shower block, although most prisoners were limited to playing in their
cells alone.
Corridors
"Broadway"
Alcatraz cellhouse had a corridor naming system
named after major American streets and landmarks. Michigan Avenue was the
corridor to the side of A-Block. Broadway was the central corridor in which the
inmates would assemble as they massed through Times Square (an area with a
clock on the wall), before entering the dining hall for their meals. Broadway
separated Block-B and Block-C and prisoners kept along it had the least privacy
in the prison.
The corridor between Block-C and the library was
called Park Avenue.[66] The corridor in D-Block was named Sunset Strip. Gun
galleries lay at the end of each block, including the West and East Gun
Galleries.
A-Block
A-Block was never modernized, so retained its
"flat strap-iron bars, key locks and spiral staircases" from the
original military prison.[67] No inmates were permanently held there during the
years Alcatraz was a federal penitentiary. Several inmates, however, were held
briefly in A-Block before a hearing or transfer.[67] In the later years, A-Block
was mainly used for storage. A law library was set up at some point, where
inmates could type legal documents. A small barber's shop was located at the
end of A-block where inmates would have a monthly haircut.
B-Block
Most new inmates at Alcatraz were assigned to the
second tier of B-Block.[68] They had "quarantine status" for their
first three months in confinement in Alcatraz, and were not permitted visitors
for a minimum of 90 days.[68][69] Inmates were permitted one visitor a month, although
anybody likely to cause trouble such as registered criminals were barred from
visiting. Letters received by inmates were checked by prison staff first, to
see if they could decipher any secret messages. Frank Morris and his fellow
escapees escaped Alcatraz during the June 1962 escape from Alcatraz by entering
a utility corridor behind B-Block.
D-Block
D-Block gained notoriety as a "Treatment
block" for some of the worst inmates, with varying degrees of punishment,
including Isolation, Solitary and Strip. Prisoners usually spent anywhere from
3 to 19 days in Solitary. Prisoners held here would be given their meals in
their cells, were not permitted to work and could only shower twice a week.
After a 1939 escape attempt in which Arthur "Doc" Barker was killed,
the Bureau of Prisons tightened security in the D-Block. The Birdman of
Alcatraz inhabited cell 42 in D-Block in solitary confinement for 6 years.
D-Block
The worst cells for confinement as a punishment
for inmates who stepped out of line were located at the end of D-Block in cells
9–14, known as "The Hole".[72] Inmates held in the hole were limited
to just one 10-minute shower and an hour of exercise in the yard a
week.[73][71] The five cells of "The Hole" had nothing but a sink and
toilet; the very worst cell was the final cell, nicknamed "The
Oriental" or "Strip Cell", which contained nothing but a hole in
the floor as a toilet, and in which prisoners would often be confined naked
with nothing else for two days. The guards controlled the flushing of the
toilet in the final cell.
After completing the punishment in the Hole, the
prisoner could then return to his cell but would be tagged. A red tag, third
grade, denoted a prisoner who was restricted from leaving his cell for perhaps
3 months. At second grade the prisoners could receive letters, and if after 30
days they remained well-behaved, they would then be restored full prison
privileges.
Its size was approximately that of a regular
cell-9 feet by 5 feet by about 7 feet high. I could just touch the ceiling by
stretching out my arm [...] You are stripped nude and pushed into the cell.
Guards take your clothes and go over them minutely for what few grains of
tobacco may have fallen into the cuffs or pockets. There is no soap. No
tobacco. No toothbrush, The smell – well you can describe it only by the word
'stink.' It is like stepping into a sewer. It is nauseating. After they have
searched your clothing, they throw it at you. For bedding, you get two
blankets, around 5 in the evening. You have no shoes, no bed, no mattress-nothing
but the four damp walls and two blankets. The walls are painted black. Once a
day I got three slices of bread—no—that is an error. Some days I got four
slices. I got one meal in five days, and nothing but bread in between. In the
entire thirteen days I was there, I got two meals [...] I have seen but one man
get a bath in solitary confinement, in all the time that I have been there.
That man had a bucket of cold water thrown over him.
Dining
Alcatraz Dining Hall, often referred to as the
Mess Hall, is the dining hall where the prisoners and staff ate their meals. It
is a long wing on the west end of the Main Cellhouse of Alcatraz, situated in
the center of the island.[75] It is connected to the block by a corridor known
as "Times Square", as it passes beneath a large clock approaching the
entrance way to the dining hall. This wing includes the dining hall and the
kitchen beyond it. On the second floor was the hospital and the auditorium,
which was where movies were screened to the inmates at weekends.
Dining hall protocol was a scripted process,
including a whistle system to indicate which block and tier of men would move
into and out of the hall at any given time, who sat where, where to place
hands, and when to start eating.[77] Prisoners would be awakened at 6:30 am,
and sent to breakfast at 6:55 am.[38] A breakfast menu is still preserved on
the hallway board, dated 21 March 1963. The breakfast menu included assorted
dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, a scrambled egg, milk, stewed fruit, toast,
bread, and butter. Lunch was served in the dining hall at 11:20 am, followed by
a 30-minute rest in the cell, before returning to work until 16:15.
Dinner was served at 16:25 and the prisoners would
then go to their cells at 16:50 to be locked in for the night. Inmates were
permitted to eat as much as they liked within 20 minutes, provided they left no
waste. Waste would be reported and may make the prisoner subject to removal of
privileges if they made a habit of it.
Each dining table had benches which held up to six
men, although smaller tables and chairs later replaced these which seated
four.[43] All of the prison population, including the guards and officials
would dine together, thus seating over 250 people. The food served at Alcatraz
was reportedly the best in the United States prison system.
Recreation
The Recreation Yard was the yard used by inmates
of the prison between 1934 and 1963. It is located opposite the dining hall
south of the end of D-Block, facing the mainland on a raised level surrounded
by a high wall and fence above it.[80][81][82] Guard Tower #3 lay just to the
west of the yard. The gun gallery was situated in the yard, mounted on one of
the dining hall's exterior walls.
In 1936, the previously dirt-covered yard was
paved.[84] The yard was part of the most violent escape attempt from Alcatraz
in May 1946 when a group of inmates hatched a plot to obtain the key into the
recreation yard, kill the tower guards, take hostages, and use them as shields
to reach the dock.
Inmates were permitted out into the yard on
Saturdays and Sundays and on holidays for a maximum of 5 hours. Inmates who
worked seven days a week in the kitchen were rewarded with short yard breaks
during the weekdays. Badly behaved prisoners were liable to having their yard
access rights taken away from them on weekends. The prisoners of Alcatraz were
permitted to play games such as baseball, softball and other sports at these
times and intellectual games such as chess]
Because of the small size of the yard and the
diamond at the end of it, a section of the wall behind the first base had to be
padded to cushion the impact of inmates overrunning it.[88] Inmates were
provided gloves, bats, and balls, but no sport uniforms. In 1938, there were four
amateur teams, the Bees, Oaks, Oilers, and Seals, named after Minor League
clubs, and four league teams named after Major League clubs, the Cardinals,
Cubs, Giants, and Tigers.[89] Many of the inmates used weekends in the yards to
converse with each other and discuss crime, the only real opportunities they
had during the week for a durable conversation.
