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TIMES CHANGE 88. Is it true that there was a dungeon at Alcatraz? When Alcatraz opened, the Bureau of Prisons believed that just isolating their 250 worst troublemakers out on a desolate island would be enough. Provisions weren't made for constructing any segregated punishment areas within Alcatraz. But when inmates broke the rules, Alcatraz needed a place to punish them. At first, the existing isolation cells from the military cellblocks, including cells in the original D Block and dark cells up on the third tier of A Block, were used to segregate troublemakers. Serious offenders were sometimes taken down beneath the cellhouse, into an old military prison segregation unit the inmates referred to as The Dungeon. It was actually the old foundation of the Army's citadel-a collection of storage rooms and cells left over from the military prison days before the cellhouse was built. 89. Why did Warden Johnston change the harsh policies of silence in the cellhouse and punishment in a dungeon? First, these policies weren't very effective. The Alcatraz inmates found ways to communicate in the cellhouse, including using emptied-out toilets and the plumbing that connected them, so that the guards eventually considered the rule of silence virtually unenforceable. And the "dungeon", for all its fearsome reputation, was known to be a weak spot in the security of the penitentiary. The dungeon was outdated technology-relying on damp, old brick walls to hold the convicts. Shackles were necessary to keep the men from digging their way out. Beyond their ineffectiveness, enforced silence and the use of a dungeon began to be viewed as harsh. For its first few years, Alcatraz operated under a pretty effective shroud of secrecy. But by the late 1930's, both the public and its elected representatives were starting to hear stories about Alcatraz from released inmates. And the stories-describing the rule of silence and the dungeon-were met with outrage in some quarters. In 1939, a new U.S. Attorney General, Frank Murphy, wanted to close Alcatraz down, saying "The whole institution is conducive to psychology that builds up a sinister and vicious attitude among the prisoners". Rather than close it down, Warden Johnston eased the rule of silence in the cellhouse, and the Public Works Admin-istration pumped more than a million dollars into a facilities upgrade program. Much of that money was used to remodel Cellblock D into a high-security isolation area called the Treatment Unit. 90. How did conditions change for the inmates over the years? In general, things seemed to get easier for the Alcatraz inmates. When the prison first opened, the inmates weren't even allowed to talk inside the cellhouse. Subsequently, the inmates were allowed to "hold quiet conversations", but "loud talking, shouting, whistling, singing or other un-necessary noises" were still not permitted. After 1940, and especially after Warden Johnston retired in 1948, conditions for the Alcatraz inmates continued to improve, as they received additional time in the recreation yard, radio access, more magazines, musical instruments, art supplies, and movies twice a month. 91. Did anything change at Alcatraz during World War II? Anti-aircraft guns on the roof were one indication that the war years were not going to be business as usual on Alcatraz. The war years at Alcatraz also meant substitute guards--new hires and returning retirees to replace the guards who were inducted into the armed forces. To keep the men informed, Warden Johnston posted a bulletin board outside the mess hall with updates on major war events. Prison Industries work on Alcatraz Island was expanded and adapted to wartime purposes; changes included sewing more military uniforms, manufacturing cargo nets for amphibious naval landings and repairing and maintaining buoys for the submarine nets that were stretched under the Golden Gate Bridge. Inmates began being paid a few cents per hour for their work, and many used this money to buy war bonds in support of the war effort. Food rationing hit Alcatraz during the war, as it did the rest of the country, which caused some grumbling among the inmates. The inmates generally supported the American war effort, though there were some reports of workplace vandalism to protest inmate labor being used for military purposes. 92. Why did things seem to get easier for the inmates as time went on? The gangster problem was part of the 1930's and 1940's. Back then, there were no questions asked about the high cost or custodial excesses of Alcatraz. These "tough hombres", as Director Bennett called them, were considered beyond the reach of rehabilitation; the public wanted something done--irrespective of the cost, regardless of the privations. But as time went on, with the few gangsters still at Alcatraz getting old, the big budget became difficult to justify. Alcatraz was still filled with troublemakers from other prisons, but in later years the inmates weren't as well known. There weren't as many bank robberies, and kidnapping rates had plummeted because of the FBI and the death penalty. As times changed at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, and the prison filled with inmates who had far less notoriety, times also changed across America. Post-war prosperity enabled the American public to lose their Depression-era preoccupation with crime and punishment. As public pressure went down, prison budgets also went down. Moreover, political decisions, judicial guidance and new thinking in penology also led politicians, judges and prison administrators to modify regulations, modernize penal institutions and improve the conditions for prisoners in many American prisons, including Alcatraz. 93. How does Alcatraz compare with prisons today? Alcatraz was smaller, stricter, and had less turnover than prisons today. But the big difference is in the way prisoners were united against the administration in the old days-and splintered into gangs today. That, along with the violence this splintering leads to, are reasons why inmates who did time at Alcatraz claimed to be terrified of prisons in the modern post-Alcatraz era; not because of the rules and restrictions, but because of the lack of integrity among inmates. The era of "solid cons doing their own time" had been replaced by an environment in which inmates feared each other more than they feared the guards. |