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Minimum Privileges 51. Could inmates write letters? Yes. Alcatraz inmates who were in good status could send two letters a week, and receive seven letters a week from approved correspondents. All outgoing correspondence was monitored and censored. Incoming letters were re-worded and re-typed on prison stationary to preclude any secret messages or other chicanery. Since outgoing mail carried an "Alcatraz" postmark (see below), some inmates reported feeling uncomfortable writing to relatives in small towns. 52. Where did inmates get books to read? From the Alcatraz library, which, in the 1940 remodeling, was relocated next to D Block, across from the outside tiers of C Block. The library shelved about 15,000 volumes, many of which were books left over from the military prison library. Books about sex, violence or crime were not available. Most inmates read an average of seven or eight books a month. The Alcatraz library utilized a closed-stack paging sys-tem, meaning inmates requested books from a catalogue, and the books were delivered by a library orderly. For most of the penitentiary years, the library was run by the chaplain, who selected the books for the library, so the selection was sure to be wholesome literature. Alcatraz also had a variety of basic legal reference books available to inmates. In later years, a separate law library, of sorts, was created in A Block for inmates to use. 53. What about newspapers and magazines? No newspapers for most of the years, but inmates could subscribe to approved magazines that were censored to remove references to sex, violence and crime. In the early 1960's, the Alcatraz censor reportedly missed a few articles that provided design and production tips that helped inmates build a crude flotation device out of raincoats. The raincoat raft was used, with questionable success, in the Morris-Anglin escape in 1962. Inmates could keep twelve books and six magazines in their cells, and they could route their magazines to other inmates to read when they were finished with them. 54. What kind of jobs did the inmates have? Warden Johnston noted that "men are not selected and sent to prison because they have the skill required for particular jobs, but frequently for very opposite reasons", so matching tasks and workers was not easily done. While some inmates worked in the cellhouse--mostly cooking and cleaning--and others worked on the dock or on maintenance crews, the bulk of work, involving more than half of the Alcatraz prisoners, was in "Prison Industries", work which took place in factories outside of the cellhouse, on the northwestern end of the island. In addition to laundry and dry-cleaning facilities that kept military personnel in the area in clean uniforms, inmates also worked making shoes, gloves, rubber mats, brooms, brushes, and furniture, in addition to raincoats and other items of apparel for inmates and soldiers. During World War II, the mat factory was adapted to make cargo nets for the Merchant Marine and Navy. Inmates also repaired and maintained the buoys used to anchor anti-submarine nets beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. One interesting facet of employment for the Alcatraz inmates was the weather--when the island was really socked in by fog, the trek from cellhouse to Industries was so difficult to monitor for the guards, that factory work was canceled and the inmates "laid in"--sat around all day in their cells. 55. What about religious services? On Sundays, chaplains would come over and conduct services, alternating between Protestant and Catholic clergy from week to week. On Jewish religious holidays, a Rabbi would come over to conduct services for Jewish inmates. The religious services were more popular with the inmates when they were the only alternative to sitting in your cell. In later years, religious services had to compete with the increased yard time, and attendance at chapel reportedly decreased. 56. Could people visit the inmates at Alcatraz? If Alcatraz inmates were in good standing and had earned the privilege of visitation, they could receive one visit each month from an immediate family member--16 years of age or older, with no criminal record. For some inmates, this "family member with a clean record" qualification ruled out all potential visitors. Many of the men at Alcatraz had no visitors during their stay on The Rock. For one thing, many of the inmates came from impoverished backgrounds in distant parts of the country; Alcatraz was an expensive journey for an hour-long visit conducted over a telephone while separated by glass. If relatives were coming a long way, arrangements could be made to schedule back-to-back visits--the last day of one month, plus the following day, which was the first day of another month. Still, it was just too lengthy and expensive a journey for most relatives of Alcatraz inmates. Attorneys for inmates with legal proceedings pending could consult with their clients face-to-face, with no glass or telephone separating them, at first in the regular visitor area, in later years in a special cell in A Block. 57. What was the Recreation Yard like? Some of the Alcatraz inmates could always be found playing baseball or handball, but most inmates either walked around the yard with pals, stood in small groups talking, or sat around playing bridge. Occasionally, Alcatraz staff would add equipment for sports and activities such as basketball, tetherball or shuffleboard. For its final few years, the Alcatraz Recreation Yard even sported weightlifting apparatus. But with the lack of space in that relatively small area, and the chaotic activities of more than 200 men, most convicts preferred to just talk quietly. Over the years, rules also changed for recreation, mostly in the amount of time the inmates were allowed out into the Recreation Yard--the time increased from most of Saturday and a few hours on Sunday, to all day Saturday and all day Sunday. 58. What kind of rehabilitation programs were offered at Alcatraz? Warden Johnston instituted a successful education program featuring correspondence courses, but there was really nothing you could call a rehabilitation program for Alcatraz inmates. Alcatraz was set up for custody and punishment, and only when they left Alcatraz and returned to their original prisons, could inmates participate in prison-sponsored on-site rehabilitation programs. |