severely restricted the goods inmates were allowed to keep in their cells, their contact with the outside world, and their social interaction with each other. There were no evening programs or activities. Restrictions were intended to facilitate control of the inmate population and eliminate problems found in other prisons where association was allowed. Combined with the detailed scripting of daily life, serving time at Alcatraz was an experience that can be best described as monastic.
When inmates were locked up at 4:45 P.M. each day, to remain in their cells for the next fourteen hours, the cell house fell silent. The only sounds were those of a toilet being flushed, the cries of sea gulls, the moan of a foghorn, and the occasional sound of a ship’s horn as it passed in or out of the Golden Gate. During these hours prisoners read books from the prison library; some painted (freehand or by numbers); many wrote brief letters to their approved correspondents, read again and again the letters they received from the same people, and sat on their bunks and thought. Alcatraz inmates did not come to the island of their own volition to pursue a calling, and during the long hours they spent alone they were more likely to relive the past and think about the future than theywere to contemplate spiritual matters, but in other respects their lives were very much like those of monks. They ate at prescribed times, spoke infrequently, had little to do with the world outside the institution, were denied most sensual pleasures, possessed few worldly goods, and spent much of their time in contemplation.
The designers of the Alcatraz program placed a high priority on preventing the kind of underground economy that flourished in typical federal and state prisons of the 1930s and 1940s. All manner of goods, banned and allowed, were bought, sold, traded, and wagered there (as noted in chapter 2 ). In addition to creating a discipline problem and providing a means of obtaining items useful for escape attempts, black-marketing tended to reinforce a socioeconomic hierarchy, in which inmates with the most power and access to financial resources could significantly ease the hardship of doing time. At Alcatraz, a simple but effective measure—never establishing a commissary—meant the absence of goods above and beyond prison issue. Inmates could not buy so much as a stick of gum, a candy bar, or a tube of shaving cream. Since eliminating tobacco would have invited protest, it was made available—in unlimited quantity of small cloth bags of tobacco to negate its value as barter.
Inmates were allowed only a few items in their cells:
• 2 pieces of stationery
• 2 envelopes
• 3 pencils
• a sink stopper
• a 75-watt lightbulb
• a whisk broom
• one and one-half rolls of toilet paper
• a drinking cup
• an ashtray
• a cleaning rag
• a wastebasket
• a shaving cup
• a comb
• a bar of soap
• a toothbrush
• a can of tooth powder
• a shaving brush and a mirror—and not one item more
Contraband was defined broadly as “anything found on your person, or in your cell, or at your work place, which was not officially issued to you, or officially approved and purchased by you and officially listed on your property card.” 11
Isolation from normal society was an essential element in the conceptualization of Alcatraz. The island location clearly symbolized separation from the rest of the world, and to make this separation manifest, all means of communication with the free world—access to news media, visits, radio, or correspondence—were strictly limited. 12
The rules regarding visitors were far more restrictive than those at other federal prisons. Visiting privileges had to be earned, and for a prisoner’s first three months on the island none were allowed, not even with his lawyer. Thereafter, an inmate could visit with his wife or a blood relative once each month, with no more than two persons permitted to
When inmates were locked up at 4:45 P.M. each day, to remain in their cells for the next fourteen hours, the cell house fell silent. The only sounds were those of a toilet being flushed, the cries of sea gulls, the moan of a foghorn, and the occasional sound of a ship’s horn as it passed in or out of the Golden Gate. During these hours prisoners read books from the prison library; some painted (freehand or by numbers); many wrote brief letters to their approved correspondents, read again and again the letters they received from the same people, and sat on their bunks and thought. Alcatraz inmates did not come to the island of their own volition to pursue a calling, and during the long hours they spent alone they were more likely to relive the past and think about the future than theywere to contemplate spiritual matters, but in other respects their lives were very much like those of monks. They ate at prescribed times, spoke infrequently, had little to do with the world outside the institution, were denied most sensual pleasures, possessed few worldly goods, and spent much of their time in contemplation.
The designers of the Alcatraz program placed a high priority on preventing the kind of underground economy that flourished in typical federal and state prisons of the 1930s and 1940s. All manner of goods, banned and allowed, were bought, sold, traded, and wagered there (as noted in chapter 2 ). In addition to creating a discipline problem and providing a means of obtaining items useful for escape attempts, black-marketing tended to reinforce a socioeconomic hierarchy, in which inmates with the most power and access to financial resources could significantly ease the hardship of doing time. At Alcatraz, a simple but effective measure—never establishing a commissary—meant the absence of goods above and beyond prison issue. Inmates could not buy so much as a stick of gum, a candy bar, or a tube of shaving cream. Since eliminating tobacco would have invited protest, it was made available—in unlimited quantity of small cloth bags of tobacco to negate its value as barter.
Inmates were allowed only a few items in their cells:
• 2 pieces of stationery
• 2 envelopes
• 3 pencils
• a sink stopper
• a 75-watt lightbulb
• a whisk broom
• one and one-half rolls of toilet paper
• a drinking cup
• an ashtray
• a cleaning rag
• a wastebasket
• a shaving cup
• a comb
• a bar of soap
• a toothbrush
• a can of tooth powder
• a shaving brush and a mirror—and not one item more
Contraband was defined broadly as “anything found on your person, or in your cell, or at your work place, which was not officially issued to you, or officially approved and purchased by you and officially listed on your property card.” 11
Isolation from normal society was an essential element in the conceptualization of Alcatraz. The island location clearly symbolized separation from the rest of the world, and to make this separation manifest, all means of communication with the free world—access to news media, visits, radio, or correspondence—were strictly limited. 12
The rules regarding visitors were far more restrictive than those at other federal prisons. Visiting privileges had to be earned, and for a prisoner’s first three months on the island none were allowed, not even with his lawyer. Thereafter, an inmate could visit with his wife or a blood relative once each month, with no more than two persons permitted to
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