San Francisco's hottest
tourist attractions these days are a big red bridge
and an abandoned prison. But before it was a $60
tour for the whole family, Alcatraz was a max
security federal prison that was home to a
lot of very bad dudes and yes, strictly dudes. Today we're going
to explore what it was like to be a
prisoner in Alcatraz. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel, and let us know
what famous historical landmark you would like to
hear more about. Alcatraz had a strict maximum
occupancy for its cells, topping off at just one
inmate per jail cell. Alcatraz was generally kept at
a capacity of 330 men, which meant individual cells, allowing
for assured safety and privacy. This resulted in Alcatraz
being the sort of Mykonos of prison destinations for
some federal prisoners, requesting this all
inclusive hotspot for their mandatory stays. Cells were divided into blocks,
the blocks B and C housing 336 cells measuring a
cozy five feet by 9 feet. Cellblock A was the real
fixer upper of the blocks. A broken down row of cells with
so much unlocked potential, this block was not
used to house inmates for any significant
amount of time. Cellblock D was
reserved for those sent to solitary confinement. And though those cells were
larger than the typical cells, inmates were forced to
spend 24 hours a day in this space with
one weekly exception to spend some time in
the recreation yard. Solitary confinement could
last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. And as a former
inmate Jim Quinlan put it "a day in the hole
was like an eternity." Prisoners in Alcatraz
were given the rights to only four guaranteed things;
food, clothing, shelter, and medical care while
other privileges like access to the library were earned. When a prisoner
arrived at Alcatraz donning the standard stamped
prison uni after the close they arrived and were taken
and inmates were showered, while in the clothing
room, they were also strip searched and given
cursory medical examinations. The residents of Alcatraz
were given three meals a day, a roof over their head that
they legally could not leave, and visitation
access to hospital care if they ever
should need it. The hospital at Alcatraz also
provided dental and psychiatric services as well. Until the 1950s, there was
a physician in residence. But due to budget
cuts, the position was eliminated in favor
of contracted doctors in the final years
the prison was open. The hospital also became
the permanent home for the very sick
inmates, with some even serving out huge chunks of
their sentence in the infirmary. The Birdman of
Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, spent 11 of his 17 years in the
hospital due to both a kidney infection and
Birdman's need to be isolated from people on
account of him being dangerous. The library of Alcatraz
had stacks on stacks on stacks of books for inmates
to read should they earned the privilege to do so, a
privilege that could also be taken away for misbehavior. Inmates couldn't visit
the library at all. Instead, each morning, those
with library privileges filled out a card
requesting items they could find from a catalog. These items, be it books,
magazines, and the like, were delivered to their cells
with all crime related content removed ahead of time. Since reading was one of
the few leisurely activities inmates can look
forward to, some took full advantage of what
the library had to offer, using the opportunity to study
law, learn other languages, or take correspondence
classes offered by the University of
California at Berkeley. Other leisurely
endeavors the inmates could earn with good
behavior included recreational activities,
such as chess or softball, and also visit with family
members and work duty. In the 1950s, prisoners were
given access to headsets so they could
listen to the radio and watch movies
in the auditorium. Just like with library
privileges, any of these could be taken away if the
inmate stepped out of line. The Alcatraz band, awesomely
called the Rock Islanders, were made up of inmates who had
earned the right to jam out. Though a revolving door of
members throughout the years, positions within the
band were highly coveted. Even Al Capone himself
begged to be let in, which eventually he was. Capone wrote to his
son he had learned to play the tenor
guitar, tenor banjo, and was learning how
to play the mandala and eventually learned how
to play more than 500 songs. The band itself was, according
to former guard George Gregory, "only a cut above the
fourth or fifth grade band, but it did wonders for
their self-esteem." The band played on holidays
in the dining hall with Sunday and special event performances
sprinkled in as well. Inmates could purchase
their instruments but after regulations
issued in 1956, could only practice
between 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Any instrument played
outside these parameters would result in the
confiscation of said instrument and disciplinary action
to the inmate playing. Cells at Alcatraz
were quite small and didn't come with much-- just a cot, a
washbasin, and a toilet. When future Yelp reviewer and
pretty bad dude Jim Quinlan arrived at Alcatraz, he remarked
that his new living quarters were pretty subpar,
noting that all he saw was a steel bed, a straw
mattress, and a dirty lumpy pillow. He went on to note
the toilet had no seat and the washbasin only
had one tap, which was only for cold water. Inmates were not allowed
to bring in outside items. And Alcatraz didn't exactly
have a gift shop yet, so creature comforts
were sparse. However after prison
regulations in the 1950s, they were allowed to
purchase certain items, including textbooks,
correspondence courses, musical instruments, or
magazine subscriptions. The first warden of
Alcatraz, James A Johnston, was a real no-nonsense guy,
instituting a rule of silence at the prison that
lasted until 1937 and basically keeping all of
these inmates on mute while under his watchful eye. Under Johnston's very
cool rule, prisoners were only permitted to speak
at meals or during recreation time. Johnston, however, cared far
less about their smoking habit, allowing prisoners to smoke up
to three packs of cigarettes a week, which meant
smoking cigarettes was more common than
speaking at Alcatraz. To get around his
prison rules, prisoners would communicate to each other
through pipes between cells, like tin can telephones. The rule was eventually lifted
because it was both difficult to enforce and flat out cruel. The golden rule of
silence remained though for those
troublesome prisoners locked in solitary confinement,
which our resident Alcatraz complainer Quinlan described
as total silence and darkness as his only constant companion
for 24 hours of the 19 days he spent in the hole. The incarcerated
citizens of Alcatraz were served three
meals a day-- breakfast at 6:45 AM, lunch at 11:40 AM,
and dinner at a reasonable 4:25 in the afternoon. But the food was
allegedly the best served in the federal prison system. Kitchen staffers
at Alcatraz took pride in what they served their
fellow inmates, with some even coming from culinary
backgrounds. As former inmate Brian
Conway recalled in 1938, "food at Alcatraz is much
better than usual prison fare. For dinner, there's meat, beans,
coffee, bread, and celery; for supper chili, tomatoes,
and apples with hot tea. According to a menu
from 1946, meals included stewed fruits,
cereal, milk, bread, and coffee for breakfast. And lunch being the
biggest meal of the day included soup and meat like
roasted pork shoulder, or beef pot pie. Dinner might include leftovers
from these extravagant lunches fit for a king and even get
dessert such as apple pie cake kogelo. Like most of us just trying
to get through the day, work became the
best way for inmates to pass the time at
this federal prison. Prisoners not in solitary
could work a variety jobs in the laundry, kitchen,
or on the docks. Inmates would march to
their jobs after breakfast and earn a staggering
5 to 12 cents an hour. Industry jobs, like the laundry
room or woodworking plant, allowed prisoners
to actually deduct two days of their sentence
for each month worked during the first
year and increased to four days for the
second through fourth years and finally five days per
month from five years on. Alcatraz prisoners were
counted several times a day to keep them accounted for. Prisoner Brian Conway
noted that the bell was the signal for the
count of prisoners, a really serious business which
has done every 30 minutes. In reality, it was more
like 13 times a day, far less than every 30 minutes. Prisoners lined up
outside their cells and were counted first thing
in the morning on their way to breakfast, at the
mess hall, and counted after eating before
heading off to work where they were counted again. Prisoners were also
counted before lunch, after lunch in their cells,
another mid-day check in before dinner, one after
dinner in their cells, and a couple of times
after lights out at 9:30. When Brian Conway
checked into Alcatraz, he noted he was introduced
to the snitch box, a metal detector used to search
prisoners for contraband that worked too well. He remembered the snitch
box sounding an alarm on every man who came from
the laundry, which after what was surely a gentle
search, was discovered that the snitch box was
picking up on the metal clasps on the men's shoes. A few days later,
however, the snitch box remained alarmingly silent
as two men carried knives in their pockets. The snitch box was one of three
metal detectors in the prison, with guests and prisoners
alike having to pass through, including one embarrassing
moment with Al Capone's mama when the metal stays in
her corset kept setting off the detectors, forcing
Mama Capone to strip down. Because so much of
life inside of Alcatraz was an earned privilege
and not a right, mandated guests of Alcatraz were
limited in the correspondence with the outside world
and subjected to judgment by prison authorities. While prisoners in
solitary confinement could receive no letters,
well-behaved prisoners could send and
receive letters that were regulated and
monitored, which wouldn't be a problem anyways
because, as Brian Conway, noted letters were to
and from blood relatives. Only on Mother's Day, they were
allowed to write their dear sweet mother's. And they better have. But that correspondence
too had to be approved by prison officials. The handwritten
notes were retyped and a copy was
given to the inmate. Visitation was also
heavily regulated, as one could imagine, with
inmates requesting permission for a visitor only after earning
the right to visitation time. Prisoners got one 90
minute visit a month by either a blood
relative or a wife where they would talk on a phone
through a small glass window. Conversation was
closely monitored, and any talk of other inmates
would shut the whole thing down. As accurately depicted in
the 1979 classic Escape from Alcatraz, escaping the
Rock was damn near impossible. That didn't stop 14
different escape attempts during the duration of
the prison's existence involving 36 prisoners. Considering that the lifetime
number of inmates was 1,545 men-- a pretty small sample
size in the scheme of things-- the efforts to
escape Alcatraz had to be bold since leaving
the island was extremely treacherous if not on a boat. Joe Bowers tried to
climb over a fence but was shot and died
from his injuries. The following year,
Theodore Cole and Ralph Rose escaped and attempted
to swim to San Francisco only to get caught in a
storm and drift away at sea, and their bodies
were never found. Unsuccessful trips to
freedom failed again in 1938, 1939, 1941, and 1943. In 1945, John Giles got cute,
piecing together an army uniform by slowly
gathering materials over time while on laundry duty. Finally, it was
John Giles's time to shine as he donned
his piecemeal hobo outfit and made it all the
way to Angel Island before being apprehended
and sent back to prison. The following year was the
year of the Battle of Alcatraz, which was as fun as it sounds. Six prisoners
overpower the guards and stole their weapons
only to discover nobody had the key to the
recreation yard. In a pure panic move,
they started a riot. And gunfire was exchanged
between the inmates and the guards. The battle lasted
a full two days, and three prisoners and
two guards were killed. A few prisoners
took to the waves and tried to swim
away from Alcatraz. But nobody made it to shore, and
some bodies were never found. In 1962, Frank Morris
and the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence,
disappeared from their cells and were never seen
or heard from again. This disappearing act of three
criminals in federal prison would later inspire the
aforementioned film Escape from Alcatraz. The prevailing theory is the
trio shimmied down the drain pipes after they slipped
through enlarged vent holes in their cells and then
attempted to swim to safety. It's assumed they died in the
process of swimming to shore, but who knows. Our old pal Brian Conway
claimed the monotony and the strict discipline
of this penitentiary drove 14 of 317 prisoners
violently insane during the final
year of his sentence, with several others getting
a little stir crazy. Doctors on the
Rock at times would accuse inmates of faking
their mental illness in order to gain some type of advantage. Prisoner Joe Bowers was
admitted to Alcatraz in 1934 and after refusing
to work was thrown into solitary confinement. He attacked two guards twice. This fit of rage
was inexplicably diagnosed as epilepsy
until a few months later when an actual
psychiatrist said there might be reason to
believe he was truly psychotic, though that
same dude cautioned he had something to
gain if he can induce us to believe he is insane. Though what exactly that
would be is unclear. Once this faker was
returned to a cell, he tried to take his own life. He would die in 1936
while trying to escape. So what do you
think of Alcatraz? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING]
