described the rules regarding letter writing:
The cell block attendant would come by your cell and leave [writing] paper, an envelope and a pencil. . . . A short time later, the same attendant came by to pick up your letter and pen.
Letters to lawyers were routed to the deputy warden and, if approved, counted as the inmate’s weekly letter. Inmates were warned, “Correspondence should be confined strictly to family and personal affairs or legal matters in connection with your own case, but shall not containcriminal or objectionable material . . . use full names not initials or nicknames . . . letters addressed to General Delivery will not be allowed.” 15 Each outgoing letter was read and reviewed by the mail censor, who then typed a copy for the correspondent and retained the original in the prison files. (Retyping was deemed necessary, at least until 1940, to prevent secret messages from being passed in or out. Thereafter Baker, who served as mail censor for fifteen years, began to test for hidden messages by “putting it [the letter] through a blue light.”) Incoming letters were also read and retyped by prison staff, and any words, lines, or sections regarded as inappropriate or objectionable were deleted by Baker or the guard acting as mail censor. “Objectionable” topics included “sex, crime news as well as profanity, secret messages, and length of letter.” 16 Neither inmates nor their correspondents were informed if any part of the letters they sent or received had words, sentences, or whole paragraphs deleted. (Baker told the author that after reading letters to inmates for so many years, he realized that “the wives did not stick by their husbands.”) Like other privileges, the ability to write and receive letters could be removed for disciplinary reasons.
The principle of isolation extended to the world within the prison. Compared to his counterparts at other prisons, an inmate on the Rock had far fewer opportunities for social interaction. The primary isolative feature was the use of one-man cells combined with short mealtimes, very little yard time, and the assigning of work as a privilege.
When the prison opened, another important means of limiting social interaction was the “silent system.” Under this policy, silence was to prevail at meals, in the cell house, and on the job. Talking was permitted during yard time on Saturday and Sunday, during the eight-minute rest breaks that occurred each morning and afternoon for men working in the industrial shops or other jobs, and when work crews were assembled in the yard. Inmates could also engage in limited conversation when they needed to ask each other for tools at their work assignments, and in the dining room one man could ask another for utensils or condiments. Warden Johnston summarized the policy:
We do not allow prisoners to ramble or loiter from cell tier to cell tier, cell block to cell block, or shop to shop. . . . [During weekend yard time] they are free to talk all that they want and as loud as they want in connection with their baseball games and horseshoe pitching . . . they can let off all the steam that they want and give vent to talking and shouting . . . anything short of trying to create a disturbance. 17
The silent system at Alcatraz was not intended to be part of a redemptive process, as it had been in the early penitentiaries at Auburn, in New York, and Eastern State, in Pennsylvania. It was simply a punitive element whose main function was to help maintain order. Prison managers were always looking for ways to control unruly prisoners, and for a population defined by long records of misconduct, they employed all means that might be effective. Silence was supposed to reduce opportunities for prisoners to plot escapes, plan strikes, obtain forbidden items, and develop other forms of resistance. The silent system, however, proved to be unenforceable at Alcatraz. For a group of convicts with little or no hope of release, who
The cell block attendant would come by your cell and leave [writing] paper, an envelope and a pencil. . . . A short time later, the same attendant came by to pick up your letter and pen.
Letters to lawyers were routed to the deputy warden and, if approved, counted as the inmate’s weekly letter. Inmates were warned, “Correspondence should be confined strictly to family and personal affairs or legal matters in connection with your own case, but shall not containcriminal or objectionable material . . . use full names not initials or nicknames . . . letters addressed to General Delivery will not be allowed.” 15 Each outgoing letter was read and reviewed by the mail censor, who then typed a copy for the correspondent and retained the original in the prison files. (Retyping was deemed necessary, at least until 1940, to prevent secret messages from being passed in or out. Thereafter Baker, who served as mail censor for fifteen years, began to test for hidden messages by “putting it [the letter] through a blue light.”) Incoming letters were also read and retyped by prison staff, and any words, lines, or sections regarded as inappropriate or objectionable were deleted by Baker or the guard acting as mail censor. “Objectionable” topics included “sex, crime news as well as profanity, secret messages, and length of letter.” 16 Neither inmates nor their correspondents were informed if any part of the letters they sent or received had words, sentences, or whole paragraphs deleted. (Baker told the author that after reading letters to inmates for so many years, he realized that “the wives did not stick by their husbands.”) Like other privileges, the ability to write and receive letters could be removed for disciplinary reasons.
The principle of isolation extended to the world within the prison. Compared to his counterparts at other prisons, an inmate on the Rock had far fewer opportunities for social interaction. The primary isolative feature was the use of one-man cells combined with short mealtimes, very little yard time, and the assigning of work as a privilege.
When the prison opened, another important means of limiting social interaction was the “silent system.” Under this policy, silence was to prevail at meals, in the cell house, and on the job. Talking was permitted during yard time on Saturday and Sunday, during the eight-minute rest breaks that occurred each morning and afternoon for men working in the industrial shops or other jobs, and when work crews were assembled in the yard. Inmates could also engage in limited conversation when they needed to ask each other for tools at their work assignments, and in the dining room one man could ask another for utensils or condiments. Warden Johnston summarized the policy:
We do not allow prisoners to ramble or loiter from cell tier to cell tier, cell block to cell block, or shop to shop. . . . [During weekend yard time] they are free to talk all that they want and as loud as they want in connection with their baseball games and horseshoe pitching . . . they can let off all the steam that they want and give vent to talking and shouting . . . anything short of trying to create a disturbance. 17
The silent system at Alcatraz was not intended to be part of a redemptive process, as it had been in the early penitentiaries at Auburn, in New York, and Eastern State, in Pennsylvania. It was simply a punitive element whose main function was to help maintain order. Prison managers were always looking for ways to control unruly prisoners, and for a population defined by long records of misconduct, they employed all means that might be effective. Silence was supposed to reduce opportunities for prisoners to plot escapes, plan strikes, obtain forbidden items, and develop other forms of resistance. The silent system, however, proved to be unenforceable at Alcatraz. For a group of convicts with little or no hope of release, who
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