AN ALCATRAZ FILM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 267, 10 November 1937, Page 16

AN ALCATRAZ FILM.

NOT APPROVED.

CANNOT DEPICT LIFE ON " ROCK."

At, CAPONE'S DEFLATED EGO.

(Bv H. R. KtVI'KHAKE.) WASHINGTON*. While nothing )wt<s been said al>out it officially, members of the Department of Justice a<lmit privately that, if they ha<l the power, they would stop the forthcoming movie barted on life at Alcatraz prison. Knowing that no movie camera can yet nearer to this lonely rock in San Francisco Bay than the deck of a distant ferry boat, they believe that any "popular" film, with it* ready-made romantic elements injected, will misrepresent conditions in the grim citadel where "the worst criminals in the coun- I try'' are confined. Further than that, they declare such a film must necessarily give the people an entirely false picture of the Federal prison system as a whole. Alcatraz is the ultimate in penal inati- j tutions. It represents the maximum in confinement, the minimum in privilege, the nth degree of discipline, complete isolation from the outside world. But it is not typical. It contains but 318 of the nearly 20,000 prisoners now held in -Federal prisons, which range over every type of institution, from the iinfcnced mountain camps and farms, where trusted light offender* work out of doors, to the hospital for defective delinquents, where prisoners are treated as jmtients behind barred windows and a double wall of barbed wire. Case of AI Capone. Alcatraz has two main functions, according to experts in penology who i now are disturbed over the possibility of interfering with them, first, the [threat of Alcatraz walls is a crime j deterrent. Fictionising the life of the inmates of thi« prison might easily portray n brutality that doe* not exist and thus arouse false sympathy or invest the inmates with dramatic villainy. Either would serve to destroy the moral effect of the institution. Besides serving as a deterrent, the prison likewise acts to deflate the ego of a criminal, and for the very few who are released—only the exception ends his life elsewhere —this is vital to society. A striking example in this class is Al Capone. While interviews with America's expuhlic enemy No. 1 are forbidden, it can tie stated authoritatively that Mr. Capone's ego i* considerably deflated at this writing. By 19.19, when he leave* his single cell on "The Rock," official# have little fear that he will b« a burden on society. The thing that he has learned, the thing that surprised him most, did moet to break his arrogance, according to thoffe who have obsened him recently, is the fact that hp suddenly found that all bis money, all his alleged power and influence, were utterly useless when the Federal Government took him in hand. Jnat a Number. He has a number, that's all. He eata, sleeps, works and lives exactly as the reot of his fellow criminals do. Like the rest, he can read no newspaper. His letters are edited and retv|>cd before he sees them. He can listen to the radio only when the warden decides the broadcast will do him good: read such magazine* as the warden selects; see a visitor, once a month, if his behaviour is good, separated from his guest by a steel wall and a glass pane. Capone has. it is learned, tried to rationalise hi* position, to picture himself as a Robin Hood. He even hats plans for writing a book with this idea undoubtedly a j.«rt of it. "I never robltcd widows and orphans." he whines. "I only handled race-track gamblers, alcohol racketeers, and bootleggers." "Try to tell the American people that when you get out and see if they believe it." is the answer he gets. There are, of cournc, other reasons than the discipline of Alcatraz that will tend to keep Capone in line when he gets out. A son who lms not changed his name (what's the u«e. says Capone. they'd find it out anyhow) soon enters college. A 72-year-old mother.— (N.A.N".A.)