ALCATRAZ PRISON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 10

ALCATRAZ PRISON

"A PLACE OF HORROR” Alcatraz, the island prison in San Francisco Bay. should be uUimately abandoned, and its population of haia ened criminals moved to a nmv secu’ity penitentiary in some isolated part or the United States, Attorney-general Murphy urges, says a Washington message to the New York Times. “ The Rock,” as Alcatraz is called is a “ place of horror,” detrimental to San Francisco, and exercises a depressing and wicked psychology on the inmates the Attorney-general added at a press conference. He drew this conclusion after his recent trip to the Pacific Coast, where he inspected Alcatraz, he Plans to eliminate Alcatraz from the Federal prison system were still nebulous. the Attorney-general remarked. Two or three years might elapse before n change, he said, adding that a stud> of the situation by Department of Justice officials had been ordered. Particular objections to Alcatraz existed because of its narrow bounds, wherein nearly 300 men were confined without opportunity for farm labour, the Attorney-general said. Alcatraz was included as a prison for desperate offenders under the regime of former Attorney-general Cummings, who held it to be an essential Part of the Government penal system. Mr Cummings originated the idea in a memorandum in August, 1930. and a year later the army evacuated its former post and the prisoners moved in Only about 300 out of the 16,000 to 18,000' men in Federal penitentanes were confined on the island. “The whole psychology of Alcatraz seems bad.” Mr Murphy commented. “The psychology builds up a sinister mid vicious influence among the prisoners. It would be difficult to have it otherwise there. “It is a great injustice, too, to ban Francisco, to have that place of horror on a rock in the bay, and at the doorstep of the city. I don’t think it’s a good thing; it’s a bad thing. “ I don’t know what tan be done immediately. but I am expressing my view of it.” Rehabilitation of the desperate criminals at Alcatraz could be better effected inside some walled prison where there was a chance to use “ a plough.” Mr Murphy asserted. He conceded the need of having a penitentiary comparable to the former army post, but in another location. “ It is necessary to have a place like Alcatraz to break up a crowd that conspires to kill or murckr. to break up little cliques such as might exist at Atlanta or Leavenworth.” he stated. “ They have to be broken up and sent away’ But a new institution should be without the atmosphere and some of the disadvantages of Alcatraz.” Someone called Mr Murphy’s attention to the opinion of Mr J. Edgar Hoover, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that hardened offenders should be treated with the utmost severity. Conditions tending to make prisoners “ sheer crazy ” were more evident a< Alcatraz than elsewhere, the Attorneygeneral stated. He was he said, satisfied with the administration ofWardei James A. Johnston at Alcatraz, reiter ating that the trouble was with the theory of the institution itself. “The immediate thing to do about Alcatraz is to perfect its management in every way,” he asserted. “ There cannot be any change from Alcatraz until we get a place that would be an advantage over it. That would take considerable time.”