ALCATRAZ PRISON

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3927, 16 July 1937, Page 3

ALCATRAZ PRISON

A TAMER, NOT A REFORMER. EFFECT EASILY OBTAINED. San Francisco, June 9. Dangerous criminals, who were made society heroes by the Yellow Press, are undergoing ia special treatment on the rock fortress of Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, to cure them of the “superego” they acquired when their crimes were publicised by moron journals. The task, according to the authorities, would appear to be easier than one would imagine. “No one is sentenced to Alcatraz,” observed the warden, Mr. James A. Robinson, who was selected to command “The Rock” because of his experience in taming gangsters at the penitentiaries at San Quentin and Folsom. “Our present population of 370 men comprises prisoners who have become too rough for other gaols to handle. We get only the worst cases, the criminals who have become obsessed by their importance in the underworld. Our job is to defeat their ‘ego.’ I believe we have whittled them down to their proper size—to a realisation that they are not as big as they thought they were. Punishment, and not reformation, is our code of treatment. They are considered to be far beyond the stage of being trained to become useful citizens.”

Only one man attempted to escape, a notorious mail robber. He tried to climb the barbed wire. Alert guards called on him to halt. He kept on till he reached the top of the wire. Below was the surf and the rocks. Two shots rang out. Both bullets were fatal. His lifeless body was found on the rocks fifty feet below. No strong arm methods are necessary in this prison, in which science has co-operated to the extent of disclosing, by means of the photo-elec-tric eye, whether a convict has a weapon or a piece of metal hidden on his person. This and other safeguards leave the men helpless. If one breaks rules, there are eight unlighted dungeons. It is not however, necessary to use them frequently. “You’d be surprised how much enforced absence from a meal or two will do to change the attitude of a refractory prisoner,” said the warden.

Every prisoner works eight hours a day, six days a week. There are three industries clothing, matmaking, and the laundry. Clothing is made for prisoners in this and other gaols. In the factory are made all the rubber and metal mats used on warships. Capone, who is expected to be released, works in the laundry. The warden will not discuss his case, or the report that America’s most notorious gangster whiles away the long hours of incarceration by playing a guitar. “If the Director of Education believes a musical instrument will supply the relaxation needed for a prisoner, he can furnish it,” he said. “The type of men we get have been built up by publicity in many cases. We do not care to add to that publicity by giving personal accounts of individual prisoners.”