Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [52]
The last inmate to serve time in the dungeon was Charles Berta. Berta had been convicted of mail robbery and aggravated assault and he was known as a frequent visitor to the dungeon at Alcatraz. Correctional Officer Clifford Fish remembered Berta as the toughest inmate that any of the guards would ever encounter at Alcatraz. He had previously participated in one of the most violent escape attempts ever made at Leavenworth, resulting in the violent deaths of two officers. At Alcatraz, Berta held a reputation for violent outbursts toward correctional staff and fellow inmates and in early 1938 he viciously attacked an officer. Following this incident, several officers “drag” Berta to the A Block basement entry for placement in isolation.
Officer Fish would later describe seeing Associate Warden Miller “kick” Berta down the cement stairs. When the prisoner reached the bottom, he was found to be almost completely unscathed and he continued to resist forcefully by kicking and thrashing. Berta was handcuffed to the bars face forward in a standing position and was left in the darkness of the dungeon for almost eight hours. The Associate Warden then came and personally removed the inmate to a standard isolation cell. Following this event, both Johnston and Miller ordered that the bars be removed from the dungeon cells and the dungeons were banned from any future use. Officer Fish stated that he was one of the guards assigned to remove the bars using welding torches (Fish was a certified welder and also later taught Berta the welding craft and claimed he was one of his best students).
After the cell bars were removed in 1938, the dungeons were never used again. Berta would become a model inmate, and following his direct release from Alcatraz in 1949, he owned and operated a bar on Mission Street in San Francisco.
Solitary Confinement (D Block)
D Block as it looked in 1934, with flat soft iron bars.
The new Treatment Unit under construction in 1941.
D Block in April 1941, following a complete reconstruction. Note the closed-front solitary cells to the right. The remainder of the open-front cells were considerably larger than those in the main cellblock. The new unit, generally referred to as “Segregation,” “Isolation,” or the “Treatment Unit,” consisted of forty-two cells.
Inmate Earl Cox was the first prisoner to serve time in the strip cell, in 1941.
The six solitary confinement cells in D Block.
Serious violators of the prison rules were locked in a pitch-black strip cell with no clothing or blankets during the day, where they could only sit or lie on cold steel flooring. There was a hole in the floor for the inmate to relieve himself, and the contents could only be flushed remotely by a guard. The maximum duration permitted for confinement in full darkness was nineteen days. At night, inmates were provided with a mattress and a set of blankets. These were removed immediately at daybreak.
An inmate’s view from inside “The Hole” with the solid steel door closed.
In October of 1940, work began to completely refurbish the Treatment Unit, otherwise known as D Block. This area was comprised of forty-two cells which were used for varying degrees of punishment. For the most serious infractions of prison rules and regulations, inmates could be confined to the “Strip Cell”. This cell was by all accounts the most severe punishment any human could endure. Among other discomforts, the total absence of light assured complete depravation of all peripheral senses.
The single Strip Cell was a dark steel-encased cell with no toilet or sink. There was only a hole in the floor for the prisoner to relieve himself and even the ability to flush the contents was controlled by a guard. Inmates were placed in the cell without clothing and put on restricted diets. The cell had a standard set of bars with an expanded opening through which food was passed, and a solid steel outer door that remained