Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [171]
Jim Quillen was a fellow inmate who had been sentenced to serve time in D Block after a failed escape in the kitchen basement area. With the assistance of a few other inmates, Quillen had attempted to escape through a narrow tunnel housing steam pipes which were thought to lead down to the prison powerhouse. The temperatures in the tunnel were unbearably hot and when the inmates reached the end of the cellhouse, they would unfortunately find that the tunnel was sealed with a five-foot block of cement. A fellow prisoner had meanwhile revealed their plan to the administration and they were sent to serve time first in isolation and then in segregation.
Jim Quillen
Quillen would later describe some of the events that Stroud incited, such as inmates draining the water from their toilet and using bedding and other flammable items to start a fire in the bowl. Once the fire had reached a sufficient temperature, the inmate would flush the toilet and the cold water would shatter the porcelain. The sharp, heavy pieces would then be thrown out of the cells and over the tier railings, presenting a hazard to the correctional staff, and sometimes even shattering the outside windows. By the early morning hours on April 27th, water was flooding over the upper levels, and massive pools had saturated the lower cellblock floors. The block was fogged with smoke from smoldering fires as the chilling bay breeze ripped through the cellhouse, intensifying the cold, and the inmates were left alone in their wet cells with no warm place to rest.
By daybreak the correctional staff had started to assess the damages, and they set up a desk at the end of the block to hold hearings with Warden Johnston. On the morning of April 28th the hearing board convened, and met with each and every inmate who had caused destruction to his cell. The board was comprised of Associate Warden E.J. Miller, Captain H.W. Weinhold, Lieutenant N.W. Morrison, Dr. Roucek, and the Warden himself. Quillen later recalled that Stroud’s cell was found completely intact with his bed nicely made, and that he was angered that Stroud had used the other inmates to get back at the administration.
Warden Johnston punished the inmates harshly, ensuring that each one was penalized for their collective rebellion against the administration. It was decided that the inmates would remain in their own cells until proper repairs could be made. Since many of them had destroyed their sink and toilet, they were forced to use a tin bucket to relieve themselves. It was left to the correctional staff to determine how frequently the buckets would be emptied – usually only once a day – and the inmates were completely at their mercy in this regard. In addition, the inmates who had been involved, received nineteen days in isolation and were forced to pay for all damages before they were allowed to transfer out of Alcatraz. This would require each inmate to remain on good behavior, integrate back into the general population and secure a paying job in the industries. It was a severe punishment delivered directly by Warden Johnston himself. Quillen later commented that the inmates long resented Stroud for using them as pawns in his own futile cause.
Clarence Victor Carnes
Clarence Victor Carnes – A life in pictures. He would spend nearly his entire adult life in maximum security prisons.
Clarence Victor Carnes, born on January 14, 1927 in rural Oklahoma, was a full-blooded Choctaw Indian and like many of the other inmates he was exposed to a troubled and poverty-stricken childhood. His father struggled to support his family through the Great Depression years and tried to create a stable life for his children, but was largely unsuccessful. Carnes would become what was later described as...“natural fighter,