Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [23]
Despite these difficulties, the military realized the potential of Alcatraz as an escape-proof prison for hard-core offenders. The first twenty arrivals were from Fort Point, and during the next year over a hundred more prisoners would be ferried to Alcatraz. In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order providing discretionary jurisdiction to arrest public activists for the Confederacy. Numerous sympathizers were arrested and sent to Alcatraz as punishment, and several of these offenders were prominent citizens and politicians.
As the role of Alcatraz began to evolve, the island’s defensive systems would eventually be redesigned. Major George Mendell from the Army Corps of Engineers filed a report that showcased flaws in the design of the original fortification. He illustrated that if canon shot were to strike any of the stone or brick structures, the post could suffer extensive casualties from the shard debris that would violently rain down on the soldiers. He submitted a new design that eliminated all exposed brick and rock, replacing it with sand and earthworks. The new plan would allow for better absorption of the powerful explosive debris, and would thus effectively reduce casualties among the soldiers. Using inmate labor, crews leveled many of the brick structures, and packed soft soil ferried from Angel Island in front of the gun placements.
In 1868, the Department Commander officially designated Alcatraz as a place of confinement for prisoners serving long sentences. In the same year, the Spanish-American War elevated the prisoner population from a mere twenty-six men to over four hundred and fifty. It wasn’t long before overcrowding and increasing demand gave cause to build a two-story brick jail structure with individual cells, and construction of this edifice was completed in 1867. The confinement conditions for inmates left much to be desired and the men would still be required to sleep on hard wooden pallets. A report submitted by the Assistant Surgeon General in 1870 described in detail the facilities at Alcatraz:
The buildings consist of a citadel, two brick barrack buildings for troops, and three prison buildings on the summit of the island, and the laundresses’ quarters, blacksmith and carpenter’s workshop, two boathouses, coal and wood house, and bowling alley and theater for the men, most of which are situated on the eastern face of the cliff.
The citadel, of brick, is 200 by 100 feet, and is two stories high above the basement, with bastion fronts facing the northwest and southeast. It is well ventilated by the main hall passages and windows. It is used as officers’ quarters, hospital, and quartermaster and subsistence offices and storerooms. The set for each officer consists of two large and comfortable rooms, with kitchen and dining room attached, and water –closets and bathrooms. The rooms set apart for hospital use comprises of a dispensary, and two wards, a kitchen, and an adjoining mess room, a store-room, bathroom, and a water-closet. The wards are each 35 by 26 by 17 feet, well floored and ceiled, and are furnished each with ten beds and bedside tables, chairs, dumbwaiter, closet, and a washstand. They are warmed by coal grates, lighted and ventilated by side windows. Air space per bed, 1,547 cubic feet; area, 91 feet...
The prison rooms are three buildings, ventilated by skylights and warmed by stoves in the main hall. They are arranged in two tiers (in one three), with galleries for the upper tiers. Ventilators are placed over the door of each cell, and air tubes in the walls. One building contains fourteen single and two double cells; the second has forty-five cells, and the third forty-eight single and four double cells. The average size is 81/2 by 6 by 31/2 feet, giving an airspace to each of 161 cubic feet. Adjoining these buildings are the kitchens and mess-rooms for the