Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [35]
This is a period view of Broadway around 1940, looking toward the West End Gun Gallery and the Mess Hall. Note the officer visible in the Gallery. New inmates were assigned to the second tier of B Block, and were quarantined in their cells for a ninety-day period. During this time they were not provided with work assignments, and were not allowed to see movies in the upstairs auditorium. They were only released from their cells for meals, recreation, religious services, and showers. Alcatraz was racially segregated, and African-American inmates were assigned to this area of the prison.
A view of cells from the second tier of B Block, taken in December of 1954.
After the 1934 renovations were complete, the new steel reinforced concrete cellhouse would contain four cellblocks, each housing 168 cells, with no one cell adjoined to any perimeter wall. If an inmate were able to tunnel his way through the cell wall, he would still need to find a way to escape from the cellhouse itself. There were 336 cells in B and C Blocks and each block spanned 150 feet in length. Each tier contained twenty-eight cells that were nine feet long and five feet wide, with a ceiling height of just over seven feet. There had originally been 348 cells, but twelve were removed when stairways were installed at the end of each cellblock. Two cells at the end of C Block were used as restrooms for the guard staff. The primary inmate population would only be assigned to B, C and D Blocks, since the total number of inmates would generally not exceed three hundred. Inmates would typically spend anywhere from twelve to twenty-three hours a day confined in their cells. Each cell contained a cot with a sleeping mattress approximately five inches thick, blankets, a small worktable, a toilet, a sink that supplied cold fresh drinking water, and a shelf that could be used for the inmate’s personal effects.
In the middle of each block was a utility corridor containing plumbing and ventilation ducts for each cell. The cross-aisle at the front of the prison was named by inmates “Peekin’ Place.” This was the location of the visiting area, which consisted of four small bulletproof windows with small partitions. Inmates would sit here to talk with relatives and authorized guests during their visiting period. Directly across on the opposite end of the cellhouse was Times Square, so named because of a large wall-mounted clock that hung at the base of the West Gun Gallery.
A series of views showing the cellhouse area known to inmates as “Times Square.” The second photograph was taken on August 20, 1934
The cells in A Block were generally used in special solitary confinement conditions for short-term lock-up periods or whenever an inmate needed to be fully isolated from his fellow prisoners. Following the construction of D Block in 1941, A Block was used only in special circumstances. Several of the cells served as storage space for things such as cleaning supplies, and others were set up as small offices with ribbon typewriters and law references for inmates who were preparing their legal cases.
Inmates later named the main corridor running between B and C Blocks Broadway. The cells along this passageway (and especially the cells along the flats) were considered the least desirable of all. Those on the bottom tier were inherently colder because of the long slick run of cement, and they were also the least private, since guards, inmates, and other personnel frequented and this corridor and a main passageway between the east and west sections of the prison. The newer “fish” were assigned to the second tier of B Block during their quarantine status. The quarantine protocol required inmates to remain in their cells for twenty three hours per day and prohibited any work assignments for the first three months of their imprisonment. The outer aisle between C and D Blocks were named Seedy Street, and Michigan Avenue between the B and A Blocks. The section of C Block directly facing the library was known as Park Ave.
The area known to inmates as “Seedy Street.