Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [51]
The patient was put to bed and was given the proper postoperative treatment such as suction through the nasal tube to the stomach, glucose and saline and other supportive measures.
At 1:00 P.M., January 16th, the patient appeared to be making an uneventful recovery from the operation. By 7:00 P.M. that same day he developed signs and symptoms of pneumonia and by 11:00 P.M. the entire right lobe was consolidated. The next morning there developed an acute edema of the left chest and the patient became unconscious, remaining in this condition until he died at 1:28 P.M., January 17, 1936.
The post mortem examination had to be partial because of the uncertainly of his relatives claiming his body. I examined the abdomen through the operative wound and found that the peritonitis had practically cleared up, there was little free fluid in the abdominal cavity and no abscess formation. The omentum which was placed over the repaired ulcer was adherent and upon examination of the Castrorrhaphy it was found that repair had been successful.
The unfortunate thing is that the doctor did not recognize the condition at the first visit and although this might not have played a major part in the fatal outcome it certainly made a very bad impression on the inmate population and on others. Another unfortunate thing, for the patient, was the more or less general feeling that the man exaggerated minor complaints.
This is the first mortality at this station under the present regime. It is unfortunate that it had to happen at this time when the inmates were in a state of unrest. It seemed to be the spark that was needed by the leader to incite followers into rioting.
Berlin also testified about another inmate named Edward Bearden, who was likewise apparently left in solitary and became mortally ill. Berlin claimed that Bearden’s pleas for help went unheeded and that he too later died. It was this type of testimony that eventually led to a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for Young, as he was judged to have suffered overly severe punishment by prison staff.
Despite the harsh allegations against Alcatraz and its treatment of prisoners, many inmates also provided positive testimony on behalf of the prison. These supporters claimed that if you followed the rules, Alcatraz was the best penitentiary in which to be incarcerated. They maintained that Warden Johnston was an advocate of inmate rights and rehabilitation, and would not tolerate any form of intentional maltreatment. It should also be noted that during this period, the bread and water “restricted diet” rule was common policy under the Bureau for inmates being held in solitary confinement for serious misconduct. Most other federal institutions employed the same policy for unmanageable inmates.
Warden Johnston indicated in his personal memoir that he did not particularly like utilizing the dungeons as a form of punishment. One telling section reads:
When we took over the island in 1934 we did not like the disciplinary cells that were inherited with the building. The Army had solitary cells on one of the top tiers (A-Block) and the dungeon cells in the basement... the brick walls of which were often damp. They dungeons were badly located, poorly constructed and unsafe because they were easy to dig out of and in the few instances where we did use them we had to chain the men to keep them from breaking out... I did not like these cells, in fact I was ashamed of them and were used only under necessity.
Charles Berta, considered by several correctional officers as the toughest inmate ever incarcerated at Alcatraz. He was the last inmate ever to be confined in the basement dungeon.
The last inmate to serve time in the dungeon was Charles Berta. Berta had been