Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [56]
The prison at Alcatraz was kept spotlessly clean. Even the correctional staff maintained the areas that were not accessible to inmates, with exceptional pride. Cliff Fish remembers working a shift in the East Gun Gallery and finding a small graffiti message written with a laundry marker on the second-tier wall. Correctional Officer Freeman Pepper wished to communicate his frustration with someone who had dropped a sticky substance on the gallery floor and he wrote the following message:
I’ve labored long, and labored hard, to make myself some riches. But I'll gladly pay good money, to the guy that will snitch on the son-of-a-bitch, who smeared my floor with honey.
The regulations at Alcatraz decreed: “There is no commissary at Alcatraz... The institution supplies all your needs. ” From the beginning this rule created conflict between the administration and working inmates, especially for the prisoners serving long sentences, who had little interest in building savings accounts. Alcatraz was the only prison within the federal system that did not allow the purchase of special toiletries, candy or even filtered cigarettes. The administration controlled purchases by inmates, which were limited to authorized magazine subscriptions, musical instruments, and only a handful of other articles.
The Prison Hospital
The Prison Hospital at Alcatraz.
The X-Ray suite. Many inmates trained to become X-Ray technicians, and found successful employment following their release.
The Operating Room as it appeared in 1956.
The “Bug Room.” Note the ubiquitous tile surface, even on the door. The barred door resembling a cell is actually the entrance to the hospital shower.
The hospital ward at Alcatraz was located at the west end of the prison on the second floor, directly above the Mess Hall. The Hospital was accessed via a stairwell leading from inside the Mess Hall entrance and was completely isolated from the rest of the prison. A Bureau of Prisons bulletin described the medical facilities at Alcatraz in further detail:
The U.S. Public Health Service provides medical faculties and staff for Alcatraz, as well as for other federal penitentiaries and correctional institutions. The Alcatraz Hospital, adjacent to the main cell house, is equipped with modern x-ray and physical therapy apparatus, operating theater, laboratories, and dental unit, and contains wards and individual rooms for the treatment and convalescence of inmate patients. It has been certified by the American College of Surgeons and compares favorably with the up-to-date hospitals and clinics in the free community.
The medical staff includes a chief medical officer and highly trained technicians, all career personnel of the Public Health Service. Specialists from the Marine Hospital in San Francisco also are available for consultation and to augment the permanent local staff. Three San Francisco Physiatrists are employed to counsel and treat Alcatraz inmates and they visit the island frequently in the performance of their duties. Inmates whose mental disorders indicate psychotic trends or continuing deterioration are transferred to the Medical Center at Springfield, Missouri.
There were also two designated isolation cells that were known by inmates as the “Bug Rooms” were constructed in the later years of the penitentiary. These small rooms for special confinement only measured approximately 8’ x 8’ x 10’. The interior surfaces were completely covered with ceramic tiles that were pinkish in color. The door was also covered with a matching tile surface and light entered through fogged translucent glass tiles that were smoothly set into the walls. One of these rooms was equipped with only a hole in the floor for the inmate to relieve himself. There was a small clear glass pane that would allow observation of the patient, and a small