Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [59]
I can remember lying on my bunk with my eyes closed, and dreaming that I was at this baseball game with my gal. I could imagine all of the sights and smells of the hotdogs and the summer breeze in the stadium. Those headphones were my escape to another world.
The Recreation Yard
Comparison photographs showing the recreation yard in August 1934 before the cement bleachers were constructed, and a present-day view with the bleachers. Numerous inmates enjoyed sitting high atop the cement bleachers to enjoy the beautiful panoramic scenery of the San Francisco Bay.
Inmates in the recreation yard playing the card game Bridge, which was the most popular pastime among the prison population. Specially marked wooden dominos were used to replace standard playing cards, since the cellulose coating was a flammable substance which could be used as an explosive. Dominos were also better suited to the prevalent wind conditions common in the San Francisco Bay.
Inmates playing handball in December of 1954. Note the painted wall markings identifying the court boundaries.
Armed officers supervised inmates from the perimeter catwalks during weekend recreation periods. The general population inmates were permitted two visits per week (on Saturday and Sunday) to the recreation yard, weather permitting. There were a variety of activities available to the inmates during their recreation period. They could play baseball, handball, or volleyball, or simply walk the yard for exercise.
A correctional officer is seen standing atop the bleachers, looking out over the recreation yard.
The recreation yard at Alcatraz was considered a sacred place among the inmates. The yard was a cement-enclosed area with thick twenty-foot walls, and a perimeter catwalk for armed officers. The general population inmates were allowed recreation time in the yard on weekends, ordinarily a 21/2-hour visit on Saturdays and Sundays. Inmates who were confined to the Treatment Unit were allowed one weekly visit, lasting only one hour. These inmates would sometimes be allowed to visit with one or two others who were also serving time in segregation.
Inmates lived for the yard. It was the only escape from the daily routine of reform. Morton Sobell, the famed co-defendant of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, would later recount a vivid memory of country music being amplified through the recreation yard. He commented that his leisure time in the yard was almost sacred, and that he never missed a visit for the first three years of his imprisonment. He would also describe the unusual beauty of the prison’s position in the San Francisco Bay in his personal memoir entitled On Doing Time:
... standing on the top of the steps leading down to the prison yard I saw the Golden Gate in all its splendor. It was magnificent, as I absorbed the view I thought to myself, “I will never have such a magnificent view in any other prison.” Prison notwithstanding, I enjoyed it until the day I left. The distant green hills, and the soaring towers of the bridge, with graceful catenary suspended between them, always lifted my spirits.
The recreation period also offered participation in several sports, as well as card games that were played using Tonk brand Dominos in place of standard decks. Playing Bridge was the favorite pastime. Former inmate Jim Quillen stated:
These guys were fanatical about bridge and they knew all of the conventions. The Alcatraz library stocked various Culbertson books, and they memorized them cover-to-cover. They dreamed about Bridge. It was all some of these men thought about. The expert Bridge players held a very special status amongst this circle