Page 25 - All About History - Issue 08-14
P. 25
Crime
Prisoners returning to
their cells in C-Block
COUNT IN THE CELLS
In order to keep track of the prisoners, regular
head counts were made during the day. All in all,
13 official counts were made during the day, in
addition to the six verification counts that were
made by the shop foremen.
SUPERVISED WORK
some of the convicts who were considered lower
At other times, guards would work directly with
security threats and so suitable for low-level work.
These would generally be in areas like laundry,
gardening and labour or in the tailors, cobblers or
model shop.
MESS HALL DUTY
Guards were assigned to watch and monitor the
prisoners while they filed into the mess hall for
dinner. The guards were expected to supervise the
serving and seating of the assembled convicts, give
the signals for them to start and stop eating and
present their cutlery on the table in front of them to
ensure that nothing had been taken as a potential
weapon. Prisoners were only allowed 20 minutes
for dinner.
LIGHTS OUT
After a final count at 9.30pm, the final lights-out
call was made for the prisoners. This moment
essentially functioned as the signal for those
working the day shift to go off duty, after which
they were free to do what they wanted with their
spare time. With the prisoners locked away, the
officers could relax for the first time during the day.
How do we know this?
The book Alcatraz Screw: My Years As A Guard In America’s
Most Notorious Prison by George H Gregory, who worked DINNER
there for 15 years between 1947 and 1962, provided a
rich source of information. A riveting first-hand account Food for the officers on Alcatraz was not exactly
of the everyday reality of working on the Rock, it details gourmet, but was acceptable, especially after an
the daily routine and tasks that came hand in hand with eight hour shift guarding some of the world’s most
a job on Alcatraz, as well as some truly chilling stories
regarding some of its most notorious inmates. In addition, notorious criminals. One example of a meal was
AlcatrazHistory.com, put together by Ocean View Publishing, stewed beans with homemade bread and butter.
provided a useful hour-by-hour breakdown of a day in the The officers ate in the Mule Barn building, where
life of an Alcatraz prison guard. The website helped supply the general rule of conduct was to be quiet, as
a basic framework for the information given in Gregory’s
© Corbis; Mary Evans
account of life in the world’s most notorious prison. officers on different shifts would have been trying
to sleep at various hours of the day.
25
