dining room, was not confined to the most punitive accommodation on the island. The need for a newly designed disciplinary segregation unit separated by a solid concrete wall from the other cell blocks was answered by the remodeling of D block, which came after an attempted breakout in January 1939 by five prisoners. That escape plot clearly revealed the weakness in the A and D block isolation areas: the failure to install tool-proof bars to replace the old flat bars left over from the military occupation of the island had allowed prisoners to cut through the bars of their cells and the windows in D block and reach the waters of the bay.
On August 28, 1941, a new “special treatment unit” opened with three tiers of cells fronted by grills of tool-proof steel bars. Six cells on the main floor were constructed with steel floors and featured solid steel doors in addition to barred grill doors. Two of the six cells had “oriental toilets” (a hole in the floor). The new design allowed for isolation of rule breakers from the general population and solitary confinement cells for those who continued to make trouble even in a punishment unit. From thatdate forward Warden Johnston and Director Bennett could honestly deny that any prisoner on the Rock was locked up in the dungeon.
As the trial of an Alcatraz convict in 1941 demonstrated, the earlier use of the dungeons would continue to trouble Bureau of Prisons officials who did not want to be held responsible for having employed such a primitive means of punishment. The grills that covered the fronts of the basement cells were removed and discarded and their use as places of punishment appears to have been forgotten by Alcatraz wardens after James Johnston. Sanford Bates’s successor, Bennett, denied these cells had been used when after his retirement he was asked if dungeon confinement had been an early feature of the Alcatraz regime. He contended that while he was aware that many prisoners had claimed that the dungeon was used, “If the Alcatraz staff had actually placed prisoners in these cells Bureau Headquarters would have known about it.” 9 Despite correspondence reporting the use of lower solitary from Warden Johnston to Directors Bates and Bennett, and despite the numerous entries referring to these cells in prisoners’ files and in other Alcatraz records, James Bennett’s position remained as expressed in a letter to Supreme Court Justice Harlan after the Bureau had ceased operations on the island:
I am personally much interested in the history of the island and the purposes it has served over the years. When we occupied the island there were frequently charges that we were utilizing some of the alleged dungeons under the institution for the punishment of prisoners committed to the island. Apparently there was a time when some of the caverns on the island were used but this was long discontinued before we ever took over the administration of the institution from the military. 10
The tension between Bureau headquarters and James Johnston over the use of a form of punishment that lent credibility to charges that confinement at Alcatraz was brutal and inhumane was never clearer than in regard to the use of the lower solitary cells. Lieutenant Maurice Ordway summarized the disagreement between Alcatraz and Bureau administrators:
Johnston and [his deputies] said, “We’re going to run this thing and we’re going to run it our way.” They did. And they used those cells. 11
A MORE SERIOUS CHALLENGE TO AUTHORITY
Toward the end of 1935, the initial mix of military, McNeil Island, Lorton (D.C.), Leavenworth Annex, and Lewisburg prisoners combined withthe more sophisticated, long-term offenders from Atlanta and Leavenworth had changed markedly. Many of the relatively short-term, lesser offenders had been transferred, more real convicts from the two penitentiaries had arrived, and more of the big-time felons, such as Dock Barker, had been caught up in the
On August 28, 1941, a new “special treatment unit” opened with three tiers of cells fronted by grills of tool-proof steel bars. Six cells on the main floor were constructed with steel floors and featured solid steel doors in addition to barred grill doors. Two of the six cells had “oriental toilets” (a hole in the floor). The new design allowed for isolation of rule breakers from the general population and solitary confinement cells for those who continued to make trouble even in a punishment unit. From thatdate forward Warden Johnston and Director Bennett could honestly deny that any prisoner on the Rock was locked up in the dungeon.
As the trial of an Alcatraz convict in 1941 demonstrated, the earlier use of the dungeons would continue to trouble Bureau of Prisons officials who did not want to be held responsible for having employed such a primitive means of punishment. The grills that covered the fronts of the basement cells were removed and discarded and their use as places of punishment appears to have been forgotten by Alcatraz wardens after James Johnston. Sanford Bates’s successor, Bennett, denied these cells had been used when after his retirement he was asked if dungeon confinement had been an early feature of the Alcatraz regime. He contended that while he was aware that many prisoners had claimed that the dungeon was used, “If the Alcatraz staff had actually placed prisoners in these cells Bureau Headquarters would have known about it.” 9 Despite correspondence reporting the use of lower solitary from Warden Johnston to Directors Bates and Bennett, and despite the numerous entries referring to these cells in prisoners’ files and in other Alcatraz records, James Bennett’s position remained as expressed in a letter to Supreme Court Justice Harlan after the Bureau had ceased operations on the island:
I am personally much interested in the history of the island and the purposes it has served over the years. When we occupied the island there were frequently charges that we were utilizing some of the alleged dungeons under the institution for the punishment of prisoners committed to the island. Apparently there was a time when some of the caverns on the island were used but this was long discontinued before we ever took over the administration of the institution from the military. 10
The tension between Bureau headquarters and James Johnston over the use of a form of punishment that lent credibility to charges that confinement at Alcatraz was brutal and inhumane was never clearer than in regard to the use of the lower solitary cells. Lieutenant Maurice Ordway summarized the disagreement between Alcatraz and Bureau administrators:
Johnston and [his deputies] said, “We’re going to run this thing and we’re going to run it our way.” They did. And they used those cells. 11
A MORE SERIOUS CHALLENGE TO AUTHORITY
Toward the end of 1935, the initial mix of military, McNeil Island, Lorton (D.C.), Leavenworth Annex, and Lewisburg prisoners combined withthe more sophisticated, long-term offenders from Atlanta and Leavenworth had changed markedly. Many of the relatively short-term, lesser offenders had been transferred, more real convicts from the two penitentiaries had arrived, and more of the big-time felons, such as Dock Barker, had been caught up in the
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