Escape from Alcatraz by J. Campbell Bruce

Author:J. Campbell Bruce [Bruce, J. Campbell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-81583-5
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Published: 2012-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

EX-CONVICT TELLS WHY

By Robert de Roos

It is easy to forget that the convicts who died in the abortive Alcatraz Prison break had friends.

Yesterday, a former Alcatraz inmate who did his stretch of 11 years on The Rock came forward with this story, a story that is at once a thoughtful word for the dead and a bitter denunciation of the prison system he blames.

Calmly, sincerely, he criticized the harsh reality of Alcatraz Prison, a place without hope, a physical prison which is the more terrible because it is a prison of the mind. He should know. He was there from the time it became a Federal prison.

He criticized Warden James A. Johnston and James V. Bennett, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as symbols of the repressive system.

This is the convict, a mail robber, talking:

“I’m out now. I’ve got no beef. I just want to see something done so things like this riot won’t happen again.

“I know that if they treated the prisoners half civilly, they wouldn’t react like vicious beasts.

“You can’t coop up men and take all hope away from them.

“Warden Johnston always says the trouble with Alcatraz prisoners is that they want their freedom. That’s right. They want to get out.

“They realize they are in prison.

“If they were treated better they’d still try to get out, but they wouldn’t shoot innocent people in cold blood.

“A good example of this is Joe Cretzer. He was a nice young boy and I liked him. Well, he tried to get out of Alcatraz five years ago, remember?

“What did he do then? He captured four guards in the mat shop. He had knives and hammers. But he didn’t use them. He didn’t harm the guards.

“Now look. This time he was shooting people in cold blood, at least that’s what the reports say.

“You see the way the place worked on him?

“Look, I’ve been pushed around over there and I yapped right back. I had my share of troubles. I’ve been in isolation and in the dungeon—11 days barefoot on a concrete floor, six or seven days without food—and it’s tough.

“But not as tough as going without newspapers. Or only getting to see a show six or seven times a year.

“Every time we got any privileges—Johnston calls them privileges, but I say they are necessities—somebody had to suffer.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Johnston’s and Bennett’s system doesn’t work. If it worked they wouldn’t be in trouble so often.

“Of course, Johnston has to defend the system. And he has to whitewash everything. He’s got to make people believe he’s got 300 desperadoes on his hands. Shucks, there aren’t more than 50—I’ll bet not 20—really hardened, desperate men in the place.

“But they won’t give you a break.

“I was a seaman before I started stealing. Well, at the beginning of the war when they needed seamen so, I asked for a parole—I had three years to go—so I could go to sea.

“Johnston said he thought it was a good idea. But Bennett wouldn’t have it.

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