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Daily Life on Alcatraz The prison was built to house 450 prisoners. However, the fact that there were never more than 250 prisoners on the island at one time helped authorities to stick to the rule, “one prisoner, one cell”—important for the maintenance of discipline. The windowless cells were 10 feet by 4 feet, 6 inches (3 by 1.5 m). They were stacked in three tiers and overlooked at each end by gun galleries patrolled by armed guards. The cells were strategically placed on a hill in the center of the island. Alcatraz was a minimum-privilege prison, which at first operated a silent system. Prisoners were not allowed newspapers or radios, and could speak only when absolutely necessary. At times, as many as one-quarter of the inmates were not even allowed to leave their cells to go out to work, but were on permanent lockup. When extra discipline was needed, there was the dreadful old dungeon or punishment cells on D Block. Inevitably, inmates made accusations of brutality against the guards. Clark Howard, who wrote the book Six Against the Rock , claimed some guards could be unfeeling, or even sadistic. However, others, like the “Candy Bar Kid,” who most days chucked a chocolate bar into one or another of the cells, did their best to make the prisoners’ lives more bearable. Alcatraz had always been an expensive prison to run. All supplies had to be shipped there and the waste taken away. Transporting dangerous men under guard from all over the United States was also costly, and the elderly prison buildings were in dire need of renovation. As a result, in 1963, “deactivation” began. Shortly afterward, a group of Sioux Native Americans claimed the island, citing an 1868 treaty that allowed them the right to any unoccupied government land. Today, Alcatraz is a favorite tourist attraction operated by the National Park Services. “Machine Gun” Kelly Goes to Alcatraz During the 1920s and early 1930s, the kidnapping of wealthy men by mobsters had become such a problem that the FBI established a direct “kidnapping line” to the office of J. Edgar Hoover. The wife of Charles F. Urschel, a millionaire in the oil business of Oklahoma City, used the line on Saturday July 22, 1933. She reported that she and her husband were playing bridge after dinner with another couple on their porch when two men appeared. One of them was brandishing a submachine gun. The intruders kidnapped both men, but let the friend go when they ascertained he was not Urschel. A $200,000 ransom was demanded and paid, and Urschel was duly released.

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