Warden Johnston explains Alcatraz

Excerpted from his testimony for the defense
in United States vs. Shockley, Thompson, Carnes
1946

Warden James A. Johnston was called as a hostile witness by Sam Shockley's defense to testify about conditions at Alcatraz. Though the prosecution did not object to Johnston painting a blissful picture of life on the Rock, they objected to attempts by the defense to contradict his testimony. Judge Goodman sustained these objections.

MR. SULLIVAN: Warden, I want you to tell the jury the function and purpose of Alcatraz Penitentiary in the Federal penal system?

A. Well, Mr. Sullivan, that would be quite a long story. I do not want to deliver a lecture.

Q. I want the Jury to know exactly what Alcatraz Penitentiary is, for what purpose they have prisoners segregated there as distinguished from penitentiaries like Leavenworth and McNeil's Island?

A. I will give the jury the best explanation I can, as briefly as possible.

Q. Yes.

A. In the Federal prison system, which is in the Department of Justice, headed by the Attorney General and a director in charge of the Bureau, there are now twenty-five institutions, and that number, of course, has been less and more, depending upon conditions during the war and the adjustments which were made to the situation.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has set up a plan of classifying and segregating the Federal prisoners. The purpose of that classification plan is to study the antecedent history, the age, education and vocational experience and criminal history of the individual received from the courts, and the classification study is followed by, and it is a part of it, I may say, the plan of segregating the various types of prisoners committed to the custody of the Burea and the Department of Justice. Many of the prisoners committed by the courts are received at one institution, and this classification committee, made up of officers like the warden, the associate warden, the psychiatrist, the psychologist, the chief medical officer, the educational director, and the superintendent of the industries and other persons of experience and some discernment, endeavor to place the individual in the institution that they believe to be the best in all the circumstances considered, taking into account all that I have said about the studies made and the behavior problems in the particular institution might also be considered, or previous experiences of that individual in other institutions. If he had been in any other institution of any kind, either Federal, state prisons, of reformatories, that is considered.

In the segregating plan they have built and designed and set apart institutions that have one fundamental or basic purpose for the protection of society, but they may vary in their facilities and in their structure, in their physical properties, and they will classify them when they have arrived at something like a determination as to where they are going to place the individual, as to the type of institution that has the facilities for custody and control of types of inmates. Those institutions will run all the way from open camps, like road camps or foresty camps with no walls whatever to other institutions that have no walls but may have fences, if I may make that distinction, and other institutions that are built a little more securely, and they vary somewhat, because some of them are designated as minimum security and some medium security and some medium securities then have variations as to close supervision of some inmates, and then maximum security institutions for offenders that have long or serious criminal records or who have records of escape or have been shown to be assaultive or dangerous. That is not the complete story. I could go on.

Q. From your explanation to the Jury certain penitentiaries have the function of rehabilitating Federal offenders and putting them back into society at some future date, isn't that so?

A. May I answer that by explanation?

Q. Yes.

A. All of the Federal institutions and all of the officials under direction and guidance of the Bureau are always hopeful that they may accomplish the rehabilitation of all prisoners, but they treat them all decently, humanely, considerately and justly, but in some of the institution they would have more privileges than in others, and there would be more emphasis put on the immediate release program of a prisoner only serving a one-year sentence than there would be on a man whose possible date of release would be a longer way off.

Q. Would you say that Alcatraz is a rehabilitation center for the purpose of training Federal offenders into becoming good citizens upon their release?

A. Well, I do not know how I could give you a better answer than I just gave you, but it is not classed as a reformatory in the same sense that those institutions designated as reformatories, because we do not get prisoners that are on admission or as they progress have shown themselves to be susceptible to the reformatory treatment.

Q. Is there any effort made at Alcatraz to give every inmate a specialized type of training so that when he eventually does get back into society he can perform a useful occupation?

A. Well, we are always eager to find inmates showing inclination towards self-improvement. We have a good educational program. We have an excellent library. We have good industrial shops under competent foremen. And if we find an aptitude for a particular kind of work, we try to put that inmate at that. And I am not claiming we do a perfect job at that, but we do make the effort.

Q. Does the specialized training and skill supervision include the inmates who are in D Block?

A. No, it does not, Mr. Sullivan.

Q. They are not given that special training?

A. No, they are taken out of population for reasons....

Q. What is the average sentence of inmates over at Alcatraz Penitentiary?

A. Exclusive of the lifers?

Q. Yes.

A. Very long. About 32 years.

Q. About thirty-two years?

A. Yes.

From left to right: Warden James A. Johnston, Associate Warden E. J. Miller,
and U.S. Attorney Frank Hennesey.

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Transcriptcourtesy of U.S. National Archives, San Bruno, California
Photograph courtesy of San Francisco Archives, SFPL