The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1937-01-02
BIGGEST PRISON
Halls DROP OF
500 PRISONERS
REDUCTION IN NUMBER AT
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTION
is SURE INDEX OF BET
TER TIMES

lex IlMES
BY SAM JACKSON
(By Associated Pressl
SAN QUENTIN, Calf, Jan. 2.
The biggest penitentiary in the
country is about to lose that rat
ing and is glad of it.
A drop of nearly 500 in the
population of the California State
prison here is hailed by Warden
Court Smith as a sure index of
better times and more jobs.
The inmates are now down to
1922, after running well over
5000 during the worst of the de-
preston, and San Quentin hopes
soon to hand over the rank of
biggest" to some institution in
the east. New York, Illinois and
Ohio have more convicts on hand
than California, but they are split
up among more Institutions.
California has only two places
for male felons-San Quentin for
first termers, Folsom for repeat
ers.
Alcatraz Small Time
Despite the celebrity of Alca-
traz, which lies out in the bay not
far from the State prison, the gov
ernment's Devil Island" is just
a small-time jail compared with
the ''big business" going on at
San Quentin.
The latter requires two inn
mense dining rooms, one seating
5000 men, the other 1000, to
feed its inmates. No cafeteria rou-
tine delays meals. The prisoners
are waited on at their tables and
an orchestra pays for all meals
except breakfast.
Once each day the diners get
beans. This is not an economy
diet, but is demanded by the large
PROPORTION of Mexican conyicts.
t- Largest Cell Block
1t takes three free employees
and 300 inmates to run the mess
hall, which uses 125 pounds of
coffee a meal, 1900 loaves of
bread a day.
At night some 1900 men sleep
in the largest single cell block in
the world, containing 1000 cells.
The studious ones can cram on
school courses. taking their chol,e
of $50 in the prison curriculum.
One hundred and twenty better
educated convicts have jobs as in
structors.
1t takes five doctors and two
dentists to look after the health
of San Quentin inmates, although
the administration is proud of the
fact the hospital list averages
only rs.
Work In Mill First
Principal industry at San Quen-
tin is a jute mill, which imports
the raw plant from India and
turns out 10000 sacks a day.
They are sold direct to farmers,
scrupulously kept out of the hands
of middlemen.
Regardless of what prison job
he eventually falls into, every
newcomer has his head clipped
and spends his first 13 months in
the jute mill.
Under Warden Smith, the dun
geon has been closed and the
most extreme punishment inflict-
ed is solitary confinement. De-
sire to work up into "good job"
in one of the PRISONS shops or in
its farms or gardens is credited
chiefly with keeping the prison
ers in line. There are 275 guards.
A safety valve is provided by
Warden Smith, who patiently in
terviews any convict who wishes
to see him. In cases of prison
grudges, he lets the two OPP
ponents put on boxing gloves and
go after each other in view of
their fellows.
Location An Accident
San Quentin's strategic position
on a peninsula jutting out into
San Francisco Bay was chosen
largely by accident. In the gold
rush days convicts were kept on
a prison ship under private con-
tract. AS the lure of easy money
brought in riffraff from the seven
seas, it became necessary to
house some on shore, and these
first buildings formed the nucleus
Of what is now a big walled city.
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