Solitary


I thought he was in solitary confinement? He seemed to always be with other prisoners, at least later in the movie,

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There's a lot of confusion with the term solitary confinement.

Solitary is generally refers put into a dark cell and not allowed any contact with other prisoners. That is usually a short term punishment for infractions such as fighting or other violation of the rules and is generally meant to cool someone's temper off. (You see Stroud being put into solitary early in the film after a fight in the laundry.)

Stroud -after his sentence was commuted- was considered as being in segregation. That meant that he was kept in his cell at all times except for such things as a shower and his allotted time in the yard. Convicts put into permanent segregation were considered either a perpetual escape risk, a threat to other prisoners/guards, or at risk themselves (informers, child molesters, etc.). They were allowed to talk to one another in the segregation wing but couldn't actually interact with one another. They weren't allowed to take meals in the mess hall, yard time with other convicts present or have work assignments. They were allowed to have books from the prison library, they could play chess with neighbours (Stroud taught Clarence Carnes -the sole inmate survivor of the 1946 escape attempt- to play when Carnes was placed in the cell next to his in D-Block at Alcatraz), at Leavenworth they were allowed radio headsets (Alvin Karpis recounted how he was placed in the cell across from Stroud's at Leavenworth for a brief period before being sent on to Alcatraz and had a radio headset), etc.

Segregation wasn't intended to cut him off from all contact with other prisoners. It was meant that he was to spend almost all of his time within the confines of his cell.

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Was Clarence Carnes Kojak? ;-)

That explains why he was alone in the yard when he found the bird.

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No.

That was his neighbor when he was in the Isolation Unit at Leavenworth. That was a fictionalized character.

Carnes wasn't actually shown in the film. The riot shown in the movie was a fictionalized account of the 1946 blast-out attempt that became known as The Battle of Alcatraz. Rather than the pure riot that was shown in the movie, it was initially a well-thought out plan to escape. It involved overpowering the cell house guards and then getting into the gun gallery to obtain the key to the yard door, along with firearms. The plan was to use the guards as hostages, get out into the yard and then down to the dock where they'd commandeer the prison launch. It fell apart when they couldn't find the yard door key in the Gallery. (The cell house officer had retained it in his pocket rather than returning it to the Gallery -contrary to Alcatraz regulations- as he was going to use it again soon.) It devolved into an armed stand-off that resulted in two guards being killed.

Of the six convicts involved, the three ringleaders (Bernard Coy -whose plan it was in the first place, Marvin Hubbard and Joseph Cretzer) were killed in the C-Block utility corridor where they'd trying to make a last stand. The three surviving participants were all charged with murder as guards had been killed in the attempt. Two of them (Myron Thompson and Sam Shockley) were sentenced to death and went to the gas chamber at San Quentin in 1948. The last prisoner, Clarence Carnes, was spared the death penalty and given a life sentence (on top of the 99-year federal sentence for kidnapping he was already serving, plus a life sentence in Oklahoma for murder) due to his youth (he was only 19 at the time) and -more importantly for him- he'd been ordered to execute wounded guards being held as hostages. He'd refused to do so and instead lied and told the other convicts that he had -likely saving the lives of the hostages. Even the prosecutor acknowledged that merited consideration in his sentencing.

Carnes was then put into D-Block (the segregation unit at Alcatraz) for the next six years. He was placed in the cell next door to Stroud. Stroud apparently took a liking to Carnes and took it upon himself to teach Carnes to appreciate literature and to play chess. Each man kept a chess board in his cell. They could call out their moves to one another and move the corresponding pieces for the other player. Carnes took very well to the game and by the time he was returned to the general population of Alcatraz in 1952 he was an expert player, eventually becoming prison chess champion.

And yes, that was why he was in the yard by himself. Convicts in the segregation unit were allowed yard time but were only allowed out by themselves.

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When I envision solitary confinement, I think of Steve McQueen alone in a cell in The Great Escape. I don't see the difference between Stroud's solitary confinement and being in a regular cell.

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The cell McQueen was in WAS a solitary confinement cell. They had those at all prisons, including Leavenworth and Alcatraz. They were for short term punishment (fighting, possession of serious contraband, etc.).

Stroud's cell was a segregation cell. On Alcatraz, the D-Block cells were actually a little larger than the ones in B or C Blocks, as the convicts almost never left them. (Occasional yard time and weekly shower was the only regular times they were let out.)

Aside from the slight size difference, there was nothing real differentiation. In Segregation/Isolation, the convicts simply stayed in their cells 24 hours a day. They had their meals brought to them, they couldn't have work assignments, etc. Without those distractions, time seemed to move even more slowly.

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