National Affairs: Those Babies

On the grim, tide-gnawed rock called Alcatraz just inside San Francisco's Golden Gate, the prisoners are counted every 30 minutes. They live in silence, permitted no talk except what is essential to their work, save on Saturdays when (if they have been good) they converse under guard for 2½ hours. After the prisoners are locked in at night, the guards engage in rifle practice. They leave their targets (human-shaped dummies) sprawled along the walkway with bullet holes in vital spots for the prisoners to see in the morning. No convict has escaped alive from Alcatraz. A number have gone "stir...

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