okay, this is my final installment of bombarding my project with cheery alcatraz images. This is an image of the kitchen. Looks so art deco to me. There was a board that hung up with painted shapes of knives that they used to cook with and at the end of the shift the cooks would have to hang up the knives according to the silhouette of the shape on the board. If a knife went missing, the guards could figure out which knife 'shape' was missing. Food at alcatraz was better than at most other US prisons at the time and another interesting tidbit is that alcatraz boasted to be the only prison to offer hot showers for the reason that they didn't want the prisoners to get too used to cold water because they didn't want them to escape in the cold water that surrounded the island.
Here's some info on the kitchen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Dining_Hall
It's been a great series Krista - when I visited, the thing that made the most impact on me was the tiny size of the cell bunks... as a six-footer I would never have been able to stretch my limbs or get comfortable - for 25, 30 years or even longer.
all your images of the prison are wonderful and tell a story, guess at the time it wasnt a good story but you captured the nature of the place. The kitchen is very basic !!... anyway Krista a lovely set of images. i enjoyed seeing them thank you
