newbery honor author 

new york times bestseller

Gennifer Choldenko
Gennifer Choldenko

THE ALCATRAZ INTERVIEWS

Her Father Was a Guard and the Warden of San Quentine

Jean Mered­ith lived on Alca­traz from 1941–1944 and then 1946–1948. Her father was a guard on Alcatraz.

Jean Meredith

1.

You have said that on Alca­traz there were no places to play but the parade ground which was a “block of cement” … what kind of games did you play?

We flew kites and roller-skat­ed. We played crack-the-whip, hide-and-seek, and sar­dines (one per­son hides, when oth­ers find her, they hide with her). In the Social Hall, we bowled, played pool and ping pong, but we had to be invit­ed to the Social Hall, we couldn’t just go there when­ev­er we wanted.

2.

Did you ever break the rules while on Alcatraz?

The beach was off lim­its but some­times we went down there. Once we “encour­aged some­one” to take the warden’s secretary’s shoes off of his porch and toss them in the bay.

3.

If you ever want­ed to have a friend come over, what did you have to do?

We would get per­mis­sion from our par­ents, who would sub­mit the name and get approval from the prison admin­is­tra­tion. The friend would be giv­en a boat time and they had to be on that boat. We would wait for them at the dock on Alca­traz and sign them in.

4.

The con­victs did your laun­dry. Did it ever come back man­gled in any way?

My father had a black and white striped bas­ket­ball ref­er­ee shirt. He sent that through the laun­dry and it didn’t come back. Lat­er, he found pieces of it in var­i­ous prison cells. Anoth­er time when he was rel­a­tive­ly new, my father’s shirt came back with slash­es in the back.

5.

How did your father inter­pret this? Did some­thing he did pro­voke the con­victs to slash his shirt?

No. He felt it was intend­ed to scare him.

6.

Did your father ever talk to you about the pris­on­ers on Alcatraz?

My father said some­times the con­victs were there because they had done ter­ri­ble things. Oth­er times they were escape-prone. Peo­ple thought you couldn’t escape from Alcatraz.

7.

Did you ever have a toy confiscated?

Yes, my cap pis­tol. Toy guns were not allowed on the island. I nev­er got it back, either.

8.

Did you ever meet a con­vict while he was col­lect­ing your garbage?

No, but at San Quentin our gar­den­er was an inmate. He was real­ly chat­ty. He liked to enter­tain my friends.

Jean raised 5 chil­dren; was a com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer; “stay at home mom.” In 1980 she ran a friend’s suc­cess­ful cam­paign for the State Assem­bly and head­ed his Dis­trict Office for 11 years (got paid!); still vol­un­teers in church, pol­i­tics, and three non-prof­its; vis­its with 7 grand­chil­dren when­ev­er she can and enjoys life with her hus­band of 61 years, Peter, a retired Berke­ley Police Lieutenant.

Inter­viewed by Gen­nifer Chold­enko in Wal­nut Creek, CA, on June 27, 2013.