In Our Care: Episode 10 - Fort Madison Part 1

your newspaper is full of headlines about prisons as you lay aside your paper you wonder about all the other people who read those headlines many people's thoughts of prison are plotted with misunderstanding and most people consider imprisonment as something which only happens to other people that's what you thought to you were mistaken now you wonder if the public can ever come to know prison as the prisoners know it I would say no the public can never know Prison has the prisoners like knowing in order to know prison that well you would have to be a prisoner yourself convicts and ex-convicts are still a minority in our population but in keeping with the purpose of this program I can help you to know more about prison life and to understand better penal methods by sharing with you the information I have gathered and showing you the motion pictures i have made in the state prisons of Iowa the Iowa State Penitentiary is located in fort madison Fort Madison is in the extreme southeastern corner of Iowa in Lee County 18 miles south of Burlington on US Highway 61 this is the oldest prison west of the Mississippi and the first state institution in Iowa the Iowa State Penitentiary is seven years older than the state itself this prison has grown from its original 10-acre site to a present 55 acres of land the first end mate entered here in July 1839 and the institution now houses approximately twelve hundred and seventy inmates with the avowed purpose of helping you to understand prison life I took sound equipment with me when I went to Fort Madison in search of convicts to interview my search inevitably led me to the Presidio now the Presidio is the prison magazine which is edited and published by the inmates at Fort Madison how it is distributed widely among convicts it is also widely distributed outside here is one of the interviews I made while at Fort Madison I'm speaking to you now from the office of the Presidio which is the monthly publication of the inmates at Fort Madison penitentiary or Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison I have sitting here with me now is Tom Runyan who has been editor of this paper for a good many years Tom how long have you been in here at the penitentiary I've been here a little over 15 years now that would have made about 1937 I was in March 1937 how long is your sentence town it's life for second-degree murder I see I'd be very much interested in knowing Tom how you've been getting along and what you've been doing in the 15 years you've been here it's a prison well got along fairly well I've put in three and a half years in the tailor shop making coats or turnout suits I see you haven't been writing the whole time you've been here no I started in 1938 but just barely started you worked in the tailor shop before you came over here for three and a half year and a half years and worked in the chair factory for about six months before I to presidio video how did you happen to come to write start writing for the Presidio well just looking around something to do and pass the time didn't have you done any writing before you stole no I writing at all studied it in school or anything started to once and only spent about a month had it interrupted correspondence course I see and so all of your writing experience has been practical side actually can hear that all of it on the Presidio and for the presidio now how long have you worked for worked for the Presidio well little over five years old told as editor possibly possibly as much as seven years also you'll work to kind of a guess a couple of years before you became in it yes turned editor five years I'd like to know if you feel that in the five years you've operated this magazine you feel you've accomplished anything by it well is yes I think it serves considerable more or understanding on the part of the people outside now convicts and their problems we've tried hard to get them to understand better what has been the philosophy have you been trying to write about prison life then in this or what have you been doing in your articles I've been trying to write about prison life to in order to make them understand better people outside and it's might say a policy is it if it's good for a convict on port and if it's bad for convict I'm against it see could you say any specific example of something that you've worked for for any of the convicts or anyone well the most one I'm proudest of is holy linguist holy linguist that's the main one all right what I know some of these people may be familiar with it but you give us just a little bit of the background of that well I work in the shoe shop there and 47 I knew Olli and I knew he didn't get any Christmas at all you've been completely forgotten he never heard from anybody never got a letter and where is he from Sweden he'd been in this country for four years as an immigrant so on a Christmas issue of 49 I decided to get him some Christmas that's why I started out to do so I told his story in it newspapers and radio picked it up and he got a terrific amount of publicity and finally got out I see later he was excuse me he was paroled this year wasn't he yes just a short time ago mm-hmm now you say you're working in the shoe shop you knew him then where he ever came into the Presidio right see I was in the Presidio and then out again oh I see and then back again that was the game between town went on you Olie now what have you what are you doing now you're still editor of the Presidio no I'm not I'm what they call an editorial consultant now I've had a lot of extra work to do and it's a mat Henry's editor now that's been for about two months I've been out and someone told me you were writing a book what a that's what I'm trying to do now I'm working every spare minute on get out yes what will this book be about it'll be about myself in prison what I've seen and heard and thought about it 15 years I would be interested I mean serving a life sentence you seem to be pretty well adjusted to that fact now was that a difficult adjustment for the main extremely took a good many years and even begun to get adjusted to it I don't knows I am yet I don't like it a bit well I don't I wouldn't think that you wouldn't like it thank you very much tom Runyan for a very enlightening interview I'd like to wish you lots of success on that book and will be looking for it when it comes out thank you again Tom Runyan is a man whom society has seen fit to remove from its presence yet he is in solid with the prisoners at Fort Madison perhaps this prison offers him the type of discipline and well-ordered life that he needed to straighten out and get along with people perhaps this is the only place he can get along I don't know let's go inside the prison now and look at some of the things that go on in there one of your first introductions would possibly be through these gates inside the walls you see these but many barred windows and you if you're there at the right time of day you also see many men out in the yard here twice a day they are able to get the much desired sunshine and fresh air they need in the yard is a canteen where the men are free to buy various things at the store to take back to their cells with lots of items are available in this canteen they buy it with canteen checks they play cards out in the yard and as I say drink up that fresh air and sunshine even in the winter when they can get out it's very cold well here's a cell block this is an inside picture you're looking up there with the many tears of the cell this is called a range this is maximum security here the doors are locked two ways