" THE ROAD BACK " 1960s U.S. FEDERAL PRISONS DOCUMENTARY ATLANTA, GEORGIA JAIL 17894

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Made by the U.S. Department of Justice, this 1960s documentary features the U.S. federal penitentiary in Atlanta, GA and discusses the treatment of the inmates as well as the efforts made to help inmates reintegrate into society upon their release. (Notable inmates of the prison include Whitey Bulger, Meyer Harris Cohen, Al Capone, Carlo Ponzi, Eugene V. Debs, and Marcus Garvey.) The film opens with footage of a convict leaving prison upon his release after 20 years of incarceration. Footage shows a cell block in the prison (01:17), walls, and a panoramic shot of the prison. Inmates walk in the courtyard, and some play guitars. Men eat in the cafeteria after lining up to get food. A prisoner buys candy from the prison’s canteen (02:40). In a visiting room, convicts meet with members of their family. Inmates mill around the courtyard of the prison (03:33). Viewers see the inside of The Atlantian, where men work on the layouts of the publication. There is a good shot of the courtyard where inmates lift weights and box in a boxing ring (04:20). A guard stops an inmate to see where he is going. The film shows inmates in one of the workshops of the prison. Prisoners sit on benches and play checkers (05:46); other inmates play baseball on a sizeable field. An inmate meets with the counselor of the prison’s vocational training, Perry Westbrook. Westbrook speaks about the program. Inmates in the program work at benches learning how to repair televisions (06:54). A man works in the wood-working shop (07:40). The film shows a number of other professions that convicts learn while in prison as part of the program, including printing, textiles, cooking, horticulture (08:08), and brick laying (08:58). Surgeons operate on a patient (09:29). The prison’s Chief Medical Officer speaks to one of the filmmakers about treating criminals with disabilities or deformities. Chaplain Tucker preaches during a church service (11:01). A convict ready for parole is fitted for a new outfit prior to leaving prison (12:03). Prison Warden Fred Wilkinson teaches inmates tennis. He speaks to one of the filmmakers about convicts being eligible for parole, the success of parolees, and his philosophy on running a prison. An inmate looks outside from behind bars (15:31). Men meet at the Prison Welfare Club to decide how to spend money through the charity; viewers see a Catholic church built by prisoners (15:51), and inmates being injected with malaria so researchers can find a new vaccine. The film concludes with the same shot of the convict being let out of prison: he walks down the front steps of the prison and down the sidewalk.

The United States Penitentiary, Atlanta (USP Atlanta) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Atlanta, Georgia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has a detention center for pretrial and holdover inmates, and a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates.

In 1899, President William McKinley authorized the construction of a new federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia Congressman Leonidas F. Livingston advocated placing the prison in Atlanta. William S. Eanes, an architect from St. Louis, Missouri; and U.S. Attorney General John W. Griggs, on April 18, 1899, traveled to Atlanta to select the prison site. Construction was completed in January 1902 and the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary opened with the transfer of six convicts from the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York. They were the beneficiaries of the Three Prisons Act of 1891, which established penitentiaries in Leavenworth, Kansas; Atlanta, Georgia; and McNeil Island, Washington. The first two remain open today, the third closed in 1976. The Atlanta site was the largest Federal prison, with a capacity of 3,000 inmates. Inmate case files presented mini-biographies of men confined in the penitentiary. Prison officials recorded every detail of their lives - their medical treatments, their visitors, their letters to and from the outside world. The main prison building was designed by the St. Louis, Missouri architect firm of Eames and Young, which also designed the main building at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. It encompassed 300 acres (1.2 km2) and had a capacity of 1200 inmates. The facility was subsequently renamed the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta when US government created the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1930.


This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com