Clinton T. Duffy - Compassionate Corrections

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Warden Clinton T. Duffy, on his final day at San Quentin Prison (Life Magazine)

Clinton Truman Duffy, born August 4th, 1898, was the (which number) warden of San Quentin State Prison in California at a time when conditions at the maximum security prison - and many other prisons around the nation - were, in many ways, inhumane and cruel. As warden, Duffy made changes that, at the time, were considered either foolish or revolutionary, but which  quickly became standards which were adopted by many other prisons nationwide.

San Quentin Native
In some ways, it's no surprise that Clinton Duffy became Warden of San Quentin State Prison. He actually grew up there, in a house in the "Village", a residential development designed to look like a typical American suburban neighborhood, but one which was constructed on the grounds of the prison.

His father, William Duffy, a farmer who decided he really didn't want to spend the rest of his life tilling the soil, had taken a job at the prison, as a guard, for $50 per month and later moved his family to the Village in 1894.

Aerial photo of San Quentin State Prison (source: Jitze Couperus via Wikipedia)

San Quentin State Prison
The oldest prison in the state of California, San Quentin was opened in July of 1852. The prison sits on 275 acres of Point San Quentin in Marin County, located in Northern California. The original structures were built by prisoners, who were at the time being housed just offshore on a 268-ton prison ship called the Waban. Known to most as simply "San Quentin", the prison currently houses the largest all-male death row in the United States.

1906 San Francisco Earthquake - A Lasting Impression 
Lester C. Guernsey panoramic photo of 1906 earthquake destruction (public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

“But I never forgot the incident, and ever since I’ve thought of men behind bars as my father saw them – human beings in trouble and needing a helping hand."
- Clinton Duffy

After the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, prisoners who were serving time at the San Francisco County Jail were moved out and loaded onto a boat which, it so happened, ended up anchored in the San Francisco Bay directly across from the Duffy home at San Quentin. Clinton Duffy recalls hearing the prisoners shouting onboard the boat which they had all been crammed onto. 

Due to a rumor that was going around at that time, John Edgar, the Warden of San Quentin, placed guards at the shoreline, so they would be prepared if prisoners aboard the floating jail tried to make a break for it to dry land.

Clinton recalls that his father reassured him that all was well, saying, "Now look kids, go on and play and forget those poor fellows on the boat. They’re probably wet and hungry and scared, and they’re not going to bother anybody.”


After a few days with no trouble from inmates onboard the floating jail, the boat hauled up anchor and sailed away. 


Duffy recalled later that he never forgot what his father said that day and that it made a lasting impression on him, helping him to see that the prisoners were people, some of whom simply needed a helping hand to get an opportunity at a second chance, a second start in life.


A Temporary Appointment 
Appointed initially as a 30 day, temporary replacement for the previous warden, who had been fired for exceptionally bad treatment of inmates, Clinton Duffy was an agent of change from the start. He began the transformation by immediately dismissing the Captain of guards and six of the prison "screws" who had routinely beaten and tortured inmates for even the slightest infraction. He closed the "hole", a stone dungeon comprised of unlit, airless stone cells closed shut on prisoners with thick iron doors. He did away with forcing the inmates to eat out of buckets and created a cafeteria which employed a dietician. 

In 1945 he ordered that the prison dining hall be desegregated. It did not go unnoticed and there were protests and even some violence. But Warden Duffy never went back on his decision and he was eventually backed up by both the State's Prison Director and California's Governor, Earl Warren.

Some of the other changes warden Duffy implemented:
  • He did away with the practice of corporal punishment in the prison.
  • He changed the showers so the prisoners bathed in fresh water, instead of sea water.
  • He was the first warden to put prisoners to work to support the war effort during World War 2
  • He helped to bring the program of Alcoholics Anonymous into San Quentin.
  • He established vocational training at the prison.
  • He assisted in the inauguration of a prison newspaper.
  • Created the first prisoner-based radio programs inside a prison.
Upon his departure fron San Quentin State Prison, Clinton Duffy went to work for the California parole board and also began a career as a popular author and speaker on the topic of capital punishment, which he was a staunch opponent of.

REFERENCES

BOOKS

  • Duffy, Clinton T., and Dean Southern Jennings. The San Quentin story. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950.


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