Alcatraz Had America’s Best Prison Cafeteria

[Narrator] In a prison designed

to hold the worst of the worst,

you might think they had the worst food.

But, guess what?

Alcatraz had by far the best food

in the federal prison system.

This is the Alcatraz prison mess hall...

where all the prisoners ate.

In fact, the guards ate the same food

as the prisoners, exactly the same food, so.

It was good.

And there was several reasons for that.

The warden said that, Most trouble in prison is caused

by bad food. Therefore, I'm feeding them good.

(piano music)

[Narrator] Today Bill can go back into the kitchen

where he wasn't allowed as an inmate,

because he never had a job there.

The windows were a little cleaner in our day.

This place was spotless back in those days.

You can shine concrete actually. (laughs)

And we had it shinin'.

We had some breaded pork chops.

I remember those.

With pork chop gravy, you know how you used the grease

to make the gravy and...

pour it over biscuits and stuff like that.

Man, that was good.