Working At Preston - Memories of Bruce Warner

In the past year I have become acquainted with someone who happened to have worked at Preston starting in the early 1950's, and who remained working there for 40 years. In the beginning, Bruce Warner was a baker in the Navy. By 1952, he was hired to be a cook at Preston.  Bruce first lived on the 2nd floor of the main Administration building, aka The Castle in an apartment. At the time he paid $10 rent for the apartment, plus he got free meals. Later he moved to housing quarters on the property, until he got married, which was when he eventually moved off site to a house.  

For his job, he would arrive at 3 a.m. to the kitchen start the day's food preparations, and at least 4 boys would be assigned to his kitchen to help daily. He would cook for up to 1000 wards a day. He also mentioned the butcher shop was also a sectioned off part of the main kitchen used to prepare meals for the wards. Later on he would become a security guard there, and even later he was the bus driver for the Preston Band.

The Administration building, from what he remembers was basically the same -- Basement, 1st floor level remained offices, Superintendent's office, Asst. Superintendent's office, etc. The 2nd level was apartments for the employees and also their very own post office (Waterman, California), and the 3rd level he remembers being open and the boys playing sports such as basketball in a larger area on that level. He said at that time he does not recall any infirmary or hospital areas in use in that building, so by that point, those areas had been moved to other buildings on campus. 

He mentioned the Honor Cottages and how they had day rooms downstairs for the wards, and upstairs were the sleeping quarters. He mentioned that a building behind the castle also had a dining area for the wards, and living quarters upstairs for a company of boys. He also mentioned another apartment towards the end, one of which he later moved into which had a small bedroom and kitchen area. He was still only required to pay $10 per month for rent.

He recalled the giant metal fire escape slide, and admitted he slid down it once or twice, for fun! He said that there was a blacksmith shop, a cobbler shop, a print shop, a bakery, a slaughterhouse, a garden, a huge area where they kept over 3000 laying hens which was fairly close to the cemetery. He also remembered fruit trees, which the staff had to keep a close eye on, because wards would take fruit and hide it in their clothes and bring back to their dormitories and make wine or "pruno" with it, by using a piece of bread to extract the yeast to make the fruit juice turn. He said that was a common problem.

The ranch and dairy had a herd of cattle, cows for milking, sheep, horses, and hogs. 

"When I came to Preston, a lot of the older folks who had worked there for many years were now reaching retirement age, we're talking 60 to 70 years old, but these folks still had to work, so they were put on the night shift. They were put in the dormitories with the boys with no protection from them at all. This was a dangerous thing. They only had two steps and a platform between them and the boys, some who were very violent. Eventually the guards had to have cages, not for the boys, but for the guards to sit inside the cages at night for their own protection." 

Bruce also recalled another incident where a guard opened one of the cell doors for an inmate in lock up (something they were not supposed to do). He couldn't recall the exact reason for the guard opening the door but the ward tricked the guard and attacked him, knocking the guard very hard in the head and attempting to escape. The only reason the ward got caught was because another ward in the cell next to him started yelling for help, which alerted staff and more security guards came.

He mentioned that wards often tried to attack staff there, a perfect example of that was when his friend, Preston's agricultural teacher James Wieden died from his injuries after two wards attacked him in an attempt to escape. (You can read about that story here.) 

When asked about the allegations of ongoing abuse at Preston, Bruce stated, "I don't know of any, there wasn't any type of abuse or punishments like that when I worked there."

Punishment in solitary confinement consisted of 2 days of a bread and water diet (all three meals). He said the boys would get 2 slices of bread and all the water they wanted for each meal, and on the third day they would get a full three meals. The fourth and fifth days were back to bread and water again.  He said he had heard of the corporal punishment methods such as paddling and whipping that had taken place there in the past, and even spoke to the brother of the "Disciplinarian" who had been the person who did the "disciplining" when deemed necessary. Still, Bruce stated that he never witnessed any abuse to the wards while he worked there. 

If they were assigned to the work squad for punishment, they would move piles of dirt with a shovel and wheelbarrow in the morning and the afternoon. No talking was allowed. He said he remembered one ward who worked so hard, and got so filthy in the dirt that when the end of the day came he asked Bruce if he could skip the shower that evening. When asked why, the boy showed him his hands which the joints and knuckles were full of newly popped open blisters. Bruce told him just that one time he could skip the shower. He looked up and told him, "Thank you, you will never have another problem with me again." 

Bruce mentioned to me that although he had heard of Preston's reputation of being hard on the boys, and the stories of  abuse before he came to work there, that as the years went on and once the social workers and psychologists got involved with the school, then the administration was forced to go "too easy" on the wards, resulting in more rebellious behavior because the wards no longer feared consequences for their actions. 

All in all, Bruce enjoyed his time at Preston. He stated that there were so many people who worked there who honestly were good people, just wanting to help the boys and make a living to survive. He enjoyed working with the boys in the kitchen and watching them parole and leave, hoping they made a better life for themselves elsewhere. 

He believes that the Preston School was a good thing, despite what other people may believe. He highly respects E.M. Preston for having the idea and the drive to fight to have this school built in order to help the younger boys get away from the bad element that they were doomed to experience, as they would have been sent to Folsom or San Quentin otherwise. Bruce explained that the young boys would have been sexually assaulted had they been sent to the prison system, and no one would be able to protect them from the hardened criminals there. E.M. Preston didn't want that for the boys. 

Although the Preston School of Industry wasn't a perfect place -- and yes, there were tales of abuse and even some stories of alleged sexual abuse, but for the most part Preston was a safer place to be than San Quentin or Folsom, and we need to remember that. 

(J'aime Rubio, Copyright 2025 - www.jaimerubiowriter.com)