But he was in a classification prison. That has never changed. The point of a classification prison is limited contact with other inmates while you're being classified. Inmates don't have access to the yard in a classification prison. At best there would be a very small pod of people. Just because it was 1985 doesn't change anything. I did my time like 20 years later, you don't think I had enough time to sit around and listen to stories at the old timers told about how it used to be?
Just to share what little I know about classification prisons... A JAG once told me about a military guy convicted of selling some coke. Not a crazy amount, but some miserable cunt decided to make an example out of him, so they court-martialed him over some shit that should've just gotten him booted. He was sentenced to a few months and was due to serve that sentence in a holding facility on base... until a female got remanded to custody. Homeboy ends up in county jail for the remainder of his sentence, under classification prison, where he was summarily ass-raped. So he went from a conviction that would've ended in a fine and probation on the civilian side to trying to sue the federal and local government for failing to uphold the support agreement and uphold the classifications.
The takeaway? Corrections officers are the dumbest motherfuckers alive. If they bothered to read anything, they wouldn't be working corrections. So they aren't good at maintaining the classification system.