Nos. 24171-157 And 01489-163(B)

The blue and white Cadillac that pulled up last week at the federal prison camp in Montgomery was delivering no ordinary arrival, and the taunting convicts knew it. Dressed in a green pinstripe suit and carrying a briefcase, the newcomer slowly worked his way through a crowd of reporters. "They got you now, Big John!" shouted one prisoner. They had indeed, but the big man seemed as glacially composed as ever. "It's a nice day. It's nice to be back in Alabama," said John Mitchell, Richard Nixon's Attorney General.

By surrendering last week for a term of 2 1/2 to 8 years, Mitchell became the first U.S. Attorney General ever to serve a prison sentence, and the last indicted Watergate figure to go to jail. His crimes: perjury, obstructing justice and conspiracy. Only one day earlier, former White House Chief of Staff H.R. ("Bob") Haldeman, who had been convicted of the same offenses and received the same punishment, surrendered to the federal camp at Lompoc, Calif.

No Armed Guards. Haldeman and Mitchell thus became the 24th and 25th prisoners of the scandal, and the final major Watergate figures to be jailed. Last week the Justice Department closed the office of the special Watergate prosecutor. The few remaining investigations of Nixon campaign contributors and other spillovers of Watergate will flow through Justice's normal channels.

Haldeman--prison number: 01489-163(B) --and Mitchell -- 24171-157--must each serve 30 months before they become eligible for parole. Both men are doing their time in minimum security prisons--unfenced facilities with no armed guards and no violent convicts. The two camps have acres of grassy lawns. Mitchell's borders a golf course and a river in which convicts can fish. Haldeman's sits at the edge of a blossom-filled valley devoted to the commercial production of flower seeds. Both prisons have outdoor playing fields and recreational periods that stretch from the end of the workday in midafternoon until prisoners choose to go to bed. Haldeman is living in a cubicle in a 30-man dormitory. Mitchell has one cellmate and, because he is over 40, is sure of getting a bottom bunk.

Haldeman was assigned last week to general maintenance work in Lompoc's power plant. His eight-hour shift begins at 7:50 a.m. Mitchell must go through an orientation week before receiving his assignment, but is expected to be given clerical duties in the prison where his color photograph was once prominently displayed beside Nixon's. The wardens in the two institutions insist that neither man will receive special treatment, but Mitchell was routed away from the minimum security camp at Allenwood, Pa., where he normally would have gone. Reason: Allenwood is now overcrowded, and federal officials feared they might have trouble protecting him from inmates.

Both Mitchell and Haldeman plan to work on books while in prison. Mitchell has received an advance from Simon & Schuster reportedly totaling $50,000. Last month Haldeman announced that he was writing a "gloves-off book on Watergate; the size of his advance from Quadrangle The New York Times Book Co. has not been disclosed. Their prison lives should allow both men to solve one problem that traditionally bedevils authors--lack of uninterrupted time for writing.

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