A L C A T R A Z - "The Rock"

 "You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention.  Anything else you get is a privilege."  Alcatraz prison rules and regulations Number 5, 1934.   Alcatraz was a maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.  It is famous for being a prison that no one could escape from.  Before Alcatraz was a prison San Francisco was becoming a very busy place because of all of the gold mines surrounding the city. They had to build a lighthouse on the island because of all the ships going past to San Francisco port.  In 1852 for defence Alcatraz became a fort with rows of open gun emplacements and 111 cannon to protect the city and its rich port.  More than 400 soldiers were stationed on the island until 1907 when the army left because they didn't need it anymore.

  Alcatraz was a prison almost from the very beginning.  In 1859, 11 soldiers were confined in Alcatraz when the first soldiers arrived.  During the civil war soldiers convicted of desertion, theft, assault or murder and citizens accused of treason were imprisoned at Alcatraz.  The prison also kept American Indians captured during the various Indian Wars and convicts captured during the Spanish-American War.  During the Great Depression of the 1930's the American Bureau of Prisons became interested in the island as a place for a high profile, maximum security facility.  In 1934 Alcatraz reopened as a federal penitentiary. 

  Of the 1545 men who did time on Alcatraz only a handful were notorious, among them was Al "Scarface" Capone, "Doc" Barker, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, George "Machine Gun" Kelley, Floyd Hamilton and Robert Stroud the "Birdman of Alcatraz".  I thought that it was funny that Alvin "Creepy" Karpis was called that because he looked really creepy and walked around the prison on his tippy toes.  Most of the inmates were men who had proved to be problems in other prison populations - escape risks and trouble makers.  We listened to stories told by some of the prisoners and prison guards of Alcatraz about what life was like back then in the prison.  One of the prisoners said it was like torture being in Alcatraz because you could see San Francisco city and everyone going about their business so close but you could never be part of it.  On  clear nights with no wind they could sometimes hear music and laughter across the bay.

  Of the 14 attempted escapes from Alcatraz, the best known occurred in 1962,  when Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin slipped into the water.  To trick the prison guards they made copies of their own heads out of soap, paper mache and hair and put them in their beds to look like they were sleeping.   Then the prisoners dug out of their cells through the air vents, climbed up the side of the pipes in the ducts, crawled across the roof and climbed down the down pipes to the water.  They used raincoats and life jackets to get across the bay and were presumably bound for San Francisco.  Although their bodies were never found it was assumed that they had drowned because of the dangerous currents that went straight out to sea, the freezing cold water and the distance to land.  The prisoners were never seen or heard of again.  

  As part its security, the Bureau of Prisons deliberately restricted visitors to "The Rock".  It may have been this isolation and secrecy that fuelled stories of Alcatraz's miserable living conditions.  Although few of these stories were true - the prison was clean and the food was good, Alcatraz was undeniably a maximum security facility.  The Ranger at Alcatraz told us that the prison guards used to tell the prisoners that they once caught a massive shark here and cut it's left fin off and threw the shark back into the ocean.  The shark couldn't swim off and could now only ever circle the island waiting to eat the prisoners who would try to escape.  

  Alcatraz was never a facility for executions.  8 inmates were murdered by other inmates, 5 committed suicide and 15 died of natural causes including disease.  Bodies were sent back to family members or in a few cases, were burried in local paupers' graves. Increasing maintence and operational costs led Alcatraz to be closed permanently in 1963.  Prisoners were transferred to other correctional facilities and Alcatraz was left to the care of a lone custodian.  Today Alcatraz is a National Park that is home to many bird species, mice, slender salamanders and insects.  Many different plants that were brought over by the soldiers and correctional officers grow all over Alcatraz Island, infact it is now quite a beautiful place.  Hannah