Alcatraz, also known as “The Rock,” was a maximum-security federal prison that opened in 1934 and closed in 1963. It was built largely by military prisoners and served as a military prison before being upgraded and turned into a prison in the 30s. There was no rehabilitation at Alcatraz. It was designed to imprison.<\/p>\n

“Those who break the rules go to prison. Those who break the prison rules go to Alcatraz.”<\/i><\/p>\n

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A visit to Alcatraz begins with a ferry boat ride to the island, which is 1.25 miles off the coast. Despite the fact that you can see the prison almost immediately after disembarking, it takes a while to get there. The cold wind, strong currents and rumors of sharks are enough to keep all but the most desperate of criminals out of the water.<\/p>\n

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Here is the sign “welcoming” you to Alcatraz Island.<\/p>\n

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After sitting through a fifteen minute video explaining the history of the prison, we began the 13 story hike up to the main part of the prison. Along the way we encountered lots of birds (seagulls and pigeons, mostly) and lots of great trees and flowers. There is actually a separate gardening tour available for Alcatraz, but we missed it. <\/p>\n

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One thing I did not know was that lots of non-prisoners (mostly family members of guards and administration staff) also lived on Alcatraz. One woman explained how she woke up every morning, took a boat with her friends to San Francisco, attended school, and then returned home to Alcatraz after school ended. Many of the flowers and trees on the island were brought over by the wives of staff, and volunteers maintain them to this day.<\/p>\n

While the outside of the grounds may look nice, the inside of Alcatraz is as cold and foreboding as one might expect. The cells are 9 foot deep, 5 foot wide, and 7 foot tall. Each one has a metal bed, “desk”, toilet, sink, and shelves. If your kids complain because they only have a PlayStation 3 and not a PlayStation 4, you should show them these accommodations.<\/p>\n

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The hallways of the prisons are named after streets (Broadway, Michigan, Times Square) and there are four cell blocks (A-D). One of them faced windows that let sunlight in — those were considered the best. The worst was D, which was also home to “the hole” — windowless, dark cells designed for solitary confinement. From some of the cells, it was said you could actually hear activity from the mainland, especially on New Years Eve when people were outside partying. <\/p>\n

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In May of 1946, six prisoners overpowered guards and managed to obtain the keys to the weapons room. The battle that ensued is known as the Battle of Alcatraz<\/a>. Two guards were captured and placed into a cell. When the prisoners realized they were not going to escape, they executed them. This part of the tour was very intense as the audio explained where everything took place and pointed out bullet holes in the floors and walls where the Marines had fired into the prison in an attempt to end the standoff. When the smoke had cleared, 17 prisoners and 1 guard had been wounded. Additionally, 1 of the original prisoners and 2 guards were killed. Two of the convicts who had led the attack and executed the guards were put to death in San Quentin’s gas chamber two years later.<\/p>\n

The most famous escape in the prison’s history was the escape of prisoners Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin, known as the “Escape from Alcatraz” and immortalized in the movie of the same name. Led by Morris, the three men devised an escape worthy of a Hollywood feature. Using sharpened metal spoons and a drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor, the three carved holes through the walls of their cells which led to a ventilation shaft. Using stolen raincoats the three made an inflatable life raft, which they used — in theory — to escape the island. To buy them extra time, the three placed dummy paper mache heads (adorned with real human hair from the barbershop) in their beds, which fooled the guards throughout the night.<\/p>\n

Here is one of the holes the criminals escaped through…<\/p>\n

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…and here is one of the heads, still on display in the cell. Do you think you would have noticed the difference, in a dark prison in the middle of the night?<\/p>\n

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The big question of course is, did the three get away? It depends on who you ask. The official answer is no — they drowned, and the government cites the discovery of an unidentified body floating in the bay a few weeks later as proof. Hollywood, and many others, believe that the three did escape. According to Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

“However, there have since been reports that there was an illegal boat in the bay on the night of the escape, that a Chevy was stolen by three men on the mainland, and that there have been sightings of the three men and that friends and family members have received many unsigned postcards and messages. The mother of the Anglin brothers received flowers anonymously every Mother’s Day and two very tall unusual women were reported to have attended her funeral before disappearing. A call to the U.S. Marshals Office was reportedly made a day after the escape from a man claiming to be John Anglin.”<\/i><\/p>\n

One of the things pointed out to us was that in Alcatraz, people didn’t have names — just numbers. In the gift shop while we were there was inmate number 1259 — aka William G. Baker — signing copies of his book Alcatraz #1259<\/a>. I haven’t read his book yet but I’ll bet this guy has some stories to tell.<\/p>\n

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One thing I did not know anything about was the Occupation of Alcatraz<\/a>, which began in 1969 and lasted for 19 months. A formerly signed treaty (the Treaty of Fort Laramie) declared that “retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was returned to the Native people from whom it was acquired.” In 1969, several Native Americans claimed the island, 6 years after the prison had officially closed its doors. The occupation began with 14 people, but grew at one point to around 400. What might have started off as a good idea quickly turned into a mess. By May of 1970 the government had cut off electricity and phone service to the island, making an already uncomfortable place to live (we’re talking Alcatraz here) downright uninhabitable. In June of 1971, government officers removed the remaining Native Americans from The Rock.<\/p>\n

Several hand painted signs from the occupation remain and serve as a reminder of that time.<\/p>\n

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After completing our tour we were hot and sweaty so we decided to take a quick shower in the prison’s shower room.<\/p>\n

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(We didn’t really take showers here.)<\/i><\/p>\n

After standing in the shadows of such infamous inmates as Al Capone, Doc Barker, Creepy Karpis, Machine Gun Kelly, and Robert “the Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud, we headed back to the mainland. <\/p>\n

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Funny, it doesn’t look so far from here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alcatraz, also known as “The Rock,” was a maximum-security federal prison that opened in 1934 and closed in 1963. It was built largely by military prisoners and served as a military prison before being upgraded and turned into a prison in the 30s. There was no rehabilitation at Alcatraz. It was designed to imprison. “Those who break the rules go to prison. Those who break the prison rules go to Alcatraz.” A visit to Alcatraz begins with a ferry boat ride to the island, which is 1.25 miles off the coast. Despite the fact that you can see the prison… (read more)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,65,66,109,112],"class_list":["post-7052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-alcatraz","tag-california","tag-california-vacation","tag-prison","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}