Alcatraz Mega Prison

Have you ever wondered what the worst prison would be like. Alcatraz was the worst prison ever it had the most baddest criminals ever. Alcatraz was nicknamed "the rock" because it was out in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It was also thought that no one could escape the prison because of all the dangers. Alcatraz opened on August 11, 1934 and closed on March 21, 1963. Alcatraz had some of the worst criminals some of the key moments were when Al Capone the worst bad guy came to Alcatraz, it also effects the people today because they see how bad it was for the prisoners to escape and have to stay there.

Security in Alcatraz was intense, and escaping was nearly impossible. The idea was maximum custody. The prisoners were on a strict schedule and were constantly being watched by the correctional officers. Official counts were held every 30 minutes during the day. (need source here) They were locked behind doors at all times, and the bars were tool-resistant.

Alcatraz was finally running in business, and all the worst prisoners were being sent there. All the inmates had a quick idea on how cummings was running Alcatraz. You couldn’t talk or you would be sent to the “hole” for a couple of weeks. The hole is “isolation”. Al Capone [the most famous gangster] was sent for the for a lot of times. And he went crazy because he kept making and remaking his bed. There was many escape attempts at alcatraz but none of them were successful. Two of them were reported missing.

..no fences, no bars on the windows, no detention sash. Guards do not wear uniforms..the buildings look like a motel. Inmates may use telephones to call anyone anytime, they have keys to their own individual rooms, they have their own money, and they wear their own clothes. There are no restrictions on hours of watching television or visiting in the day rooms or

Over fifty years after its closing, Alcatraz is still the most infamous prison of this country. This prison is so popular that it receives over 1.3 million visitors each year, and it’s one of San Francisco's biggest tourist attractions. While this prison is said to be inescapable that’s mostly to do with the government trying to keep its reputation up. Being that the prison open for nearly thirty years and only three prisoners were said to escape, it could be considered

This led to “stagflation” and high unemployment.” This “stagflation” let to the discomfort and discontent in the prison system. Prisons felt the effects of this oil shortage as well and led to their want to further voice their opinions. But, as if theses conditions weren’t bad enough, we were also going through a political reform as well as dealing with the end of the “Great Society” era. Things were bad both inside and outside prison walls. Prisoners heard about the incredibly horrific conditions outside of their walls and believed that they should be allowed to do, or at least say something about it.

C. As quoted in a report by the Bureau of Prisons, …”Alcatraz served an important purpose in taking the strain off the older and greatly overcrowded institutions… since it enabled us to move the smaller, closely guarded escape artists, the big-time racketeers… and those who needed protection from other groups…”

The new prisoner is then admitted into their “pod”. Rather than keep ALL the inmates together in one large group, they are broken down into smaller groups. Each group lives in their own pod. Each pod had a central living space and outside fresh air lounge. The individual cells surround the living area and there are three additional floors that overlook the central living space that you reach by inside stairs. Each level contains approximately 10 individual cells. Some information was not available to us (the public) as it is confidential. Information such as how many Officers work in a pod per shift. The inmates are served their meals in the central living space and it the Correctional Officers job to count everything they take. Items such as jam containers, plastic knives and forks are made into weapons by the ingenious inmates. After they are given their meals and have had time to go to the gym, they are then put back into their cell for the night.

The prison they may have escaped from is a lone island on the San Francisco bay. Surrounded by the freezing cold water chances of a swim escape was very slim the 50 degree water would kill in half an hour. The current would pull them out to the ocean where they would eventually drown. Inside Alcatraz is a high security prison for the worst of the worst. With tool proof cell bars prisoners would spend years trying to cut through the bars. Along with that the guards had machine guns and had continuous prisoner checks knowing if and when the prisoners tried

Soon after undergoing procedures they found out people where going insane and even taking their own lives. These customs of confinement where retired for a long time until about the 1920’s when they made a comeback at Alcatraz off the San Francisco Bay. The jail is known for housing some of the most notorious prisoners in the country and they wanted to keep the upper hand and not have anything go wrong. They created a whole prison block called D-Block which housed dozens of prisoners in confinement.If you were to break any rules while in confinement you would get sent to the “hole” which was worse than solitary confinement because you would not receive any clothes or any food other than bread and water. (http://www.alcatraz101.com) Robert Stroud was one one of the prisoners at Alcatraz in his lifetime he served 42 years in solitary confinement. While in another jail he was confined and found a group of birds which he housed later on in his years in jail he publish a couple books one called Diseases of Canaries. He was a very intelligent man with an IQ of 134 but while being looked up he was later diagnosed a psychopath.(Robert Stroud/wikipedia.org) Many prisoners go into solitary confinement perfectly fine and come out different due to the lack of human

Alcatraz was introduced as a prison in the Civil War to hold captured men. But was later taken over by the United Sates Department of Justice (U.D.J) because it was just abandoned after the war. Eventually it was turned into a prison to hold men that normal community prisons could not hold. In the 1930’s a crime wave hit the United States and Alcatraz was about to become a full house. During that time escape became a bigger problem due to the size of the prison and the lack of guards in the jail. There were over 14 escape attempts involving over 30 men. Twenty were caught and eight killed over a period of years. Alcatraz finally hired enough men to secure the jail to the highest level. 1 man by the name of Frank Morris proved that was not

C. As quoted in a report by the Bureau of Prisons, …”Alcatraz served an important purpose in taking the strain off the older and greatly overcrowded institutions… since it enabled us to move the smaller, closely guarded escape artists, the big-time racketeers… and those who needed protection from other groups…”

Alcatraz Island has quite a distinct history. Many people know that Alcatraz served as a federal prison, but most are reluctant to know that this island served as fort. Built before the Civil War, it served two main purposes. First, that it was to guard the San Francisco bay area from enemy ships against a foreign invasion, and second, to hold hostage prisoners of war or POW's as they were called. In this report, I'll show you how this fortress came to be a federal prison, why it is no longer in operation today, and most importantly, to show why it was built in the first place. When the great "Gold Rush" of 1849 first started, California grew from what would be considered a small, unpopulated state, into

A number of procedures were devised to prevent communication in any form. In the dining halls, for example, "prisoners were seated with their backs toward the centre so that each looked only at the backs of others; in movement, the 'lockstep' formation was exclusively employed." (Cloward et al., 1960: 26) The lockstep formation entailed "marching in single file, placing the right hand on the shoulder of the man ahead, and facing toward the guard." (http://www.britannica.com) Constant activity when out of the cells was key to prisoners adhering to the rules. These devices may be understood as instruments used to suppress interaction among prisoners.

The Tower security discoveries include several points of entry and no positive identifications of guards. The Tower was also used for storage and medication distribution to the inmates. Using the Tower for medication distribution gave the inmates access to study the layout and functions of the Tower. The tower gave poor observation of the inmate’s behavior and movements from the housing area to the kitchen area. The Tower gave the guards inadequate ability to gain access to weapons needed to defend themselves against the inmates.