Homer Cummings And Alcatraz Research Paper

From “Inside Rikers”, written by Jennifer Wynn, Wynn shares the lives from the “world’s largest penal colony” the inmates from Rikers Island. She really humanizes criminals by giving them faces and names because she does what most American are unwilling to do because they are afraid, that is forgiving people and giving them second chances. She really does see the good in the hearts of some staunch criminals. At the same time, she is a clear sighted humanist on how hard it is to leave the criminal lifestyle. Drawing all the difficulties and complications that our society has placed in the way of the newly released inmate. Not to mention the persuasions of the criminal lifestyle itself. The first chapter is Welcome to the Rock, where Wynn introduces the narratives of Angel, Kenny, Charlie, Alfonso, and Benjamin. Chapter two is titled, From the Belly of the Beast to New York Streets where both Frank and Mike are introduced here. In Chapter Three, the Captain and Harry tell the stories of Keepers Of The Kept, Convicted At Birth with Rico, Napoleon, Hilton, and James in Chapter 4.

As Richmond was being attacked, a place was needed to store the Union prisoners. Andersonville had accesses to the Georgia Southwestern Railway and portable water from the Sweetwater Creek and wells around the area making it an ideal location. A pine forest surrounded the area providing a good amount of timber as well. (Rice n.d.) According to Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein, the prison began construction in January of 1864 but was being filled with prisoners before it was complete. When the first group of 10,000 prisoners arrived, only half the fence was complete, the cookhouse had barely been started, and no barracks or hospital had been established. The prisoners were supposed to be housed in tents but the governor of Georgia refused to sell them any. (Schroeder-Lein 2008) According to McElroy, who was a survivor of the Andersonville prison camp and wrote of book on his life there, the river that flowed through the camp made the area around in like a bog about a hundred and fifty feet wide that prisoners would sink into leaving even less adequate living space for the prisoners. (McElroy, Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons 1962) The pine forest around the forest was also quickly cut down for construction. This left the prisoners

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.

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

Before the 1820s, most prisons resembled classrooms where inmates lived in large rooms together like a dormitory. The newer prisons of the era, like New York’s Auburn Prison, shepherded men into individual cells at night and silent labor during the day, a model that would prove enduring. Women at Auburn, however, lived in a small attic room above

Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV.   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison.   Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.

Conditions inside the prison were no better. For starters, many of the prisoners were those who had committed menial crimes. Worse so, many were war heroes, back from Vietnam who couldn’t find a job and thus had to go about other illegal means to stay alive, and thus were thrown in prison. Attica prison in particular was famous at the time among prisoners for having the most horrific treatment of their inmates. Guards did whatever they could both legally and illegally to keep their prisoners in perpetual fear and discomfort. The prisoners were not just treated like children, but as animals. The one thing prisoners treasure the most is their contact with the outside world. It keeps them sane and allows them to remain in some type of contact both with their families as well as with what is going on outside the prison walls. But, guards did whatever

Ted Conover’s book, New Jack, is about the author's experiences as a rookie guard at Sing Sing prison, in New York, the most troubled maximum security prison. He comes to realize that being a correctional officer isn’t an easy task. This is shown from the beginning when he is required to attend a 7 week training program to become a correctional officer. He comes to realize what inmates have to endure on a daily basis. Throughout his experience into a harsh culture of prison and the exhausting and poor working conditions for officers, he begins to realize that the prison system brutalizes everyone connected to it. New Jack presents new ideas of prisons in the United States in the ways facilities, corrections officers, and inmates function with

B. Alcatraz was to be operated on the principle of very limited privileges to inmates. The privilege of visitors had to be earned, and mail privileges were limited. They each held jobs within the prison in the tailor shop, laundry, cobblers shop, model shop, gardening, or help with the food prep in the mess hall.

In the 1920’s they passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution that made drinking illegal. This Amendment was more commonly known as the Prohibition; because of this new law, they arrested anyone who they found drinking or selling alcohol, which turned out to be a lot of people. The over populated courtrooms and jail cells became too much to handle and some courts were reluctant to find the defendants guilty. Soon enough alcohol was being smuggled into parties and the police could barely do anything about it. In the article “Prohibition and Its Effects” Lisa states, “People who could afford the high price of smuggled liquor flocked to speakeasies and gin joints. These establishments could be quite glamourous.Whereas

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

¬¬¬During the Roaring Twenties, there were many lawbreakers who increased the rate of organized crime. Unlike bootleggers, these lawbreakers stole alcoholic beverages from locked up warehouses, to resell to their customers. “Hijacking was another way of getting the liquor. Early in the Prohibition Era there was still a lot of liquor locked away in government warehouses to be sold for medicinal purposes. Much of this was simply stolen by the criminals, particularly while it was being transported” (Cohen). The lawbreakers during the Roaring Twenties

C. Contrary to what the movies portray, there were no experiments made on the prisoners, and the inmates that were transferred there were already twisted and disturbed; Alcatraz didn’t turn them into monsters. There was however, a dungeon that prisoners were

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

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.