What Makes A Prisoner's Life At Alcatraz

This prison couldn’t be like any other. Alcatraz needed to condense the prisoners from the society .So Cummings decided to build the prison on a rocky island miles away from land. The surrounding water was frigid year round and had strong currents. But thats not all Alcatraz had major security. With included 3 guards for every prisoner,machine guns,tear gas, and microphones placed everywhere for guards to overhear any conversation.It also included tough disipline so that every time a prisoner would talk they would be thrown in a dark concreate room for days apon days. The guards family also lived on the island for maximum security

The History of Alcatraz Island 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

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.

January 13, 1939, Doc Barker, Dale Stamphill, William Martin, Henry Young, and Rufus McCain escaped from their isolation unit in the cellhouse by sawing through the flat iron cell bars and bending tool-proof bars on a window. (citation here) Before they could make it to the shoreline, correctional officers found them. Barker and Stamphill were shot when they refused to surrender, and the others surrenders. Barker died from the bullet wound.

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.

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.

But before they could allow the prisoners to transfer they had to remodel to make the prison a maximum security prison. When they were able to transfer, the hired guards each guard was assigned 3 prisoners and each prisoner had their own cell. Alcatraz was known as the “prisons system prison”. Alcatraz was a place where some of the most critical and troublesome inmates were held, they were given scarce privileges in order to be taught how to act and follow the rules. The redesign of Alcatraz included tougher iron bars, and series of strategically placed guard towers. They created a more severe set of rules that needed to be followed, they also did many checks on the inmates during the day. Some would say escape was almost impossible. On average Alcatraz held up to 260 to 275 inmates at a time. In total Alcatraz housed a total of 1,576

Most prisons had steel bars in the cells. The ones at Alcatraz were a bit different. Up against a smuggled in hacksaw, the normal steel didn’t have a chance. But, if an inmate took a hacksaw to Alcatraz's new heat treated bars, the saw would not stand a chance. Metal detectors were often used on the prisoners. The guards conducted searches frequently, as much a every half hour or more, especially in the work areas. (Alcatraz: No Way Out)

A day in the life of a prisoner at Alcatraz is pretty tough. At 6:30 AM the prisoners woke up and tidied up their cells. At 6:45 they went to the mess hall to eat breakfast. Then around 7:25 guards took the inmates to their “jobs” such as, gardening, tailoring, and laundry. They worked until 11:40 which is when the inmates had dinner, the same way as breakfast. After dinner they went back to work and had a break after two hours, then they returned to their cells at 4:45. The final lockup was at 4:50 and lights out at 9:30. A total of 13 official counts was made every 24 hours to make sure that all prisoners were accounted for.

Time for the prisoners. Who came, you may ask. Some of the mightiest criminals alive. Try Al Capone; the most powerful criminal in the world who was responsible for more than 1,000 deaths of politicians, policemen, and other gangsters. He killed anyone who got in his way, even if they were his own men. This guy may ring a bell, Robert Stroud aka The Birdman; stabbing guards and killing innocent people, he was sent to prison for life. In that time, he had already wrote two books about birds and lived in a cell filled with feathered creatures. How’d these men react, different. The first few years of prison were very quite. Al Capone owed 39 days to the Hole. Isn’t so fun being the underdog, is it?! He drove him so nuts that when he was freed in 1939, he died a few years later. He wasn’t the only one who had died because of Alcatraz. Teddy Cole, a kidnapper and a murderer, was sent to the “Rock” for 50 years. But he did not stay long. In December in 1937, he and a bank robber named Ralph Roe teamed up. Sawing the bars off a window,

“You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention, anything else you get is a privilege” ("Daily Activity Schedule"). This was the fifth regulation of many, it is what every inmate to ever attend this island read as they walked into the doors of the Alcatraz penitentiary. This island

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

In 1933, the U.S. Army “relinquished” control of the island of Alcatraz “ to the U.S. Justice Department” (History.com). At that time the federal government “wanted a federal prison that could house a criminal population [that was] too difficult or dangerous to be handled by other U.S. penitentiaries” (History.com). “The main reason that Alcatraz was turned into a federal prison is because escape was thought to be impossible” (History.com). Alcatraz was made more secure than it already was to prevent escapes following construction to make the prison safer.

This famous prison known as “The Rock” constructed in an island surrounded by bone chilling water, located off the coast of the San Francisco bay, just over a mile from the city was made in attempts to make escapes much more hazardous. For many decades, “The Rock” served as a powerful fortress, military prison and a federal prison, housing the most dangerous criminals of the latter half of the 20th century, in some way separating the evil from the civilian population, employing prison guards known to be the toughest and extremists in the country. Alcatraz initiated in 1934 became the first federal prison in the history of the United States with the highest maximum-security system active until 1963. Being full of myths and history that today

Hoover had plans to crack down on these criminals. The problem Hoover faced was that, no sooner were the criminals locked up than the crime organizations would bust them out. With this major problem in mind, the Justice Department began looking into a maximum-security prison that was not easy to access and therefore inescapable. When they came across Alcatraz, it was almost too good to be true. By April of 1934, work began on Alcatraz to make the current cell house more secure by replacing soft iron square bars on the cells with new,