Brief History Of Alcatraz

Alcatraz was a home for the worst people that crime ever knew; that is why it is important to explore the history of Alcatraz, escaped inmates, and the daily routine for these horrendous people known to crime. Alcatraz is located in San Francisco, California on an island. The island where Alcatraz was once housed is equivalent to 1.25 miles long. The island was discovered by a famous Spanish naval officer named Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775, who was the first European who entered the San Francisco Bay. How Alcatraz got its name was from a Spanish derivative from “Alcatraces”. A group that went by “Indians of All Tribes” used their act of civil disobedience to portray the hardships faced by the Native Americans. Initially, the public support …show more content…
This island housed one of the most dangerous and notorious gangster America ever knew, Al Capone and the island’s most famous prisoner Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz). Since the 1930’s were in play and so was prohibition, many famous gangsters and criminals were housed there. The “Birdman of Alcatraz” Robert Stroud was convicted of manslaughter in 1909; while serving his prison sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary, McNeil Island, Washington, he violently attacked an existing inmate. Stroud was then transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, where he spent the next 17 years including 6 years in segregation in” D Block” and the next 11 years in the prison hospital). Frank Morris, another well known inmate housed Alcatraz Island in January 1960, as inmate #AZ-1441. Morris was no stranger to crime most of his life with having a single conviction at the age of 13 years old, Morris had spent majority of his life behind bars, serving time for offenses ranging from narcotics possession to even as bad as armed robbery. Out of all the escape attempts by inmates at Alcatraz here are some of the most well known attempts. Attempt #1 was made on April 27, 1936 by Joe Bowers who was burning trash at the incinerator attempted scaling up and over the chain link at the edge of the island. Escape attempt #2 was made by, Theodore Cole, and Ralph Roe. Both men worked in the mat shop in the model industries …show more content…
For an inmate to earn a special privilege such as, go out too the recreation yard, or have visits with family members they must follow the rules and work for the allotted time they’re assigned. As years progressed at Alcatraz the schedule changed up a little bit but typically you would wake up at 6:30 A.M., stand up to get taken accounted for, get dressed, clean up the cell, and march in an orderly fashion to the mess hall. After you return from breakfast you get counted again, get ready for work, march to the recreation yard, line up in an orderly fashion and get accounted for and there were counts every half hour at work. Usually inmates would finish work around 4:30 P.M. and head back to the cell house to be accounted for. As the evening progressed you would be counted several times and then when 9:30 P.M. hit that meant lights out for every inmate, even when prisoners were sleeping they were still doing head counts every hour throughout the night. As a prisoner you only had four given rights which were food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. The weekend schedule followed the same as the during the week schedule but the weekend included chapel, and yard time for each inmate. Showers weren’t forgotten but inmates only got to shower a minimum of twice a week. Since some of the families of the correctional officers