The Rock

(My continuing summer 'field trip' series.)

Hannah desperately wanted to visit Alcatraz.  After reading a chapter book called Escape from Alcatraz, she was fascinated by the escape and what a real jail cell looked like. So we decided to include the Rock on our 'summer field trip' schedule.

We brought my brother (who has never been) and his wife, along with the H. family, our wonderful vacation partners who also have never been. (And I bet that some of you 'die-hard Bay Area born and raised' readers have never been also! Shame on you!)

The ferry ride was smooth and short. As we landed on the island, we were instructed to get a quick debriefing. Not only was Alcatraz home to a federal prison, but it was a meeting place for Indian activists and currently a national park for many birds.

This building greeted us at the dock. It served as the quarters for soldiers assigned to prison guard duty. It was remodeled later into apartments for correctional officers and their families. This end of the island was fenced off for the security of the families.

We watched a short documentary about the island which was very informative. Then we headed up to the Cellhouse for our self-guided audio tour. We met at the check-in where the prisoners were also checked-in, stripped down, offered one shower, and their prison uniforms and supplies. The prisoners could only shower twice a week.

Uniform pick-up

Shower 'stalls'?

Of the 1,545 men who did time on the Rock, only a handful were notorious...Al 'Scarface' Capone, 'Doc' Barker, Alvin 'Creepy' Karpis, George 'Machine Gun' Kelly, and Robert Stroud, the 'Bird Man of Alcatraz'. Most of the inmates at Alcatraz were men who had proved to be problems at other prisons. They were either escape risks or troublemakers.

What depressed the prisoners the most was that freedom was just a little over a mile away. They could sometimes hear and see the sights and sounds of the city. That was so tempting and at many times torturous.

The Rock served as a Federal Penitentiary for 29 years. During those years, 36 prisoners tried to escape  and all but 5 were recaptured. Eight were murdered by other inmates, five committed suicide and 15 died of natural causes including disease.

The Recreation Area

The Kitchen: Daily check of all the knives (check out the cut outs)

Cells Blocks B and C were for the general population.

Cell Block D - Unruly prisoners were segregated in this block which was also known as Isolation.

Solitary Confinement for the real bad ones who don't follow the rules.

You can see that the Solidarity Confinement Cells have double doors; You are literally locked in complete darkness but can still hear everything around you.

The cell was 9 by 5 ft.

Cell of an 'escapee'; he escaped out from the vent by using a spoon to dig himself out.

Out of the 14 escape attempts, the best known was in June 1962 when Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin broke out of their cells through enlarged air vents. They left dummy heads in their beds. They climbed to the top of the cellblock and onto the roof along a ventilator shaft. They climbed down a cast-iron stovepipe, entered the water with floatation devices made from raincoats and were never seen again.

They got out through here from their cell.

We met a former guard (the youngest who worked there) who was autographing his book about his experiences at the Rock.

Hannah was captivated by his stories!

He left after working three years at the prison to be sent to Korea to fight in that war.

The prison closed in 1963 due to the high cost of operating and maintaining it. Note it did not even have a sewage system. Today, Alcatraz is a part of the National Park Service.

The modern 'Super Max' federal prison equivalent to Alcatraz today is in Florence, Colorado. The ADX (United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility) Florence only houses the most dangerous prisoners and prisoners are in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for at least the first year. Current prisoners are ones that were involved with the World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist attacks. That prison was an interesting read also.