When we think about Alcatraz Island, we often think of prison escapes or the infamous criminals who lived there. Alcatraz was more than just a prison and has five distinct phases! It was a military fort, military prison, a federal prison, occupied by the Indians of all Nations, and finally, it is a national park. Let's take a closer look at the history of Alcatraz Island!
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco
Alcatraz Island, nicknamed "The Rock", was used by the military from 1850 to 1933. It was the most powerful coastal defense on America's West Coast. The fort became less valuable as ships became stronger, and by 1861, it doubled as a military prison. The fort kept California's Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War. Indigenous people were also sent to the fort for resisting the American government's attempts to purge them of their culture and land.
Fig. 1 - Alcatraz military prisoners
By 1900, there were over 400 prisoners held at the Alcatraz fort. In 1907, Alcatraz was solely a military prison. Prisoners were made to build additional buildings as part of their punishment. These buildings would house the prisoners.
The focus was on rehabilitation, and many of the prisoners returned to the military after their sentence ended. By 1933, the upkeep of the military prison didn't justify its existence. With the emergence of prohibition mobsters, the government believed that Alcatraz could be the solution.
Alcatraz Island Map
The map below shows where Alcatraz Island is regarding San Francisco and San Francisco Bay.
Fig. 2 - Alcatraz Island on a Map
Alcatraz Island Prison
Alcatraz Island opened as a prison in 1934. James A. Johnson was the first warden and was known for being tough. He had several construction projects built to better fortify the prison. Watch towers were constructed, the cells were not on perimeter walls, and remote-controlled tear gas canisters were built into the mess hall walls. The waters were considered too dangerous to swim, which only made the fort even more secure.
The idea of converting Alcatraz into a federal penitentiary was very unpopular among San Franciscans.
Fig. 3 - Alcatraz cell block
Inmates weren't sent to Alcatraz after their trials, but if they were badly behaved while in prison. For example, Al Capone still ran his criminal organization while imprisoned in Atlanta, Georgia. Capone was sent to Alcatraz because he wouldn't be able to corrupt the guards or communicate with the outside world.
While Alcatraz as a military prison worked to rehabilitate small offenders, Alcatraz the federal penitentiary didn't. Alcatraz had strict rules with harsh punishments. While prisoners who behaved could receive rewards like a shorter sentence, punishments weren't equal to the offense.
Life at Alcatraz
Prisoners at Alcatraz were expected to do hard labor. They constructed many of the buildings on the island, patched clothes, and more. Inmates were given high-quality food because it was proven that prisoners who ate quality food were less likely to revolt. Visitors were allowed to come once a month after an inmate spent three months on the Rock. Alcatraz was one of the harshest prisons of its time.
Prisoners were put in solitary confinement in small rooms where they could only leave once every seven days to wash. They were confined to completely dark rooms or even locked in iron boxes. Within the first several years of the prison, inmates couldn't talk to each other because Johnson enforced an absolute silence rule. The only time they could talk was during the short three-minute work breaks in the morning and afternoon or during meal times.
Alcatraz Island Escape
Historians argue about whether anyone actually escaped from Alcatraz while it was a federal penitentiary. We do know that when it was a military prison in 1918, four men escaped via a make-shift raft. There were 14 escapes attempts throughout Alcatraz's history, thirty-six inmates in total. Twenty-three were recaptured, two drowned, six were shot and killed, and five were presumed drowned, but their bodies were never recovered.
Their bodies may have been washed out to the sea, or that the men escaped and were never recaptured.
Four Men Who Escaped Via Raft
In 1918, Herbert Koenig, 21 years, Paul N. White, 23 years, Fritz K. Isell, 20, and Andy Armen, 23, all escaped while the prison celebrated Thanksgiving. After the festivities, when the inmates were discovered to be missing, guards were dispatched on patrol boats to search for the men.
All that was discovered was the wreckage of the boat. The men were assumed to have drowned, but the following year, Herbert Koenig was recaptured. He revealed that all the men had survived, but went their separate ways. White, Isell, and Armen were never recaptured.
Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe
In 1937, Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe worked in the workshop. They used the tools to slowly saw through the iron bars of the window and eventually escaped. They escaped during a thick fog and tried to swim the distance between Alcatraz and the San Francisco shore.
Fig. 4 - Alcatraz arial view
Warden Johnson said that it was improbable that the men made it to shore, the tide was high, and he doubted anyone picked them up on a boat. He determined that the men drowned, and their bodies were never recovered. A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle reportedly interviewed the two and said that they were alive and well in South America. This report was never verified.
Alcatraz Island Facts
In 1963, Alcatraz Island ceased to be a prison. This happened for similar reasons as the shutdown of the military prison on the island. The island wasn't self-sufficient and didn't have fresh water, which meant that the government had to supply all of its food and water by boat. The prison held less than one percent of the inmates in the system and only had 275 inmates, at most, at one time. The cost didn't justify the results.
Another issue was that it was inhuman. In the 1960s, there was a shift in the public perception of what a prison should be. They didn't want prisons to just hold inmates, but to reform them, and give them a second chance at life. So, what happened to the island once Alcatraz was abandoned?
The Occupation of Alcatraz by Indigenous People
In 1969, the American Indian Center in San Francisco burned down. The Indigenous people who used the building needed a new place to gather. They realized that under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, Indigenous people could claim any abandoned government facility. Alcatraz fit that description.
Fig. 5 - Photo of a graffitied sign during the Native American occupation of Alcatraz
In 1969, Richard Oakes of the Mohawk Indigenous Nation lead the "Indians of All Tribes" in their claim on Alcatraz, where they lived until 1971. They protested the treatment of Indigenous peoples, and how the worst land was given to them for reservations. The Indians of All Tribes sent a manifesto to the government addressed to the "Great White Father and All of His Children" which discussed the poor conditions on reservations.
The Indians of All Tribes offered twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth in exchange for the island. This was a reference to the price that the Dutch paid the Lenape Indigenous Nation.
They were going to build a school, a cultural center, and a museum on the island. Oakes left the island when his eleven-year-old stepdaughter died tragically. She fell down three stories through a stairwell.
The movement had public support, so the government couldn't directly intervene until the public forgot about it. When they did, the government shut off electricity and water to the island. Not long after that, a mysterious fire started and burned down much of the property. By this point, there were less than twenty indigenous people still on the island. Armed federal marshals escorted them off it.
The occupation influenced the government's decision to return 48,000 acres plus the Blue Lake back to the Taos people in 1970. It also made them realize that Indigenous people needed to be in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Indigenous people still return to Alcatraz to remember the occupation.
Alcatraz Island
Today, Alcatraz Island is a National Park. If you tour it, you will see the cramped cells that the prisoners called home, the mess hall where they ate, and even the graffiti left by the Indians of All Tribes. Alcatraz has a long and dark history, it is shrouded in mystery, and has kept the attention of movies and video games. It was a fort, military and federal prison, the home to indigenous people, and a national park.
Alcatraz Island - Key takeaways
- Alcatraz began as a fort.
- It became a military prison because it was no longer useful as a fort. Alcatraz focused on rehabilitating its prisoners.
- The island became a federal prison when it cost too much to keep the military prison running. This period was infamous for its brutal treatment of its prisoners, and Alcatraz no longer focused on rehabilitation.
- The federal prison was too expensive and housed less than one percent of America's inmates.
- Indigenous peoples occupied Alcatraz in 1969, led by Richard Oakes and the Indians of All Tribes, as a protest against the reservation system. They eventually left in 1971, but managed to enact changes to the US Government's treatment of Indigenous peoples for the better.
- Alcatraz is now a national park.
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