I have taken a tour of Alcatraz that was docent led.  I understand that all tours today are headphone driven.  My friend Stevie has done both and says that the headphone tour is best.  If you are in San Francisco be sure to schedule a tour of Alcatraz.  It is chilling.


http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/rs1.htm



                                                         Welcome to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

        

Imagine yourself cold and shivering on a damp and thickly fogged-in morning. Heavy steel shackles squeeze your wrists and ankles, and the constricting metal seems to amplify the cold. Your movements are constrained, which makes it difficult to maintain your balance as you embark on the island ferry. You catch a brief glimpse of what will soon be your new home across the foggy bay…

Your new roommates are considered the most hardened criminals in the American penal system. Their resumes boast crimes ranging from kidnapping to espionage, bank robbery to murder. As you disembark with the firm assistance of a correctional officer, he smiles, looking up toward the cellhouse, and utters words that will never leave your memory: "Welcome home, welcome to Alcatraz."

Each year over one million tourists board the Alcatraz ferry and visit what was once considered the toughest Federal prisons in America. Today, Alcatraz is one of the biggest tourist magnets and most famous landmarks of San Francisco. The island's mystique, which was created primarily by books and motion pictures, continues to lure people from all over the world to see firsthand where America housed its most notorious criminals. Cramped cells, rigid discipline, and hard-line routine were the Alcatraz trademarks, and it was the last stop for the nation's most incorrigible prisoners.

On any given day, you can find thousands wandering the island and taking in its unique history. The cellhouse, now empty of the dangerous criminals who were once housed there, still carries remnants of the dark events to which these walls once bore witness. This is a journey into a dim part of the American past, and few walk away fully comprehending. The clichéd expression, "if these walls could talk," is taken to a deeper level when probing the rigid silence of Alcatraz.

The island received its name in 1775 when Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala charted the San Francisco Bay, and named this tiny speck of land La Isla de los Alcatraces, which translated to "Island of the Pelicans." The small uninhabited island had little to offer, with its swift currents, minimal vegetation, and barren ground.

Seventy-two years later in 1847, the U.S. Army took notice of "The Rock" and of its strategic value as a military fortification. Topographical engineers began conducting geological surveys, and by 1853, U.S. Army Engineers had started constructing a military fortress on the island, along with the Pacific Coast's first operating lighthouse. In 1848, the discovery of gold along the American River in California brought shiploads of miners from around the world to the West Coast in search of the precious metal. As word spread around the globe of abundant wealth in California, the United States Government would invoke security measures to protect its land and mineral resources from seizure by other countries.

After several years of laborious construction and various armament expansions, Alcatraz was established as the United States’ western symbol of military strength. The new military fortress featured long-range iron cannons and four massive 36,000-pound, 15-inch Rodman guns, which were capable of sinking mammoth hostile ships three miles away. The guns of Alcatraz could fire 6,949 pounds of iron shot in one barrage. Though the fortress would eventually fire only one 400-pound canon round at an unidentified ship, and miss its target, the island had lived up to its self-made reputation as an icon of U.S. military power. But within a few decades the island's role as a military fortress would start to fade away, and its defenses would become obsolete by the standards of more modern weaponry.

Because of its natural isolation, surrounded by freezing waters and hazardous currents, Alcatraz would soon be considered by the U.S. Army as an ideal location for holding captives. In 1861 the island began receiving Civil War prisoners, and in 1898 the Spanish-American war would bring the prison population from a mere twenty-six to over four hundred and fifty. Then in 1906, following the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake, hundreds of civilian prisoners were transferred to the island for safe confinement. By 1912 a large cellhouse had been constructed on the island's central crest, and by the late 1920's, the three-story structure was nearly at full capacity.

Alcatraz was the Army's first long-term prison, and it was already beginning to build its reputation as a tough detention facility by exposing inmates to harsh confinement conditions and ironhanded discipline. The prisoners were separated into three classes based on their conduct and on the crimes they had committed, and each class held distinct levels of privilege. For example, prisoners in the third class were not allowed to have reading material from the library or visits and letters from relatives, and a strict rule of silence was rigidly enforced at all times. Prisoners who violated these rules faced strict disciplinary measures. In addition to losing their earned class rankings, violators were assigned punishments that included but were not limited to working on hard labor details, wearing a twelve-pound ball and ankle chain, and enduring solitary lock-downs with a severely restricted bread and water diet.

The average age for law-offending soldiers was twenty-four years, and most of the prisoners were serving short-term sentences for desertion or lesser crimes. However, it wasn't uncommon to find soldiers serving longer sentences for the more serious crimes of insubordination, assault, larceny and murder. One interesting element of the military order was that prisoners’ cells were used only for sleeping, unless the inhabitant was in lock-down status. All prisoners were prohibited from visiting their cells during the day. Inmates with first or second class rankings were allowed to go anywhere about the prison grounds, except for the guards’ quarters on the upper levels.

Despite the stringent rules and harsh standards for hardened criminals, Alcatraz primarily functioned in a minimum-security capacity. The types of work assignments given to inmates varied depending on the prisoners, their classification, and how responsible they were. Many inmates worked as general servants who cooked, cleaned, and attended to household chores for island families. In many cases, select prisoners were entrusted to care for the children of staff members. Alcatraz was also home to several Chinese families, who were employed as servants, and made up the largest segment of the island’s civilian population. The lack of a strict focus on prison security favored some inmates who hoped to make a break to freedom. But in spite of their best efforts, most escapees never made it to the mainland, and usually turned back to be rescued from the freezing waters. Those who were not missed and failed to turn back eventually would tire and drown.

The public disliked having an Army prison as a sterile focal point in the middle of the beautiful San Francisco Bay, so the Military made arrangements to have soil from Angel Island brought over, and it was spread throughout the acreage of Alcatraz. Several prisoners were trained as able gardeners, and they planted numerous varieties of flowers and decorative plants to give the island a more pleasing appearance from the mainland. The California Spring and Wild Flower Association contributed top-grade seeding, ranging from rose bushes to lilies. The island residents enjoyed tending their gardens, and it was said that the landscape work assignments were among those most favored by the prisoners.

Over the decades the prison's routine became increasingly more relaxed, and recreational activities grew more prevalent. In the late 1920's prisoners were permitted to build a baseball field, and were even allowed to wear their own baseball uniforms. On Friday nights the Army hosted "Alcatraz Fights" that featured boxing matches between inmates selected from the Disciplinary Barracks population. These fights were quite popular, and often drew visitors from the mainland who had managed to finagle an invitation.

Due to rising operational costs, the Military decided to close the prison in 1934, and ownership shifted to the Department of Justice. Coincidentally, the Great Depression became the root of a severe crime surge during the late 20's and 30's, which ushered in a new era of organized crime. The gangster era was in full swing, and the nation bore witness to horrific violence, brought on by the combined forces of Prohibition and desperate need. The American people watched in fear as influential mobsters and sharply dressed public enemies exerted heavy influence on metropolitan cities and their authorities. Law enforcement agencies were often ill-equipped to deal with the onslaught, and would frequently cower before better-armed gangs in shoot-outs and public slayings.

A public cry went out to take back America's heartland, and so the die was cast for the birth of a unique detention facility – one so forbidding that it would eventually be nicknamed Uncle Sam's Devil's Island.

Alcatraz was the ideal solution to the problem. It could serve the dual purpose of incarcerating public enemies while standing as a visible icon, a warning to this new and ruthless brand of criminal. Sanford Bates, the head of the Federal Prisons, and Attorney General Homer Cummings led the project, and they kept a hand in the finely detailed design concepts. One of the nation’s foremost security experts, Robert Burge, was commissioned to help design a prison that was escape-proof as well as outwardly forbidding. The original cellblock, built in 1909, would undergo extensive upgrades and renovations.

In April of 1934 work was begun to give the military prison a new face and a new identity. The soft squared bars were replaced with modernized tool-proof substitutes. Electricity was routed into each cell, and all of the utility tunnels were cemented to completely remove the possibility that a prisoner could enter or hide in them. Tool-proof iron window coverings would shield all areas that could be accessed by inmates. Special Gun Galleries would transverse the cellblock perimeters, allowing guards to carry weapons while protected behind iron rod barriers. These secure Galleries, which were elevated and out of reach of the prisoners, would be the control center for all keys, and would allow the guards the unique ability to oversee all inmate activities.

Special teargas canisters were permanently installed in the ceiling of the Dining Hall, and they could be remotely activated from both the Gun Gallery and the outside observation points. Guard towers were strategically positioned around the perimeter, and new technology allowed the use of electromagnetic metal detectors, which were positioned outside of the Dining Hall and on the Prison Industries access paths. The cellhouse contained a total of nearly 600 cells, with no one cell adjoining any perimeter wall. If an inmate managed to tunnel their way through the cell wall, they would still need to find a way to escape from the cellhouse itself. The inmates would only be assigned to B, C, and D blocks, since the primary prison population would not exceed 300 inmates. The implementation of these new measures, combined with the natural isolating barrier created by the icy Bay waters, meant that the prison was nearly ready to receive the nation's most incorrigible criminals.

 A cellblock at Alcatraz

 A typical cell at Alcatraz (One person cells were the mode)

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                                                                         Warden of Alcatraz

    

                                  James A. Johnston served as Warden of Alcatraz from 1934 to 1948.


Visitation rights would have to be earned by the inmates, and no visits would be allowed for the first three months of residence at Alcatraz. All visits would have to be approved directly by the Warden, and their number would be limited to only one per month. Inmates would be given restricted access to the Prison Library, but no newspapers, radios, or other non-approved reading materials would be allowed. Receiving and sending mail would be considered a privilege, and all letters both in-coming and out-going were to be screened and type-written after being censored by prison officials. Work was also seen as a privilege and not a right, and consideration for work assignments would be based on an inmate's conduct record.

Each prisoner would be assigned their own cell, and only the basic minimum life necessities would be allotted, such as food, water, clothing, and medical and dental care. The prisoners’ contact with the outside world was completely severed. Convicted spy Morton Sobell would later state that this policy was so rigidly enforced that the inmates were never even allowed to explore the cellhouse. They would be marched from one location to another, always in a unified formation. The prison routine was rigid and unrelenting, day after day, year after year. As quickly as a given privilege could be earned for good behavior, it could be taken away for the slightest infraction of the rules.


Wardens from the various Federal penitentiaries were polled, and they were permitted to send their most incorrigible inmates into secure confinement on The Rock. The prison population at Alcatraz was thus made up of inmates who had histories of unmanageable behavior or escape attempts, and high-profile inmates who had been receiving special privileges because of their public status and notoriety. In July of 1934, there were only thirty-two military prisoners who had been left to serve out their sentences on Alcatraz. By August of the same year, Alcatraz had begun to receive inmates from McNeil Island in Washington State (eleven inmates), the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta (fifty-three inmates), and Leavenworth in Kansas (one hundred and two inmates). Among the first to be sent to Alcatraz were Al Capone, Doc Barker (the last surviving son from the famous Ma Barker Gang), George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert "Birdman of Alcatraz" Stroud, Floyd Hamilton (a gang member and driver for Bonnie and Clyde), and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis. 

Historically, many prison riots had been started because of the poor quality of prison food so Warden Johnston vowed that the Alcatraz cafeteria would be the best in the prison system. Prisoners of Alcatraz dined on a menu of salads, fresh fruit, diverse entrees and even desserts.

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By far the most harrowing part of the Alcatraz tour for me was the visit to The Hole.  The docent did such a thorough job of explaining to us what it meant to be in The Hole.  The lack of light, sound.. any sign at all that you were not alone in hell was truly torture.  We did not see the "Oriental", thank God.  It is said that Al Capone made three separate visits to The Hole.  

The Hole

The single "Strip Cell," or otherwise known as the "Oriental," was a dark steel encased cell with no toilet or sink, just a small hole in the floor for human excrement. A guard even controlled the hole’s flushing lever. Inmates were placed in the cell without clothing and given restricted diets. The cell had a standard set of bars with an expanded opening to pass food, and a solid steel outer door that remained closed, leaving the inmate in a totally pitch-black, cold environment. A sleeping mattress was allowed during the night, but removed at dawn. Inmates were usually only subject to this degree of punishment for 1-2 days.

The "hole" was a similar type of cell and made up the remaining five, dual-door cells on the bottom tier. These cells contained a sink and a toilet along with a low wattage light bulb. Inmates could spend up to 19 days in this level of isolation. The mattresses were taken away during the day, leaving the inmate in a state of constant boredom and severe isolation. On the solid steel outer door, guards would sometimes open the small cover to allow in light for inmates who were behaving peacefully.

The remaining 36 segregation cells were similar to the cells in general population. Inmates held in segregation were allowed only one visit to the recreation yard per week, and two showers. Meals were served in the cells. Reading was the inmates’ primary mode of diversion. From these cells the inmates caught a glimpse of San Francisco, a view they considered another form of torture. The sounds and sites of freedom were so near, yet so far.

Sensory Deprivation

The most common form of extreme torture at Alcatraz was the use of the dungeons or The Hole. Considered safe because they were bruiseless, these punishments had been shown harmful to prisoners' mental health by their use in the infamous "Pennsylvania System" during the previous century.

During one's stay in the dungeons or The Hole,

 Outside door of The Hole

 Alcatraz "solitary" prison cell

one could expect to see no light, hear no sounds, and see no person except for a brief glimpse at a guard twice a day. Inmates given this treatment experienced hallucinations and extreme sensory disorientation. Some were driven to the edge of psychosis and many became depressed and suicidal.

At first, prisoners received bread and water twice a day with a full meal every third day. Later, Johnston amended the rule to allow prisoners to get a bowl of soup each day with a full meal every second day in addition to the bread and water. After the 1936 general strike, it was claimed that the prisoners marched into isolation did not receive any food for two days.

Federal law mandated that no prisoner could spend more than *19 days in solitary confinement.

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*HENRY YOUNG & ALCATRAZ SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Henry “Henri” Young, a convicted bank robber and murder, was transferred to Alcatraz for instigating fights with fellow prisoners. While on Alcatraz, Young and an accomplice, Rufus McCain, tried to escape. The failed attempt resulted in the death of the infamous gangster Doc Barker and landed the pair in solitary confinement for nearly two years.

After returning to the general prison population, Young stabbed and killed McCain. During Young's trial, his attorney claimed that Young had gone crazy due to the length of time he’d spent in solitary. He equated the extended stay to “cruel and unusual punishment” and argued that Young should not be held responsible for his actions.

Warden Johnson and several inmates were subpoenaed to testify on prison conditions and procedures. After several inmates recounted second-hand tales of beatings and the psychological effects of imprisonment, the jury sympathized with Young and he was convicted of manslaughter. The verdict added only a few years to his sentence.

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The main corridor of the prison was given the name "Broadway" by the inmates and the cells here were considered the least desirable. The ones on the bottom tier were always cold and damp and they were also the least private, since guards, inmates and staff members were always passing through this corridor. New prisoners were generally assigned to the second tier of B Block in a quarantine status for the first three months of their sentence.

The guards at Alcatraz were almost as hardened as the prisoners themselves. They numbered the inmates one to three, which was stunning considering that most prisons were at least one guard to every twelve inmates. Gun galleries had been placed at each end of the cell blocks and as many as 12 counts each day allowed the guards to keep very close tabs on the men on their watch. Because of the small number of total inmates at Alcatraz, the guards generally knew the inmates by name.

While the cells the prisoners lived in were barren at best, they must have seemed like luxury hotel rooms compared to the punishment cells. Here, the men were stripped of all but their basic right to food and even then, what they were served barely sustained the convict’s life, let alone his health.

One place of punishment was the single "Strip Cell", which was dubbed the "Oriental". This dark, steel-encased cell had no toilet and no sink. There was only a hole in the floor that could be flushed from the outside. Inmates were placed in the cell with no clothing and were given little food. The cell had a standard set of bars, with an expanded opening to pass food through, but a solid steel door enclosed the prisoner in total darkness. They were usually kept in this cell for 1-2 days. The cell was cold and completely bare, save for a straw sleeping mattress that the guards removed each morning. This cell was used a punishment for the most severe violations and was feared by the prison population.

The "Hole" was a similar type of cell. There were several of them and they were all located on the bottom tier of cells and were considered to be a severe punishment by the inmates. Mattresses were again taken away and prisoners were sustained by meals of bread and water, which was supplemented by a solid meal every third day. Steel doors also closed these cells off from the daylight, although a low wattage bulb was suspended from the ceiling. Inmates could spend up to 19 days here, completely silent and isolated from everyone. Time in the "hole" usually meant psychological and sometimes even physical torture.

Usually, convicts who were thrown into the "hole" for anything other than a minor infraction were beaten by the guards. The screams from the men being beaten in one of the four "holes" located on the bottom tier of D Block echoed throughout the block as though being amplified through a megaphone. When the inmates of D Block (which had been designated at a disciplinary unit by the warden) heard a fellow convict being worked over, they would start making noises that would be picked up in Blocks B and C and would then sound throughout the entire island.

Often when men emerged from the darkness and isolation of the "hole", they would be totally senseless and would end up in the prison’s hospital ward, devoid of their sanity. Others came out with pnuemonia and arthritis after spending days or weeks on the cold cement floor with no clothing. Some men never came out of the "hole" at all.

And there were even worse places to be sent than the "hole". Located in front of unused A Block was a staircase that led down to a large steel door. Behind the door were catacomb-like corridors and stone archways that led to the sealed off gun ports from the days when Alcatraz was a fort. Fireplaces located in several of the rooms were never used for warmth, but to heat up cannonballs so that they would start fires after reaching their targets. Two of the other rooms located in this dank, underground area were dungeons.

Prisoners who had the misfortune of being placed in the dungeons were not only locked in, but also chained to the walls. Their screams could not be heard in the main prison. The only toilet they had was a bucket, which was emptied once each week. For food, they received two cups of water and one slice of bread each day. Every third day, they would receive a regular meal. The men were stripped of their clothing and their dignity as guards chained them to the wall in a standing position from six in the morning until six at night. In the darkest hours, they were given a blanket to sleep on.

Thankfully, the dungeons were rarely used, but the dark cells of D Block, known as the "hole, were regularly filled.

Al Capone was in the "hole" three times during his 4 1/2-year stay at Alcatraz. The first years of Alcatraz were known as the "silent years" and during this period, the rules stated that no prisoners were allowed to speak to one another, sing, hum or whistle. Talking was forbidden in the cells, in the mess hall and even in the showers. The inmates were allowed to talk for three minutes during the morning and afternoon recreation yard periods and for two hours on weekends.

Capone, who remained arrogant for some time after his arrival, decided that the rule of silence should not apply to him. He ended up being sent to the "hole" for two, 10-day stretches for talking to other inmates. He also spent a full 19 days on the "hole" for trying to bribe a guard for information about the outside world. Prisoners were not allowed newspapers or magazines that would inform them of current events. Each time that Capone was sent to the "hole", he emerged a little worse for wear. Eventually, the Rock would break him completely.

Many of the prisoners who served time in Alcatraz ended up insane. Capone may have been one of them for time here was not easy on the ex-gangland boss. On one occasion, he got into a fight with another inmate in the recreation yard and was placed in isolation for eight days. Another time, while working in the prison basement, an inmate standing in line for a haircut exchanged words with Capone and then stabbed him with a pair of scissors. Capone was sent to the prison hospital but was released a few days later with a minor wound.

The attempts on his life, the no-talking rule, the beatings and the prison routine itself began to take their toll on Capone. After several fights in the yard, he was excused from his recreation periods and being adept with a banjo, joined a four-man prison band. The drummer in the group was "Machine-Gun" Kelly. Although gifts were not permitted for prisoners on the Rock, musical instruments were and Capone’s wife sent him a banjo shortly after he was incarcerated. After band practice, Capone always returned immediately to his cell, hoping to stay away from the other convicts.

Occasionally, guards reported that he would refuse to leave his cell to go to the mess hall and eat. They would often find him crouched down in the corner of his cell like an animal. On other occasions, he would mumble to himself or babble in baby talk or simply sit on his bed and strum little tunes on his banjo. Years later, another inmate recalled that Capone would sometimes stay in his cell and make his bunk over and over again.

After more than three years on the Rock, Capone was on the edge of total insanity. He spent the last year of his sentence in the hospital ward, undergoing treatment for an advanced case of syphilis. Most of the time he spent in the ward, he spent playing his banjo. His last day on Alcatraz was January 6, 1939. He was then transferred to the new Federal prison at Terminal Island near Los Angeles. When he was paroled, he became a recluse at his Palm Island, Florida estate. He died, broken and insane, in 1947.

And Al Capone was far from the only man to surrender his sanity to Alcatraz. In 1937 alone, 14 of the prisoners went rampantly insane and that does not include the men who slowly became "stir crazy" from the brutal conditions of the place. To Warden Johnston, mental illness was nothing more than an excuse to get out of work. As author Richard Winer once wrote, "it would be interesting to know what the warden thought of Rube Persful".

Persful was a former gangster and bank robber who was working in one of the shops, when he picked up a hatchet, placed his left hand on a block of wood and while laughing maniacally, began hacking off the fingers on his hand. Then, he placed his right hand on the block and pleaded with a guard to chop off those fingers as well. Persful was placed in the hospital, but was not declared insane.

An inmate named Joe Bowers slashed his own throat with a pair of broken eyeglasses. He was given first aid and then was thrown into the "hole". After his release, he ran away from his work area and scaled a chain-link fence, fully aware that the guards would shoot him. They opened fire and his body fell 75 feet down to the rocks below the fence.

Ed Wutke, a former sailor who had been sent to Alcatraz on murder charges, managed to fatally slice through his jugular vein with the blade from a pencil sharpener.

These were not the only attempts at suicide and mutilation either. It was believed that more men suffered mental breakdowns at Alcatraz, by percentage, than at any other Federal prisons.

In 1941, inmate Henry Young went on trail for the murder of a fellow prisoner and his accomplice in a failed escape attempt, Rufus McCain. Young’s attorney claimed that Alcatraz guards had frequently beaten his client and that he had endured long periods of extreme isolation. While Young was depicted as sympathetic, he was actually a difficult inmate who often provoked fights with other prisoners. He was considered a violent risk and he later murdered two guards during an escape attempt. After that, Young and his eventual victim, McCain, spent nearly 22 months in solitary confinement.

After the two men returned to the normal prison population, McCain was assigned to the tailoring shop and Young to the furniture shop, located directly upstairs. On December 3, 1940 Young waited until just after a prisoner count and then when a guard’s attention was diverted, he ran downstairs and stabbed McCain. The other man went into shock and he died five hours later. Young refused to say why he had killed the man.

During his trial, Young’s attorney claimed that because Young was held in isolation for so long, he could not be held responsible for his actions. He had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and because of this, his responses to hostile situations had become desperately violent.

The attorney subpoenaed Warden Johnston to testify about the prison’s conditions and policies and in addition, several inmates were also called to recount the state of Alcatraz. The prisoners told of being locked in the dungeons and of being beaten by the guards. They also testified to knowing several inmates who had gone insane because of such treatment. The jury ended up sympathizing with Young’s case and he was convicted of a manslaughter charge that only added a few years on this original sentence.

After the trial, he was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. After serving his Federal sentence, he was sent to the Washington State Penitentiary and was paroled in 1972. He had spent nearly 40 years in prison. He later disappeared and it is unknown whether he is still alive today.



Why did Alcatraz close?

Primarily because of rising costs and deteriorating facilities. Operationally, Alcatraz was the most expensive prison of any state or federal institution. It was determined that other institutions could serve the same purpose for less cost so, as a federal prison, Alcatraz closed its doors on March 21, 1963.
 
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