Just had to do a tour of "The Rock"! This really was just a huge piece of sandstone. The in the mid 1800's the army decided to make a fort to protect the fastest growing wealthest state in the Union, San Fran. There are still several buildings where you can see the military influence. It eventually turned into a military prison where it finally evolved into the first federal maximum security prison. Lets just say you had to be really bad like 4 or 5 speeding tickets to land in Alcatraz. One guard for every three prisoners. Good prisners would have work privileges and spend only 18 hours a day in their cell. Bad prisners would spend 23 hours a day in their cell. The bottom cell is solidary. While regulations stated that a light must be on while inmates were in solitary the guards would leave the lights off for added punishment. You could touch both walls at the same time. Some of the more infamous inmates. Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Birdman. Apparently the king of all bad guys was the Birdman. He spent 17 years at Alcatraz and was a constant problem. When he was much older he actaully had a parole hearing. When asked why he should be let back into society he replied, "I'm old, I don't have much longer to live, and there are still several people on my list to kill". The National Park Service really does a great job with free Ranger lead hikes. These are just interns and they realy know a ton of stuff. This was really cool. They actually had a man there who was once a correctional officer working in Alcatraz. He had some amazing stories. |
