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Papers On Alcatraz

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Alcatraz
A prison is a building in which people are held as a punishment for crimes they have committed. Prisons are also known for being an inescapable facility capable of holding the worst of the worst, and keeping them away for good. Prisons are also known for being filthy and horrible. They are also known for their disgusting food and small servings of food; which, never satisfied the convicts appetite. But, Alcatraz was different. Alcatraz evolved within the years from a U.S. Military facility – prison, into a building dedicated to holding the worst of the worst of the criminals.
According to historians, the island of Alcatraz has been used for military and federal prison before becoming a tourist attraction. The prison held the worst …show more content…

On October 12, 1933 The United States Department of Justice acquired control over Alcatraz island, and in August 1934 Alcatraz island officially became a BOP federal prison. The United States Department of Justice wanted to transform Alcatraz into a federal prison, because they wanted to build a maximum-security prison to be able to handle a criminal community too dangerous to be held in a normal U.S. prison. According to bop.gov “The Federal Government had decided to open a maximum-security, minimum-privilege penitentiary to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in Federal prisons, and to show the law-abiding public that the Federal Government was serious about stopping the rampant crime of the 1920s and 1930s”. Thus, some improvements have been made on the current structure of the prison, and the weak parts have been reinforced handle what’s coming. As stated in Howard Duff’s documentary “Early in the morning of October 11 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas at Santa Venetia, California, before being escorted to Alcatraz, handcuffed in high security coaches and guarded by some 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials”. The prisoners mostly were killers and bank …show more content…

Within the 29 years Alcatraz was in use, it held some of the worst criminals in the American history, such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Within these years there have been 14 escape attempts by 36 prisoners non were successful. According to Alcatrazhistory.com “Twenty-three were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and two drowned. Two of the men who were caught were later executed in the gas chamber at the California State Prison at San Quentin for their role in the death of a correctional officer during the famous May 2-4, 1946, "Battle of Alcatraz" escape attempt”. Alcatraz’s federal prison time was up at that moment on March 21, 1963, the prison was shut down by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy after 29 years of service. The reason after the decision was that the prison was costing too much to run. According to bop.gov “in 1959 the daily per capita cost at Alcatraz was $10.10 compared with $3.00 at USP Atlanta”. Also, citizens started to protest because of the sewage released on Alcatraz by the inmates, staff, and their families. The sewage was affecting the Bay’s environmental life and its image. At that moment, Alcatraz is not a prison of any kind anymore. But, that wasn’t the end of

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207 Words | 1 Pages

The Yuma Territorial Prison first opened in 1875 and is still standing after 141 years. For many years people in Yuma fought to keep this prison a historical landmark. After all the years, many things have occurred to change the structure of the prison. The Yuma Territorial Prison did not allow prisoners to do certain activities that could affect them after they were released. The Yuma Territorial Prison can teach people about the different functions, regulations that reflected laws in Arizona, and the changes in the appearance of the prison.

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1414 Words | 6 Pages

Some inmates called it the “ snake den “ maybe because a prisoner got bitten by a snake while in there ( Murphy 1999 ). The dark cell which was a room that was fifteen feet by fifteen feet and contained an iron cage, the only source of light they had came from a small vent in the ceiling that is a reason why it was nicknamed the dark cell. Contact with any other inmates while in the dark cell was forbidden. The longest someone spent in the “ dark cell “ was one hundred and twenty days, the inmate never spent a day in there again! Furthermore while in the cell, they were only given bread and water once a day.

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2048 Words | 9 Pages

After the prison was not running they used it for acting sets and homeless shelter and a school what was is known as Yuma High School. The school that was built after that was Kofa High School were famous people came out of it and later on other high schools were brought up because the population went out the roof. It kept criminals off the street rather than being out and murdering

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

The prison also had flush toilets, sewer systems, electricity, and forced air ventilation system throughout the whole prison, even in their cells. I thought that prison was supposed to suck. After 9 p.m. the prisoners would be able to purchase electricity, in that time period it was a big advancement to have electricity, that’s also another reason why the townspeople felt that way. Maybe even some of the townspeople didn’t have electricity, and they had freedom they didn’t do a crime. If i were there during that time i would have felt the same as most of the townspeople

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1061 Words | 5 Pages

What roles, other than a prison, has the Yuma Territorial prison taken on over the years? The prison went from a prison to a school and then into a museum. What impact has this had on the local community? The prison is a huge tourist attraction and when someone looks up yuma they see the territorial prison.

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1671 Words | 7 Pages

Prison housed a diverse and unique range of different kinds of inmates. The townspeople of Yuma, Arizona perceived the Yuma territorial prison as a favorable and luxuries prison. The townspeople of Yuma, Arizona even called the Yuma Territorial prison the “Country Club on the Colorado” because of the benefits it gave the inmates and the community. One reason the prison was perceived in this way was because the cloths the inmates warn were a heave blue and white striped shirt and pants .

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1193 Words | 5 Pages

This prison was also one of the first to have a hospital which was pretty advanced for its time and also a library. Instead of trying to just beat down all the prisoners the superintendent wanted to guide them into a better life. They even got taught to read and write and speak spanish and german. The prison would also let the prisoners make things which they could sell once a month and any money they made would be kept in the prison until they were let out and given to them to let them have kind of a fresh start. They really just wanted to give the prisoners get hope and get better.

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

The prison was fairly unique when compared to the other prisons at the time because of the its high prison standards. During the prisons

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

The First State Prison San Quentin Imagine a time where there weren’t prisons. A time when criminals were not incarcerated and just roamed freely. Well when California became a state in 1850 numerous people were rushing to the newly found state seeking the new opportunities and the gold rush. Well with that along came the criminals. They required a place to incarcerate criminals and that was first met on prisons ships.

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814 Words | 4 Pages

The U.S. prison systems has evolved greatly in the pasts centuries in many ways, but the most critical part where it greatly improved was the security of the facilities, the inmate treatment, and the construction of the building of how stable it is. The first and most important is the security. A prison system has to have a strict security system because without it prisoners can do whatever they want. So, they developed a security system where there are five levels: the higher the level is the stronger it is. Not all prisons do the same security because different buildings mean different levels.

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585 Words | 3 Pages

Summary Chapter 5-9 According to Stocks for the Long Run, U.S. history is divided into three sub periods 1802-1870, 1870-1925 and 1926-1990, and Siegel analyzes the returns on stocks, bonds, and other assets classes over the last two centuries. Over the period from 1802 through 1990, equity provided returns greater to those on fixed income investments, gold or commodities. In addition, the real rate of return on equity held remarkably constant over this period, while the real return on fixed income assets decreased dramatically. Furthermore, over the sub periods 1802-1870, 1870-1925 and 1926-1990, the real compound annual returns on equity were 5.7, 6.6 and 6.4 percent; however, the real returns on short-term government bonds dropped. Thus, the magnitude of the excess return on equity during this century seems excessive relative to the behavior of other macroeconomic variables.

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599 Words | 3 Pages

They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are

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1558 Words | 7 Pages

B. Kelly, thought that it would help boost the city’s economy. Another reason why the prison was built in Yuma was because the location would have been perfect. Since the Gila River was on the east of where they planned on building and the Colorado was North, with Yuma to the West it discouraged prisoners from escaping. The fact that the prison would be 170 miles away from San Diego, California and 220 miles away from Tucson, Arizona (Zlateuski web) even the thought of prisoners escaping would be highly unlikely. Lastly, Yuma’s weather was miserable there was nothing but dry heat for most of the

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875 Words | 4 Pages

Opening- Society today are setting some kids up for the prison system and some other up other kids for the education system Talk about school and prison: Prison a place where most of us never want to go. It's a horrible place filled with criminals from the worst kind to the petty criminal's. School what can you say about school it's full of bullies, homework, annoying teachers, raging hormones and worst of all cooties. Statists of race going to Prison: Did you know 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

History of prisons- Why were they created? What is their purpose? What are we doing to actually reform them? a) Who has jail helped? Most inmates seen repeatedly coming in and out of jail?

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