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Alcatraz Prison Essay

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There are over 2.2 million people currently in United States jails or prisons which is more than the entire population of New Mexico. The United States holds the highest prison population in the entire world which turns a lot of heads. These facts lead everyone to believe that the United States has some horrible people which is correct. There are a select few prisons that stand out above the others because of the security, location, age and most importantly what criminals get placed where. Leavenworth prison in Kansas, Sing Sing prison in New York, and most known Alcatraz in the San Francisco bay are three of the most notorious prison in the United States mostly because of their reputation and criminals they house inside of these prisons. The following research paper will be informational based …show more content…

In 1850, the United States wanted to use the islands as a reservation, so the United States built a citadel to protect the bay. By the late 1850’s the first military prisoners were held in Alcatraz. Then in 1933, the United States Army handed the island off to the Department of Justice. The Federal Bureau of Prisons decided to make the island into a maximum-security prison that would contain the most violent criminals to prove a point to the public that the government was focused on stopping the rampant crime throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. “While several well-known criminals, such as Al Capone, George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, Alvin Karpis (the first "Public Enemy #1"), and Arthur "Doc" Barker did time on Alcatraz, most of the prisoners incarcerated there were not well-known gangsters” (Alcatraz BOP.gov.) Many prisoners considered treatment and living conditions at Alcatraz to be better compared to other maximum-security prisons in the United States, in fact some prisoners requested to transfer to Alcatraz because of the likeable living conditions. Books and movies made Alcatraz out to be “America’s Devil Prison” but it was very opposite from that

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