 "Over one million tourists visit Alcatraz every year. Image courtesy: National Park Service")
US President Donald Trump has said he plans to reopen Alcatraz as a prison.
Trump, taking to social media over the weekend, posted, “Rebuild and open Alcatraz.”
“When we were a more serious nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz,” Trump added.
But what do we know about Alcatraz? Why is ‘The Rock’ arguably America’s most notorious prison?
Let’s take a closer look:
What do we know?
Alcatraz is located two kilometres off the shores of San Francisco.
Operated by the National Park Service, Alcatraz is currently one of San Francisco’s most popular tourist destinations alongside the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco cable cars.
But let’s take a look at Alcatraz before it was a tourist attraction.
At first, Alcatraz was just an island.
As per GSA.guv, Alcatraz got its name from Spanish naval officer and explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala y Aranza in 1775.
Aranza named it La Isla de los Alcatraces – the island of the pelicans – as he sailed through the San Francisco bay.
Mexico gained control of the island in 1821 after its war of independence against Spain.
Then, in 1848, the US took control of Alcatraz after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
It was then US president Milliard Fillmore who, recognising the island’s strategically important location, gave the go-ahead for it to be converted into a military installation.
By 1858, the US had built Fort Alcatraz.
During the US civil war, the fort was used to keep Confederate prisoners and private citizens suspected of aiding and abetting the South.
This came at the time when then president Abraham Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus.
A decade later, Alcatraz had transformed into a military prison.
As per Architectural Digest, by 1900, Alcatraz was home to 441 prisoners.
In 1907, the US Army redesignated Alcatraz “Pacific Branch, US Military Prison, Alcatraz Island.”
By 1912, a 600-cell holding complex had been built as well as a mess hall and hospital.
By 1930, control of Alcatraz was handed over to the US Bureau of Prisons.
It was used to house the worst of the worst – the difficult to handle, the violent, or those deemed escape risks.
The outlet quoted from the book Alcatraz Prison in American History as stating “To keep escape attempts at a minimum, Alcatraz had a rule of silence. Prisoners were not to speak to one another in the cell block or dining hall.”
By 1934, Alcatraz was thought to be the world’s most secure prison.
As per SFtravel, each prisoner had their own cell.
There prison also employed one guard for every three prisoners.
Over the years, some of America’s most notorious and high-profile prisoners were sent to Alcatraz.
This list includes Al Capone, James “Whitey” Bulger, George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes, and Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz.
Alcatraz, interestingly, was thought to have the best food in the entire US penal system.
Prisoners were given grilled sausages, Swiss steak, spare ribs, and stuffed peppers.
The great escape
During its time as a federal prison, Alcatraz witnessed over a dozen escape attempts.
Twenty-three men were caught, six were shot and killed, and two drowned.
Five prisoners are listed as “missing and presumed drowned” – meaning no one has officially ever escaped from Alcatraz.
But that’s not the full story.
Some think that three men – Frank Morris, John and Clarence Anglin – may have escaped.
On June 12, 1962, all their beds were found stuffed with dummies.
As per the FBI, Morris and the Anglin brothers used a homemade drill made out of vacuum cleaner parts to break into an unguarded utility corridor.
The prisoners then made their way onto the roof of the prison, dropped down to the shore and then used a raft made from over 50 prison raincoats to seemingly try to get away.
While bits of the raft were discovered, no trace of three men have ever been found.
The 1979 movie Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood is a retelling of the 1962 escape.
Alcatraz was shuttered as a prison in 1963.
While many ascribed the decision to the high-profile “escape,” the actual reason is far more humdrum.
Alcatraz was shut down as a prison because it was simply deemed too expensive to continue operating as such according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website.
As per the website, Alcatraz was costing taxpayers almost three times more than any other federal prison.
Life after a prison
As per HistoryExtra.com, in March 1964, five indigenous activists occupied Alcatraz.
The Sicangu Lakota claimed that Alcatraz, according to the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, was indigenous land.
In November 1969, 78 Native-American activists known as the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz for over a year and a half.
The movement, which ended in 1971, gained global attention to the fight for rights for Native Americans.
Alcatraz began becoming a tourist attraction in 1972.
This was when it was designated part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Alcatraz was handed over to the National Park Service.
By the mid-1970s, it was thrown open to the public with tours being offered to educate the populace about its past as a prison and the island’s rich history.
Today, over one million people visit Alcatraz every year.
With inputs from agencies