Alcatraz Research Paper

RUNNING HEAD: FACTORS THAT MADE ALCATRAZ ISLAND A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON

Factors That Made Alcatraz Island a Maximum Security Prison
Joseph W. Lard
Cameron University

Every country has its own unique and enormous man-made landmarks. In Europe, London has Big Ben, Paris has the romantic Eiffel Tower, and Italy has the curious Leaning Tower of Pisa. From China and it’s Great Wall to Egypt with it’s pyramids and sphinx popular man-made landmarks are everywhere. America even has its own glorious landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. All of these are excellent examples of beauty and excellence that are rooted deeply in their country’s history and even somewhat of their identity. On the other hand,
It was formed more than fifteen thousand years ago during the closing stages of the last ice age (Davis 21). The enormous glaciers melted away over many years, splitting the island forever from any other land. It was not until Juan Manual Ayala, who was a Spaniard, landed on the Island and named it “Isla de Los Alcatraces,” or in English; “Island of the Pelicans” (Davis 21). “Alcatraces” eventually became Alcatraz. Alcatraz was actually first used as an United States Army base starting in 1853 (Davis 21). It was thought to make a great place to put a large amount of cannons on the island to protect the settlers who had moved to California because of the large quantity of gold found around the San Francisco Bay area. The U.S. Army also built a lighthouse which was the first lighthouse that was fully operational on the West Coast and is still on the island to this day. During the late 1850’s guardhouses were erected which became the first jail on the island. In the 1860’s the island had over 100 prisoners. It was not until 1933 when the Department of Justice took over under J. Edgar Hoover and became a federal penitentiary. James Johnston was appointed the first warden Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary (Davis 21). During the twenty-nine years of operation, there were a total of thirty-six men who were involved in only fourteen escape attempts (Hodak). Alcatraz’s location had much to do
At less than eighteen acres, Alcatraz was small enough to be able to watch every section of the island from the light tower and guard posts. Warden James Johnston personally supervised the refurbishing of Alcatraz to make certain that it would be tight enough to hold infamous prisoners such as George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Robert Stroud “The Birdman”, and the most famous of all, Al Capone, that would soon be taking residence there. He also wanted to make sure that it would disrupt prison gangs because the leaders of the gangs would be sent to Alcatraz. Being able to control prisoners who broke rules and abused privileges was also a high priority. Each and every innovation that was possible at the time was used as well as full body metal detectors. Every area was enclosed with a combination of cyclone wire and barbed wire. Utility tunnels and sewers were blocked off and the most innovative change was the replacement of soft-steel cells with new tool-proof steel (Davis 21). Each cell was only five feet by nine and only held one prisoner instead of the traditional two. This helped keep the dangerous inmates from more frequent attacks and the prisoners actually “enjoyed” having their own cell (Esslinger 2005).Another key factor was that Alcatraz’s maximum capacity of 312 was never reached. The most prisoners at any one time was about 250-270. This may not seem like much