Advertisement
Published: January 3rd 2005
Edit Blog Post
Today we visited Alcatraz, what a trip, you have to get a ferry out then you're on your own when you dock.
It's a bizarre place, really small but still daunting, the cell block is up at the very top of the rock, it's tiny, at it's busiest it housed 260 prisoners it had capacity for 350 but A block was never used.
The history is amazing, it was originally an Army Prison but was shut down because it was to brutal for soldiers, they made it a Federal Penetentiary in the 50's, it shut in 1963 and as far as the Prison Service says no one ever escaped alive, I have my doubts though.
3 dudes did escape in 1962 but because they were never found alive they were presumed dead, now I say if they were never found then they got away, I suppose their version makes for a better story and more visitors though!!
We got a great audio (self guided) tour that had a lot of the inmates chatting on it, was mental to hear thir stories, the infamous 'hole' where you went for solitary, 23 hours, no lights, no chat, nothing to
The Watchtower
all along the watchtower......... do but think, some dude spent 7 years in there, murder.
It was also mental to see how the other half lived, I mean there were families brought up on the Rock, the prison wardens stayed there, brought up their children there, had a normal life there, the kids went to school on the ferry every morning and that, bizarre way to live but it was normal to them. There was a woman signing copies of her book, "Alcatraz and it's children", when we were there, she was the wardens daughter and lived on the Rock for 8 years, she says that she was real popular at school beacause of it and everyone, teachers included, wanted to know about life on Alcatraz, she had some great stories.
Every day she's see the prisoners and they'd shout over the fence and that, she says they were all really nice to her and her family, they respected the warden and the majority just wanted to serve their time, if you behaved well on the Rock then you got sent pack to another prison, and that's all every prisoner wanted on that island, to get off it.
The prisoners tell
Cellblock
and lighthouse, the first in America, the remains of the Wardens house is on the right the story that any prison was tough, you were locked up and that was bad enough but in Alcatraz you were locked up for 23 hours every day and that made you lose your mind, many prisoners went mental in that place, the California sun outside, an amazing view of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge, children laughing and playing in the background and you were just sitting in your cell, throwing up a button in the air and (with your eyes closed) you'd try to find it, that kept them 'entertained' for hours every day.
Brutal.
There is also the period of Indian occupation on the island when the were campaigning for better civil rights for Native Americans, that lasted 2 years before the army stormed them out. The FBI also used it too but no-one knows what for, top secret.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0249s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1mb