Alcatraz Island National Park - Parenting HeadQuarter

Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States.^[1] Often referred to as “The Rock“, the small island served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison until 1963. Later, in 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area and received landmarking designations in 1976 and 1986.

[According to wikipedia} Today, the island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. In 2008 the nation’s first hybrid propulsion ferry started serving the island.^[3] Alcatraz has been featured in many movies, TV shows, cartoons, books, comics, and games.

History Of Alcatraz Prison Federal prison

The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz was acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933, and the island became a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison in August 1934. During the 29 years it was in use, the jail held such notable criminals as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George “Machine Gun” Kelly, James “Whitey” Bulger, Bumpy Johnson, Rafael Cancel Miranda, member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who attacked the United States Capitol building in 1954.,^[23] Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. “Doc” Barker and Alvin Karpis (who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate). It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prison staff and their families.

The majority of the prisoners at Alcatraz had been sent there after causing problems at other prisons.

Post Prison:

Because it was far more expensive to operate than other prisons (nearly $10 per prisoner per day, as opposed to $3 per prisoner per day at Atlanta),^[32] and due to half a century of salt water saturation which severely eroded the buildings, the penitentiary was closed on March 21, 1963 by decision of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Another contributing factor for the closure was the pollution produced by the sewage deposited into San Francisco bay from the approximately 250 inmates and 60 Bureau of Prisons families on the island. The United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, a traditional land-bound prison, opened that same year to serve as a replacement for Alcatraz.

In film and television

Many films and television series have exploited Alcatraz Island’s reputation as being a prison from which it was almost impossible to escape.

Don Siegel‘s 1979 thriller Escape from Alcatraz chronicles the story of Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, although it is not known whether they survived the trip across the bay. There is some hint at the end of the film that they did survive. The film portrayed both the conditions of life in the prison and the difficulty of escaping from it.

Magician David Copperfield used the fascination surrounding escapes from Alcatraz as the foundation for an illusion, when he escaped from an Alcatraz prison cell in a 1987 television special, The Magic of David Copperfield IX.

In The Jail Break, a 1946 short starring Mighty Mouse, “Bad Bill Bunion” escapes from Alcatraz (which is also shown to be holding Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula).