A visitor drives in the city of San Francisco. Drive from the Union Square area north towards Fisherman’s Wharf, taking Leavenworth Street. Around where Leavenworth meets Lombard Street at the top of the hill, the trail starts to go downhill. In front of your windshield, at the bottom of your view, you are now looking at the northern part of the San Francisco Bay. You will see an island, in the shape of a huge warship, with one sharp and steep side, rising directly from the ocean surface.
You are looking at Alcatraz Island, “Jail Island” in the San Francisco Bay.
Many have known the name “Alcatraz” from movies and. It is the world famous prison island. The island was unusual in shape as mentioned. Both edges of the island are not sloped. They are sharp and steep cliffs. It also looked like a huge ship. It gives the viewer the immediate impression that this is a huge “Battleship”. Aside from its unusual shape, in the bright California sun, it didn’t look anything like a jail.
Furthermore, the island seemed too close to Fisherman’s Wharf to be “an inescapable island jail”. If you are a swimmer who can swim 2-3 miles, you might think you could swim to the island.
Alcatraz Island is located in the northern part of San Francisco Bay, between Fisherman’s Wharf and Marine County. It’s so close to Fisherman’s Wharf that almost everyone wonders if it’s the infamous prison island, which people call inescapable. A good swimmer would be able to swim the distance, if prepared at water temperature with diving suits and guarded by an emergency rescue boat. It was a couple of years ago, a 6 year old could swim from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf.
So why is this prison island impossible? Talking to some people, there are several different answers. The water is too cold to continue swimming the distance without protection against body temperature. San Francisco Bay looks calm on the surface. There is a violent tide deep in the ocean. He changes direction very often. No bather can be free from the influence of this violent tide. Swimming at night is almost killing yourself. Man-eating sharks are especially active at night. Many of these may be true. All of these factors are working together to prevent the prisoners from escaping from Alcatraz.
There was no one who escaped alive from Alcatraz during its history that served as a prison island in official records.
Ferries to Alcatraz depart from Pier 33. If you are staying in San Francisco and hoping to visit Alcatraz, you must select the day of the week and make your reservation 3-5 days in advance of your planned visit date. Weekend tickets are usually sold out for the next 2-3 weeks. In the ferry docking area, there are displays of notorious criminals incarcerated at Alcatraz, including Al Capone.
Travel time on the ferry from Alcatraz Island to Alcatraz is incredibly short. It takes no more than 15 minutes to get to the island. There is not even enough time to enjoy the views of the San Francisco city area or the Golden Gate Bridge, even though there is a magnificent view over them, as it is the best boat trip to see the city of San Francisco , Marine County and the East. Bay.
We can now freely explore Alcatraz since the federal government closed the jail, and it is now part of the Golden Gate National Park. For the criminals sent to Alcatraz, it meant “Death Sentence” to them. In the ferry docking area, right next to the image of Al Capone, an image of graffiti on the wall of an unknown prisoner reads: “You will be sent to jail if you break the law. If you break a rule in jail , you will be sent to Alcatraz.” . One can feel the sobbing of a prisoner in his cell. My Japanese friend commented on my blog once. “It’s exciting to get a glimpse of the infamous prison island without committing a crime.” Simple crime is not enough to get sent to Alcatraz. One needs to commit an Al Capone-level crime to be sent there.
It’s part of the Golden Gate National Park, so the rule is “Don’t take anything, don’t take anything, except littering and buying souvenirs.” As soon as they arrive at the jail’s main gate, visitors will hear a 10-minute explanation of Alcatraz’s history and visiting rules. You should now be ready to enter the jail chamber.
All they have inside the island is Jail Building. The white hospital looking building is being constructed for jail facilities. Apart from that, there are some small houses for the guardians and the family of the guardians lived there. Upon entering the jail building, visitors will visit the shower location first. It may be the first place the prisoners went when they were sent to Alcatraz. Here, visitors can rent a storytelling unit that explains the stories of Alcatraz as they walk around the island. A translated narration unit is available for Japanese, Chinese, and many European languages.
Now let’s walk to the center of the cell area. There are small cells on both sides of a not so wide corridor. They are individual cells for prisoners. They are incredibly small. Cells lined up side by side and three stories high. The ceiling of each cell is low. It seems so small that if you stretch out your arms, both of your hands touch the walls. The living environment of the animals in the zoo looks much better than this. It wouldn’t take more than 3 days to drive a normal person completely insane if they kept living in a place like this.
Visitors now stand in front of a black board hung at the top of the Dining Room. It is the menu posted at the top of the entrance to the dining room. The board displayed the breakfast of the day. “Assorted Dry Cereals”, “Stewed Whole Wheat”, “1 Scrambled Egg”, “2 Milks”, “Stewed Fruit”, and “Tostadas”. The top of the dash read “March 21, 1963.” His breakfast on March 21, 1963 did not seem miserable.
There is a window that looks like the window of a submarine or a warship in the corner of a corridor. There is some history. This is the window the inmates can look through. What they could see was the city of San Francisco. It is not only through this window, but the prisoners can have a clear view of the city of San Francisco. In festive season, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., the inmates could see the city dressed up with lights, fireworks and could even hear people partying, singing, dancing, laughing and enjoying themselves.
It would have been excruciating torture for the prisoners who could feel, feel, look and hear the free people outside, enjoying the festive occasions. They must have wanted to close their eyes, cover their ears. They could still feel what was happening across the Bay. How awful it was. What cruel torture human beings can do to other human beings even if they are criminals!
History shows that there were many escape attempts from Alcatraz. The official record indicates “34 escape attempts, 7 dead, 2 drowned, 5 missing and 20 detained.” Among the missing were “Frank Morris” and the Anglin brothers as depicted in the movie “Escape from Alcatraz.” Frank Morris was sent to Alcatraz in 1960. He planned and attempted a prison break in 1962 with John Anglin, Clarence Anglin and Allen West. They built a raft. They made their own dolls. Put them in their beds. They continued digging to escape for 2 years. They put their plan into action on June 11, 1962. Allen West arrived late and was unable to join the breakout.
The FBI immediately began searching, but they were unable to find them. They also couldn’t find their bodies. All they found was a part of their raft, bags of Anglins, and a few other belongings of the escapees. The FBI and Alcatraz authorities decided that they drowned and died. The federal government decided to close Alcatraz prison approximately 1 year after this escape.
Another important figure in Alcatraz is the Warden and Officers at Alcatraz. Showroom at Alcatraz displays the mannequin of the officer at Alcatraz that he used to be. They lived on the island with their family. Across the street from the jail building, there are ruins of individual houses of the wardens and officers. Higher class officers could live in a separate house. Now, if someone wanted houses like these with a great view of the city of San Francisco, he might have had to spend over 1 million dollars.
In addition, their children attended schools in San Francisco across the bay. They took ferries every morning and afternoon to attend their schools. Compared to the inmates, the life of the officers might not have been so miserable. However, life for officers in prisons and jails was not easy. It could be as destructive as the prisoners. They need to be tightened days and nights. If something happens, the officers must fight for their lives. The prisoners are not friendly with them. They must be tough on the inmates. The jail island made life difficult for all related people.
Isolated from outside society, this island had its own functions. They had their own firefighting unit. There is a preserved fire truck on the island that silently counts down the days when the island was still the jail.