Alcatraz Led Several Lives Before Convicts Arrived

Fortification of the island by the Army Corp of Engineers between 1853 and 1858 created Fortress Alcatraz, which the U.S. Army intended to use to defend against approaches to San Francisco Bay. During the Civil War, the island housed 105 cannon and was used for storage of an arsenal of firearms. Although Alcatraz never fired its guns offensively, the fort was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers from 1861 to 1865, and it was the largest American fort west of the Mississippi River. The Army also began sending soldier-convicts to the Alcatraz fort in early 1860. Over the next 40 years, the island gradually became obsolete as a fortification and more important as a prison.

The island’s notorious stint as the site of a federal penitentiary began in 1933, when the U. S. Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz was acquired by the Department of Justice. It was designated a federal prison in August 1934, the nation’s first maximum-security civilian penitentiary. Alcatraz Prison, largely due to its isolated location, was conceived as a site in which difficult-to-manage prisoners from other institutions would be housed under one roof.

A 1971 documentary, “Alcatraz: Island of Hate,” described the arrival of the first group of 137 prisoners on August 11, 1934. Most of the prisoners were bank robbers and murderers. The prison initially had a staff of 155, and the climate of the prison was one of security, not rehabilitation.

For 29 years, the penitentiary held some of the nation’s most dangerous criminals and claimed that no prisoner ever successfully escaped. Those who tried were caught, shot and killed, drowned, or were never found and presumed to have drowned. By the early 1960s, however, it had become too expensive to maintain, and the buildings had begun to crumble from salt-water damage. Attorney General Robert Kennedy approved closing the penitentiary in 1963, despite objections of some members of Congress who said that islands like Alcatraz were the only answer to violent crime. The last 27 convicts left Alcatraz in leg-irons and handcuffs on March 21, 1963.

Alcatraz Island remained abandoned for years while entrepreneurs lobbied the government with ideas for development, none of which were successful.

But before there was Occupy Wall Street, there was Occupy Alcatraz, as the island played yet another riveting role on history’s stage. On November 9, 1969, a diverse group of American Indians calling themselves Indians of All Tribes, claimed the island, eventually mounting a full-scale occupation that lasted into 1971, the longest prolonged occupation of a federal facility by American Indians. The occupiers negotiated for the deed to the island, intending to build a university, cultural center, and museum. But the occupation dwindled when its leadership faltered, and some of the island’s buildings were vandalized and damaged. The government’s patience grew thin, and President Richard Nixon ordered the last few residents removed, an event that was accomplished peacefully.

Today, Alcatraz Island’s facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate Recreational Area, and its rocky shores are important nesting sites for numerous species of wild birds, including pigeon guillemots, cormorants, Heermann’s Gulls, Western Gulls, and night herons. ■