Search results
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: / ˈ æ l k ə ˌ t r æ z /, Spanish: [a l k a ˈ t ɾ a θ] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States.
The Federal Government had decided to open a maximum-security, minimum-privilege penitentiary to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in Federal prisons, and to show the law-abiding public that the Federal Government was serious about stopping the rampant crime of the 1920s and 1930s.
Oct 27, 2009 · In 1933, the Army relinquished Alcatraz to the U.S. Justice Department, which wanted a federal prison that could house a criminal population too difficult or dangerous to be handled by other...
Jan 12, 2024 · This small island was once a fort, a military prison, and a maximum security federal penitentiary. In 1969, the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz for 19 months in the name of freedom and Native American civil rights.
Dec 30, 2022 · From its early days as a military fortress and prison to its most infamous tenure as a federal penitentiary, Alcatraz looms large in the American psyche as a place of contradiction, violence and competing historical narratives.
Jul 6, 2024 · In 1933 the U.S. Army transferred control of the prison to the civilian Department of Justice, and, from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz served as a federal prison for some of the most dangerous convicts in the American penitentiary system.
Alcatraz Island is the site of the abandoned federal prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets).
