Alcatraz

By Travis R. Class E

Alcatraz was an island west of San Fransisco Bay near San Fransisco.  From 1868 to 1933 Alcatraz was a military prison.  In 1933 Alcatraz changed into a federal prison.  Alcatraz was a federal prison for 29 years.  There has been 14 escape attempts by the inmates of Alcatraz but none were succesful.  The two reasons these escape attempts didn't work was the San Fransisco Bay is too cold to go swimming in or the inmates got caught before they got to the water.  The cells of the inmates were 5 feet by 9 feet and they were very close together. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Al Capone's prison cell in Alcatraz.  His cell was Cell B-181.

This is a dummy head used by inmates to pretend they were still in their cell. 

The inmates used these to trick the correctional officers into thinking the inmates

were still in their cells.                                             

                                                                                                                                              This is a window in a prison cell at Alcatraz.  The bars on the window are very close together so the                                                                                                                                                    inmates can't squeeze through them to escape.

This is the Alcatraz Dining Hall.  All the inmates eat their breakfast, lunch, and dinner in here. 

The dinning hall was also called the "Gas Chamber" because the correctional officers would have

to through gas bombs inside to calm the fights between inmates. 

George "Machine Gun" Kelly                                                                              Al Capone                                                                                 Henri Young

Robert Stroud "Birdman of Alcatraz" Arrival Dec. 1942                                    Robert Stroud Oct. 1951

These pictures are the four famous people at Alcatraz.  The inmates got to choose how much food they ate as long as they finished all of it.  Robert Stroud purposely ate little food so he could fit through the bars to attempt to escape Alcatraz.