Alcatraz: Trump wants to reopen one of the most notorious prisons. So it deserves its reputation

Cnn
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President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would order the government to rebuild and open Alcatraz again, a former prison on a small, small island of the same name off the coast of San Francisco, in which some of the most dangerous criminals in the country were once housed, including Al Capone, George “Maschinenmwehr” and James “Whitey” Bulger.

The prison, which was concluded 60 years ago due to its crumbling infrastructure and high maintenance costs, “will serve as a symbol of law, order and justice,” Trump told the truth in a post on social Sunday and later said reporters that it was “only an idea” when he had pushed as a federal judge to ensure that deported migrants had agreed.

Alcatraz was an important historical landmark and tourist destination and was once one of the most enriched military sites on the west coast before turning into a notorious federal prison in 1934.

As a maximum security prison, which was surrounded by the strong, cold currents of the Pacific, Alcatraz had the call to be a facility for “last statement” in which the most dangerous and most stubborn in other prisons were sent. Despite numerous attempts at Filius, it was practically impossible to escape.

Here is what you should still know about its colorful history:

The island of Alcatraz's strategic location at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay made it ideal for defense.

The US Army expanded a fort there in the 1850s and equipped it with artillery to protect the bay from foreign invasion, since the US interests at the Pacific were growing. It was also used to protect San Francisco from Confederated Raiders during the civil war. Shortly after it developed into a military prison that remained until the 20th century.

In 1933 the US military handed over Alcatraz to the Ministry of Justice and began almost three decades of the island as a federal prison. With its remote location and its amenities between Barebones, “The Rock”, as it became known, should transmit a message to criminals.

“The Federal Government had decided to open a maximum, at least security class to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in federal prisons, and to show the public law that the Federal Government was seriously stopped with the rampant crime of the 1920s and 1930s,” said the Prison's Bundesburo.

The Alcatraz prisoners had four rights: food, clothing, accommodation and medical care – all other privileges, including visits to family or access to books, art requirements and music.

Despite all the shame, Alcatraz had a prison population of around 260 to 275 prisoners at a certain point in time – less than 1 percent of the entire federal prison population. Most of the inmates of the prison were among those who refused to regulate rules in other federal prisons or that were classified as “escape risks”.

Alcatraz recorded 14 separate attempts to escape, in which 36 men were involved in 29 years as a federal prison. Officially, nobody managed to reach the mainland alive.

The most successful and elaborate attempted escape came in 1962 when Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin disappeared from their cells and were never seen again. The flight was dramatized in the Clint Eastwood film “Escape from Alcatraz” from 1979.

The investigation of the fbi revealed a “ingenious” plan that was created for several months.

With spoons and homemade tools, including a drill from a vacuum cleaner engine -the occupants were dug behind their cells by ventilation channels, with which they made a temporary workshop over their cell blocks.

They created fake heads made of plaster – complete with real human hair. The men secretly gathered a temporary raft and lifestyle from more than 50 stolen rain coats, with the investigators used heat from steam pipes to seal the materials.

On the night of their escape, they used their dummy heads to deceive the night watchmen while slipping out of their cells. She then crawled through a wave of ventilation on the roof of the prison, which they had previously opened and were temporarily secured with a soap screw.

It is believed that the group never managed to land in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay. The FBI came to the conclusion that it was probably drowned, but no bodies were recovered.

Occasional sightings and lines have been open to the case for decades.

One of the best-known prisoners of Alcatraz was Robert Stroud and named the “Birdman of Alcatraz” for his later interest in ornithology.

Stroud originally imprisoned for manslaughter in 1909, later killed a prison attendant and was convicted of a life in solitary confinement in the Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

During his time in prison, Stroud began to raise canaries and carry out research into birds and to publish books on bird diseases later. Although he was allowed to carry out his studies in his cell, the prison authorities later found that equipment Stroud, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, built a still for “home brew”.

Stroud was then moved to Alcatraz in 1942, where he was not allowed to keep birds. He left Alcatraz in 1959 for another facility and died four years later.

High costs and deteriorating conditions forced prison to close

When the Alcatraz prison was closed, the building walls from the salty sea air were corroded. The authorities estimated that the restoration and maintenance of the facility would take around $ 3 million to 5 million US dollars – without the daily operating costs.

“Alcatraz was almost three times more expensive than any other federal prison,” said the Federal Bureau of Prison's website.

After the closure, the island was mostly not used until 1969 when a group of activists from the American indigenous people protested it for 19 months and claimed it under the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Today Alcatraz is operated by the National Park Service as a tourist destination and welcomes around 1.2 million visitors a year.

It was shown as a national historical symbol in 1986, but according to the National Park Service, such a name can be considered at the request of the owner or on the initiative of the Interior Minister either at the request of the owner or on the initiative of the Interior Minister.

There are certain conditions that make a symbol for the loss of the name justified, e.g.

CNN has contacted the Interior Ministry, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Prisons for a comment.

The former spokesman for the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, whose district Alcatraz has, pushed back the President's proposal and called him “not seriously”.

“Alcatraz closed as a federal prison more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and a large tourist attraction. The president's proposal is no more serious,” wrote the Congress on Sunday on X.

Samantha Waldenberg from CNN contributed to this report.