Inside the notorious Alcatraz

As you step into the prison, the sound of keys rattling and a heavy gate opening, fills your ears. You can hear inmates shouting in the background. It is an ominous feeling when you enter the notorious Alcatraz Prison, visible from the beautiful San Francisco Bay. Irma Green shares her memories of a visit to Alcatraz.

The vibrant city of San Francisco lies in stark contrast to the prison, stuck on a small island. One could almost compare it with Cape Town with its own harbour and the famous V&A Waterfront with Robben Island, also visible from the Mother City.

Visitors to the prison embark on their fifteen-minute ferry ride from Pier 33, a short walk from the famous Pier 39 shopping centre and popular tourist attraction.

A visit to San Francisco is not complete if you have not browsed what Pier 39 has to offer with its quaint shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances and lively bars.

In 1979, the movie Escape from Alcatraz placed the spotlight on the maximum-security prison as the world watched the escape from the prison island Alcatraz, in 1962, come to life on the big screen.

Alcatraz has a history spanning back to the 1840s, during the Gold Rush, when it was used as a military prison. This continued during the Civil War. From 1934 until its closure, it served as a federal prison for some of America’s most dangerous civilians.

The prison only closed its doors in 1963, a year after the great escape attempt. Also referred to as “The Rock”, the presence of infamous inmates, like Al “Scarface” Capone and the “Birdman” Robert Stroud, helped to establish the Island’s notoriety.

A visit to the island offers a glimpse into what life must have been like for prisoners who could see civilisation across the Bay of San Francisco, but were confined to the island where many of them served a life sentence. Once on the island, the energy is palpable.

You can do the tour at your own pace, following the guided audio tour which is simply a mind-blowing experience! When we visited, the narration was done by four former wardens and four former inmates, setting an authentic tone. As you move from one cell block to another, the gates close behind you, creating a setting which feels as if the visitor is actually inside a working prison.

The voices of ‘inmates’ shouting and ‘wardens’ returning with instructions makes for a very real-life experience. Visitors get a first-hand experience of what it sounded like when escapes took place as the events are dramatised in the audio.

In the 29 years it operated as a federal prison, there were 14 escape attempts. Those attempts included 36 prisoners, and none were considered successful. Two of the prisoners drowned in the bay, six of them were shot during their attempts and 23 were captured and returned to their cells.

Did someone ever get away? To this day it remains a mystery whether anyone made it to land during the famous 1962 escape. The attempt by Frank Lee Morris, Alan West and John and Clarence Anglin was one of the most well thought through and sophisticated attempts in the prison’s history.

Frank Lee Morris was the mastermind behind the plan and the group worked for seven months on their masterplan. They dug holes through the ventilation holes which then linked to the ventilation ducts, through which they left the building. To make sure their absence wasn’t detected, the group all made dummy heads and positioned these in their beds. Alan West battled to get the cover off his vent, so he was left behind when the other three fled. Only much later, when guards found the dummy heads, and noticed the prisoners were missing, did the prison go into lockdown. The men were never seen or heard from again.

55 years later, The Alcatraz prison escape remains a mystery.