Alcatraz Prison Essay

1061 Words3 Pages

Alcatraz Prison was considered one of the most terrible places on earth. Prisoners had a very harsh lifestyle while they were there, including harsh punishments, lots of rules and regulations. If any prisoner did not follow a rule or disrespected a guard then a punishment could include; being thrown in the hole/strip cell, certain privileges could be taken away, or you could possibly be put to death. Prisoners were not treated with respect, they were treated with discipline. At any point if a prisoner tried to escape they could be shot and killed or be sentenced to death by the judge. Living in the prison was not easy to deal with, you had a very tight schedule that you must follow. Most of the prisoners staying in Alcatraz went insane …show more content…

The most important person would have to be Juan Manuel de Ayala because he mapped and named Alcatraz. Then John Charles Fremont bought the island in 1846 which would cause the government to reserve it for a military prison. While the military prison was being built James Birdseye McPherson had supervised the final bits being worked on which was a job that he hated the most. After the military prison shut down and it became a federal penitentiary, James A. Johnston was the first warden of Alcatraz, chosen by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. For about every three inmates Alcatraz housed he had hired a warden. Johnston wasn’t your average warden, he believed if an inmate was going to a job he might as well be rewarded for his efforts (sentence reduction). Just because he rewarded inmates doesn’t mean he doesn’t have strict rules. He would not allow any inmate ever to disobey the rules and regulations that every inmate had to follow or they would be punished harshly. Alcatraz was run by more than just wardens and officers they were run by the U.S. army, which had helped build some of the structures on the rocky face of Alcatraz. The Federal Bureau of Prisons had assigned only the best wardens and officers to work at Alcatraz, and had partially run the

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