Have you ever heard of the hauntings on the island of the Alcatraz prison? About the ghostly sightings, freezing cells, extra counts, and mysterious murders? Are these real life sightings or just some legends told around the campfire? The stories are about the man with the glowing eyes, Cellblock D, and the lighthouse. To this day the ghosts still roam the abandoned cells and linger in the empty halls waiting to be noticed.
The Island of Alcatraz started construction in the 1850’s and in 1861 the first unlucky prisoners stepped onto the island. The island was now a fully functional high security prison. In 1868 the prison was designated for military convicts and soon the worst offenders were sentenced to life on the island. The island was surrounded by frigid waters and sharks in the bay helped prevent ideas of escape. Some escape plans were put into motion but none fully succeeded. Many convicts found that Alcatraz ended their career in crime, while some found that Alcatraz was the end of their lives. Although the prison was the most secure and safest place to keep these convicts, the prison was shut down in 1963, after over 100 years of service, due to high maintenance costs of bringing materials and sustaining human life on the island. Ever since the prison opened, unexplained occurrences have been reported and no explanation has ever been confirmed.
The infamous Cell Block D, also known as the isolation chambers, is believed to be the most haunted part of the island. “The most haunted area on Alcatraz, is the "D" cell block, or solitary, as it was often called.” Inside these chambers there has been extremely cold cells, a murder, and ghostly sounds and sightings. Inside cell 14-D is where a prisoner was found dead after b...
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Jessica Hollon’s piece titled Hydrotherapy at Alcatraz represents a room of forgotten souls. She used a standard format paper to print on. This piece was taken at Alcatraz in the old part of the prison in the hospital area. They used this room for ice baths or hydrotherapy; it has two windows covered with vertical and horizontal bars, a tub, an old radiator, exposed broken pipes and some sort of an open commode. The tub is the only subtle hint of color that is captured in the piece. The bars on the windows seem to keep the secrecy and security of the room along with the dark shadows she captures in the corners
Nearby Alfred Bello and Arthur Bradley were breaking into a factory. Bello was the lookout, and his exact location - inside or outside the bar - would be a point of concentration for the next twenty years. The police arrived at the bar within minutes. They took statements from Marins, Valenine, and Bello. Not one of them said they had seen Rubin Carter, one of Paterson’s most well-known citizens, at the scene. A police bulletin radioed officers to be on the lookout for a white car with two black men inside.
The left door which they entered was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their way.They could hear something breathing heavily which didn't sound human. Tyson pushed the boulder blocking the place where they could hear the heavy breathing and soon Annabeth realized they were in Alcatraz so she told the group about it.
Lewiston, Idaho, once an important port for miners traveling in search of gold, is now a town of about 30,000 people. Few of the people who live in the Lewis-Clark Valley speak of its over one hundred year history. However, there are still parts of the community where one can explore and see the age of the town. Downtown Lewiston is one of a few areas where people can go exploring. They wander the streets, admiring the buildings that stand proudly above them. One building in particular ties a unique history into the downtown area. Morgan’s Alley stands at the corner of Main Street and D Street, overlooking the cars and people passing by. On the outside, it looks like an ordinary, older building. On the inside, it holds secrets of the past and possibly a ghost.
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There are a number of issues that need to be taken into consideration when discussing the use of supermax prisons. Hans Toch, a corrections scholar, pointed out that the methods used in supermax prisons are not new penal techniques. In fact, those types of prison conditions were adopted in the past and rejected because of increased rates in inmates developing mental illness (Hickey, 2010). Supermaximum security prisons have been associated with past attempts, like the Eastern State Penitentiary, where twenty-four-hour isolation was used and there were no programs for self improvement. The two main problems associated with supermax prisons are the conditions and the transfer procedures/criteria (Pollock, 2010). Pelican Island in California was a target of a court case, Madr...
The description of Alcatraz is sinister and quite mysterious. Many people describe it as a haunted attraction,
In the 1970s, prison was a dangerous place. Prison violence and the high numbers of disruptive inmates led prison authorities to seek new ways to control prisoners. At first, prison staff sought to minimize contact with prisoners by keeping them in their cells for a majority of the day. As time went on, the prison authorities began to brainstorm the idea of having entire prisons dedicated to using these kind of procedures to control the most violent and disruptive inmates. By 1984, many states began construction on super-maximum prisons. In California, two supermax facilities were built by the state: Corcoran State Prison in 1988, and then Pelican Bay in 1989. The federal government soon followed suit and in 1994, the “first federal supermax opened, in Florence, Colorado.” It was not much longer before supermax prisons could be seen all over the country (Abramsky). In Wisconsin’s supermax facility, with similar conditions being found in a majority of supermaxes, there are “100-cell housing units” that are in groups of 25 cells. These cells all face a secured central area. Technology plays a major role in keeping the facility to the highest security standards. Every cell’s doors are controlled remotely and the cells include “video surveillance, motion detection and exterior lighting” (Berge). With these technological securities, there are also procedural precautions. Inmates are kept in their cells for 23 hours a day until their sentences are done. This is said to be for prisoner and staff safety, although some feel otherwise. In 2001, 600 inmates at Pelican Bay went on a hunger strike, demanding reform. Those on hunger strike believed that the isolation and deprivation they faced was against their Eighth Amendment rights. ...
14 Nicole Hahn Rafter, Partial Justice: Women in State Prisons 1800-1935 (Boston: New England University Press, 1985)
2. Professor Clyde W. Richins, University of Michigan, 1990, Vol. 1 of "In the life of Alcatraz" pages 1944- 46
Thomas Pynchon’s novel, The Crying of Lot 49, is set in California during the 1960s in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and in the midst of the Vietnam War. It is also a period of counterculture and social revolution when drug use becomes popularized and sexuality is explored. This historical context is evident in the novel as the main character, Oedipa, attempts to establish order and meaning in life. This essay will explore how Pynchon uses Oedipa as a projection of increased paranoia during this historical age. Using Brian L. Keeley’s article, “Of Conspiracy Theories,” I will support the notion that the first five chapters of Pynchon’s novel is a cautionary tale about subscribing to conspiracy theories, with Oedipa as the example of a conspiracy theorist.
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