Ashton Lusiak
Mrs. Brendle
Honors English 10, P.2
16 February 2015 The Notorious Alcatraz Prison
Alcatraz prison was built to be one of the most feared prisons in America. The discipline at Alcatraz was severe to every prisoner and the prison’s procedures, but not all of the prisoners let that get to them. Tight security was the standard when it came to Alcatraz. Making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. The men who escaped in 1962 proved that no prison is escapable due to their creativity, patience and cunning.
Many know Alcatraz as the “rock” because the island is bare. Alcatraz was simply a bare rock rising out of San Francisco Bay, with few trees and little vegetation. (Hopkinson) Concluding from that, Alcatraz wasn’t…show more content… Prisoners had to wake up every morning at 6 AM by the ring of the bell; Men had 20 minutes to dress before breakfast and 3 minutes to shave if they were allowed to. (Conway) Conway also said that “breakfast was served at 6:30 AM and the meal was typically cereal and coffee cake.” Prisoners with work duty spent 18 hours in their cell while others spent 23 hours. (Boisson) Men were to never say a word during meals except for “pass the sugar please”. (Conway) Boisson stated that the cells in Alcatraz had a device called the “slammer’ which opened and closed cells with loud metallic bangs.” Boisson also added that “if prisoners appeared to be disrespectful they were put in ‘the hole’ which was the first six cells on the first level, which you could only wear boxers, socks, and a cover-all.” According to Hopkinson, lights went out at a reasonable time, which was “9:30 p.m.” People that became insane would be isolated from others. (Conway) Conway also mentioned “the result from prisoners going insane would be the actions of either escaping or killing.” Boisson supports this statement because he said, “two men that attempted to escape Alcatraz killed two guards and had a consequence of being executed in the electric chair.” Escaping Alcatraz wasn’t that common due to how hard it was. The waters surrounding Alcatraz are so deadly that a man could only survive no more than a few minutes in it. (Conway)…show more content… Frank Morris, Allen West, and Brothers Clarence and John Anglin were the successful escapees of 1962. (Hopkinson) Although only three successfully escaped the prison it is assumed that they drowned while being in the fierce tides outside of Alcatraz. (Dayne and Lopez) The four had to use many different strategic techniques to out smart Alcatraz and its security. According to Hopkinson “they made dummy heads out of toilet paper, cardboard and cement chips so that the guards would be fooled while doing a headcount.” For hair on their dummies they used stolen hair from the prison barbershop. (Hopkinson) They spent month after month using tiny tools to chip away at the concrete walls of their cells. To disguise their wall the men took a hobby of painting so they could paint a fake wall. (Hopkinson) As the escape was about to start Allen West wasn’t able to get out of his cell, so he was left behind. (Hopkinson) After crawling through their hole that they had dug, they got to the utility corridor, which led them their path outside of the prison just leaving a fence in front of them. (Boisson) The time they made their attempt was when the bay’s fierce tides were at their strongest. (Boisson) The reason many assume that they drowned was because from other escape attempts before this all the prisoners drowned due to the frigid waters. It was concluded that they didn’t survive because their raft was found on