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Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

1934 – 1963

United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built from 1910 to 1912 as a U.S. Army military prison. The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933.

Why it's on the map

Young had been sent to Alcatraz for murder in 1933, and was later involved in an escape attempt during which gangster Doc Barker was shot to death.

When the Bureau of Prisons established the Federal Penitentiary on January 1, 1934, they took measures to strengthen the security of the prison cells to make Alcatraz "escape-proof" and improve living conditions for their own staff.

Relatives of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in the mid-2010s in support of a longstanding rumor that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following the escape; a facial recognition analyst concluded that the one piece of physical evidence, a 1975 photograph of two men resembling John and Clarence Anglin, supported that conclusion.

Improvements were made to the toilet and electricity facilities, old tunnels were sealed up with concrete to avoid hiding and escape by prisoners, and substantial changes and improvements were made to the housing facilities for guards, wardens, and captains to live with their families, with quality relative to rank.

Combined with the major structural problems and expensive operation, this led to its closure on March 21, 1963.

Today, the house is a ruin, burned down by Native Americans during the Occupation of Alcatraz on June 1, 1970.

The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built from 1910 to 1912 as a U.S. Army military prison.

The main cellhouse was built incorporating some parts of Fort Alcatraz's citadel, a partially fortified barracks from 1859 that was used as a jail during the Civil War for alleged Confederate sympathizers.

Source: Wikipedia / Wikidata