Former fort built on a small island in the bay of San Francisco, where Al Capone and the greatest mafia chiefs were imprisoned, before becoming a tourist attraction in the 1970s … Here are five things to know about Alcatraz.
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An isolated prison
Located on a rocky island of about nine hectares, two kilometers off San Francisco, the Federal Prison of Alcatraz closed in March 1963 after only 29 years of existence.
This emblematic penitentiary establishment, surrounded by sharks swimming in waters at around 12 ° C, was first a fort and a military prison.
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Spectacular escape
From 1934, the establishment was transformed into a civil prison where the greatest mafia leaders were imprisoned and in particular Al Capone, famous American gangster imprisoned for smuggling alcohol and tax evasion during prohibition.
The federal high security prison entered posterity in 1962 with the spectacular escape of three detainees, including Frank Morris, then inspiring a book in 1963 (“L’Escadé d’Alcatraz” by J. Campbell Bruce) followed in 1979 of a film of the same title of Don Siegel, with Clint Eastwood.
Place of filming, she also welcomed the teams from the action film “The Rock”, released in 1996. Among the headliners: Sean Connery, Ed Harris and Nicolas Cage.
Very high costs
Due to its geographic location, Alcatraz cost almost three times more than any other federal prison, assessed the American prison administration.
It generated many costs, such as food by food or even 3.8 million liters of drinking water per week, the island with no source of fresh water.
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And according to estimates, three to five million US $ had been injected into catering and maintenance work of the establishment to maintain it open, from the same source.
During its 29 years of service, the average prison population of Alcatraz was between 260 and 275 people, according to the prison office, less than 1% of the total population of federal prisons.
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More than a million visitors
Having become a national park in 1972, Alcatraz fascinates as much by his exceptional situation as by his sinister past of federal penitentiary.
The rocky island thus attracts more than a million visitors from around the world each year to discover the former federal prison and some of its 378 cells.
Amerindian activism
In 1969, a group of Amerindian activists called “Indians of All Tribes” landed in Alcatraz to denounce the policy of expulsion of the United States government and the difficult situation of the Amerindians in general.
Mainly led by students, the occupation of the island lasted 19 months before ending in 1971 under the leadership of President Richard Nixon, who had ordered the deployment of FBI agents and special forces to dislodge the demonstrators.
