THE ROCK

ALCATRAZ… THE PRISON EVERYONE LOVES TO VISIT

As I was passing through Golden Gate Bridge, I saw a rock island with some construction. Was just trying to recollect the familiar structure when the bus driver announced that it was Alcatraz, which was once a prison.

The scenes from `The Rock’, starring Sean Conery and Nicholas Cage ran through my mind. I knew, I needed to visit the rock island. As the driver explained that the island housed prison for only 29 years and was later shut down due to high maintenance costs. Though it was one of the tourist spots, it was not included in my conducted trip schedule.

Once I returned to my cousin Prashanth’s house, I told him that I would be visiting Alcatraz next day. He was toying with the idea of taking a day off to spend some time with me, but I had different plans.

Next day, I reached Fisherman’s Warf and walked towards Pier 34. I was lucky to get one of the last tickets to the Arcatraz ferry.

Alcatraz has its own history, which had the first lighthouse on the Pacific Ocean way back in 1854. The strategic island was also used by military for long time, before handing over to civil government. In 1915, it was officially named as United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch. However, the prisons department showed interest in the island, which could be a high security with low cost maintenance and took over it three years later. In 1963, the operations were shut down and the prisoners were moved to other prisons.

After a brief introduction near the dock, the group started walking upward towards the prison building. The first thing we encountered was a gutted building, but maintained as it was. It took place in 1970, when the native Indians, claiming their rights had seized the island. The clubhouse and another building where the lighthouse operators lived were burnt down. However, Entire Island has been preserved as it was.

After passing through the bath area of prisoners, I was impressed about the way it was preserved. The cloths and shoes of the prisoners were arranged perfectly and there were soap bars under each shower. After that, we were handed over audio devises that explained the entire prison and guided us through. Suddenly, a photo caption attracted me: ``Break the rules and you go to prison, break the prison rules and you go to Arcatraz’’

It was called prison within a prison and the caption said million words about the living conditions at Arcatraz.

Interestingly, the commentators in the audio devise were former prison inmates. While Patrick Mahoney, Capt Phillip Bergam, Geoarge De Vincenzi and Ron Battles were correction officials, Whitey Thomson, John Banner, James Quillen and Darwin Coon were prisoners.

All the barracks were 5X7X9 feet, which had toilet also. There were six barracks in the D block, which were solitary confinement. Though it looked big, during the 29 years, it housed only around 1545 prisoners, averaging 268 at a time. Every barrack was neatly maintained.

As I walked from one place to another, listening to the audio guide, I could feel entire life in Arcatraz re-enacting on the places. As I was passing in dining hall, one of the commentators was giving a graphic explanation on a fight breaking out there, forcing the correction officers to burst tear gas shells and beating up the inmates. There was a background sounding of spoons, plates and cries, which made me imagine the scene.  Apart from most dreaded criminals, there were some artists. The authorities have collected their belongings, including paintings, the musical instruments they used to play and arranged them neatly in the barracks they stayed.

There were 14 escape attempts at Arcatraz prison and the best occurred in June 1962, when Frank Morris, along with John and his brother Clarence Anglin slipped into the water. They used raincoats as floating devises. Their bodies were never found and the authorities presume that they drowned in the `cold ocean’.

The bloodiest took place on May 2-4, 1946, when Bernie Coy, along with three inmates overpowered prison authorities and tried to escape. The prison authorities were pushed to a barrack and the five tried to escape by opening the locks. However, they had got the wrong keys and correction authorities dropped grenades from the roof of the prison. The two-day operation ended in death of Coy, one of his friend and two correction officials. The marks of the struggle and damage by grenade attack have been preserved as it was.

It took the entire day to complete a round at Arcatraz and by the time I returned to my cousin, it was already 8 pm. My night bus to Los Angeles was at around 10.30 pm and there was no way I could relax.

But for the telephone call to my cousin, I would have missed something special in US. All that I could cover in two days was tip of an iceberg.