Ninety years ago, on October 12, 1933, the US Department of Justice received the prison on Alcatraz Island. The most dangerous criminals and malicious violators of the regime from other prisons were sent there. In three decades of the prison’s existence, only one escape was recorded (and it is still unknown whether it was successful).
Alcatraz Island is located in San Francisco Bay near the city of the same name, about one mile (1.6 km) from the shore. The name of the island is translated from Spanish as “island of pelicans” or “island of strange birds” (initially it referred to a neighboring island). Following the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the territory of the modern state of California became American. In the 1850s, a fortress was built on the island and a military garrison was stationed there. In addition, the first lighthouse on the west coast of the United States was installed on Alcatraz. At the same time, the first military prisoners appeared on the island. At various times, the prison housed captured Confederate soldiers, Hopi Indians who refused to send their children to boarding schools, prisoners of war from the Spanish-American War of 1898, and, after the 1906 California earthquake, civilian criminals.
At first, prisoners were held in the basement of the guardhouse. In 1867, a brick guardhouse was built. In 1909, the fort was torn down, and on its foundation, military prisoners began building a new military prison. Construction was completed in 1911.
