Alcatraz
A short ferry ride from downtown San Francisco in the middle of the bay sits Alcatraz Island a US National Park and site of one of the most notorious prisons in the US. The ferry deposits park visitors on at island docks.
Visitors are then free to tour the island, prison grounds, and prison facilities. Visitors are given a ferry departure schedule and are free to board any departing ferry back to San Francisco.
Park rangers are on hand to give tours on the prison history and answer questions. The tour starts in the prison showering facilities and the proceeds through to the warden’s office. Visitors then loop through the main cell block. The cell block was chilly with no heat reflecting San Francisco’s maritime micro climate. A forty-to-fifty degree nightly temperature was not uncommon. The cell block felt perpetually damp, as one would expect on a small salt water island. The cells were small and basic, providing no creature comforts for their occupants. I could imagine that the dampness and chill kept the prisoners forever away from feeling comfortable in their cells. Added to the physical discomfort, the noise and bustle of San Francisco was audible in the cell block, carried by a bay breeze.
After visiting the cell block, visitors are ushered out onto the prison yard grounds. Alcatraz Island has an exceptional view of downtown San Francisco. One could call it a million dollar view of the city. I could only imagine the psychological effects of being trapped in a cold damp cell, listening to the pulse and music of city life, having your outdoor yard time shadowed by the skyline of a major metropolis. The prisoners called Alcatraz “The Rock”. A ubiquitous title. No other prison was its equal and it’s location must have dispirited its institutionalized residents.
Whisked from the yard and back through the cell block, the tour then proceeded with the dinning facilities. Alcatraz, for all its reputation, was actually noted for having excellent prison food. Dinning hall riots were fairly rare in part due to the good rations.
Finally, the tour arrived at the medical wing of the facility. The island salt air had wrecked havoc with the plaster walls in this section of the prison. The plaster was cracked and the paint chipped on every surface, creating an empty and abandoned feeling. The medical equipment, beds, and tables were straight out of early twentieth century institutional medical settings – meaning that they were old and barbaric looking. The medical wing of Alcatraz was definitely the creepiest portion of the tour. I would not want to get sick in that facility.
When I departed the facility by ferry, the sun had gone down and the ferry cut through the dark waters of the bay back to San Francisco. I had found the tour to be informative and the island lived up to its famous reputation. I carried a deep sense of gladness with me that this was no longer an active institutional facility and that my time on “The Rock” was limited to an evening.