Copelan,+Olivia

The purpose of this investigation is to examine to what extent the prison, Alcatraz, was the ideal place to prevent an escape. The evidence will focus on the means in which the Alcatraz Prison was first built, how it was monitored during its time as a federal prison, and the location on which the prison was built, in order to determine to what extent it was inescapable. The question of what it means to be truly 'escape-proof' will be explored. Three sources, //Alcatraz History, // "Escape from Alcatraz" Mythbusters episode, and //Escape from Alcatraz // Movie will be evaluated according to their origins, purposes, values, and limitations. A conclusion will be reached regarding the extent to which the prison, Alcatraz, was the ideal place to prevent an escape.
 * A. Plan of the Investigation**
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**B. Summary of Evidence** In 1847, the United States Army used the island as a military fortification. “Because of its natural isolation, surrounded by freezing waters and hazardous currents, Alcatraz would soon be considered by the U.S. Army as an ideal location for holding captives.” [i] The Army realized that because of its distance from the San Francisco Bay, if a captive did escape from the prison, it would be virtually impossible to make it to bay without any means of transportation other than what the prisoner brings for himself. When crime broke out during the Great Depression, and the gangster era was happening, Alcatraz was altered into a prison for public enemies. Robert Burge was brought into the project to help design a prison that was escape- proof, as well as outwardly- forbidding. [ii] Because of its belief to be ‘inescapable’ by the public, it served as an icon, and a place to stay away from. [iii] It was the nation’s premier maximum-security prison, and was the last stop for the most wanted criminals in America. While other prisons had an average cell of two to four inmates, Alcatraz had only one-man cells. “The soft squared bars were replaced with modernized tool-proof substitutes. Electricity was routed into each cell, and all of the utility tunnels were cemented to completely remove the possibility that a prisoner could enter or hide in them. Tool-proof iron window coverings would shield all areas that could be accessed by inmates. Special Gun Galleries would transverse the cellblock perimeters, allowing guards to carry weapons while protected behind iron rod barriers. These secure Galleries, which were elevated and out of reach of the prisoners, would be the control center for all keys, and would allow the guards the unique ability to oversee all inmate activities.” [iv] Teargas canisters were put in, and overall security was maximized. [v] Several groups of prisoners attempted in escaping from the prison, and failed. Some were shot, and some were simply put back in prison. The escape attempts failed primarily due to the high security around the entire prison, and because of the strict schedule the prisoners were forced to follow, which made it almost impossible to spend time on other things. Each day, they had several hours to spend recreationally as they wished, but they were still under high security at these times. Planning at night was also difficult because of the lack of light and because of the early time they had to wake up in the morning: 7:00 on weekdays, and 7:15 on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. [vi]One group of three men, however, had success in gathering materials to make a raft and paddles, escaping from their prison cells, and ultimately, escaping from the actual prison. It has been proven that the journey from the island to the bay was possible to survive in the raft the prisoners, Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, and John Anglin crafted, even in the cold weather and rough currents. [vi i ]  Officially, by record, the three never survived the 1.5 mile trip from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco. After examination, what once seemed essential to keeping the inmates of Alcatraz confined, may have actually been destructive: “After the escape of Morris and the Anglin’s, the prison was examined because of the deteriorating conditions of the structure, caused mostly by the corrosive effects of the salt water around it” [viii].
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**C. Evaluation of Sources** //‌ mainpg.htm>. The origin and purpose of the website //Alcatraz History // is it was created to educate people of the history of Alcatraz’s penitentiary years, and includes a variety of stories, photos, and descriptions of the dangerous prison by those who were inmates, and also some who were guards. The website has limitations, such as it was not created by a person who served time or worked at Alcatraz, so it is a very neutral site in whether the excapees survived or not, and how easy or difficult the prison itself was to escape. The value of the website is that it is exceedingly informative of the nature of the island, and the design of the prison, which therefore allows for investigation of how difficult the prison was to escape. Also, the site provides the daily routine of an Alcatraz inmate, showing when and where the inmates would have been able to retrieve materials to help them escape. There is a list of the inmate rules and regulations, demonstrating how strictly the prisoners were monitored.
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“Escape from Alcatraz.” //Mythbusters //. Discovery Channel. 12 Dec. 2003. //YouTube //. Web. Transcript. 26 Sept. 2010. The origin of is on this episode of //Mythbusters, // the men on the show, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, investigate the old federal prison, Alcatraz, and attempt to replicate the exact conditions the three prisoners, Morris and the two Anglin brothers, experienced the night they escaped. The episode first appeared on the Discovery Channel on December 12, 2003, and its purpose is to give the public an understanding of the true events that occurred on Alcatraz Island the night of June 11, 1962. However, the episode has a few limitations: it is flawed in that because the prisoners’ escape plan was done in secrecy, the cast of the show was limited to only the documents of the FBI, the found artifacts from the escape, and the words of the other prisoners who knew some information about their friends’ escape (most of which were lies told to the other prisoners so no one actually knew their plan exactly). Also, when the //Mythbusters // crew actually set out to test whether the escape was possible, the weather conditions and the current of the water could not be naturally recreated to be what they were the night of the true escape. The value of the //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Mythbusters // study is that it goes through the steps the actual Alcatraz prisoners took while devising their escape route, and helps to gain an understanding of whether the three prisoners actually survived or not. Savage and Hyneman state that they believe the prisoners came out survivors.

Tuggle, Richard. //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Escape from Alcatraz //. Don Siegel. 1979. Film. The origin of //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Escape from Alcatraz // is that it is a movie based on the book //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Escape from Alcatraz: Farewell to The Rock // by J. Campbell Bruce. The movie is not a precise history of the events, or a documentary, but rather an acted-out version of what is believed to have happened in Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, and John Anglin's lives in the prison, their collection of items for escape, their escape route, and their actual escape from the prison. The film’s purpose is that it was made primarily for entertainment issues, as it is recognized today as a thriller film, but also to investigate how the escape played out, how the prisoners got around, and fooled, the guards, and whether the convicts made it safely to the San Francisco Bay. Because the film is not a documentary, but a Hollywood movie, there are several limitations in the accuracy of the escape. For example, the raft that was made by the prisoners out of raincoats was realistically about 14 feet by 6 feet, while in the movie it was very small, and the prisoners hung onto it while their feet kicked behind them. The real raft was large enough for them to sit in, paddle in, and mostly remain dry from the freezing cold water. The value of //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Escape from Alcatraz // is that it demonstrates the actual lives of the prisoners, and the Alcatraz prison set up itself. The movie implies that the prisoners made it to the land safely, and therefore ‘successfully escaped.’

**D. Analysis** Prison is defined as, “a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment.” Alcatraz had the highest security of any penitentiary in all of the United States. This security is still prided in that officially, there was never a successful escape from Alcatraz. However, escape is defined as, “To break loose from confinement; get free.” While the majority of the 14 escape attempts did fail, the final attempt made by Morris and the Anglin brothers failed in that they were never discovered on the San Francisco Bay (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter), but were probably successful in that the men did abscond from the confinements of the prison walls of Alcatraz. The men were not documented as surviving long past their life in prison and their journey out of the walls, into the water, and across to the bay. The inescapability of the prison can be accredited to not only its strong physical aspects, but also the mental aspects which go into planning an escpape, which many prisoners feared and lacked. One school of thought regarding contact and communication between prisoners emphasizes the importance of dispersal. By keeping contact between prisoners to a minimum, collective planning is prevented. Alcatraz placed great emphasis on isolation and solidarity, in order to prevent inmates from creating such plans that were eventually created by its mastermind prisoners. Now, Alcatraz is accused of being responsible for many psychological problems in past inmates, because of this theory and importance of dispersal. Another thought is that such horrid living conditions and seclusion could have resulted in a higher motivation to attempt an escape from Alcatraz. Instead of meaning to keep the prisoners behaved and confined, this plan may have backfired, and pushed the inmates to rebel together against authority. Jails around the world use the approach, and oftentimes, an attempt of escape is inevitable. What makes a prison superior is its ability to prevent a successful escape and documentation of the continuation of life beyond a prisoner’s unexpired time in the prison. This investigation is important because it can serve as a guide for new jails around the world, and teach that numerous factors go into making a prison inescapable. The examination of such an iconic prison presents an example for future penitentiaries. While not all jails can be built on an isolated island, and have the same amount of security as Alcatraz had, it serves as a foundation that future builders can make less extravagant versions of. Prisoners were fearful to even attempt escape, and while escape attempts were made, they were thwarted by the strengths of the prison: its structure, its location, and its security. The potency exhibited by Alcatraz made it seem like an inescapable dungeon, and rightly so.
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**E. Conclusion** (99) To answer the question of whether a successful attempt from Alcatraz was ever made, and therefore, whether the prison was truly “escape-proof” or not depends on an understanding of what is meant by a successful escape. While preventing an escape may be virtually impossible, Alcatraz was an ideal location to prevent an escape. Although several inmates fled the prison, they may have never made it to land, meaning it cannot be inferred whether or not they were “successful.” Because of its location, security, and its structure, Alcatraz was in fact an ideal place to prevent an escape.

**F. Sources and Word Limit** Word Count: 1, 976 //Alcatraz History//. Ocean View, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. <http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ mainpg.htm>. “Alcatraz Island - Golden Gate National Recreation Area.” //National Park Service//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <http://www.nps.gov/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ museum/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ exhibits/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ alca/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ inmates.html>. “Escape from Alcatraz.” //Mythbusters//. Discovery Channel. 20 Aug. 2009. //YouTube//. Web. Transcript. 26 Sept. 2010. “Haunted Alcatraz.” //Haunted Places//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <http://www.prairieghosts.com/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ gpalcatraz.html>. “The Psychological Effects of Supermax Prisons.” //Inside Prison//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <http://www.insideprison.com/<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ supermax-prisons-psychological-effects.asp>. Tuggle, Richard. //Escape from Alcatraz//. Don Siegel. 1979. Film.

i. //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Alcatraz History //. Ocean View, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. <[]<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ mainpg.htm>. ii. Ibid. iii. Tuggle, Richard. //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Escape from Alcatraz //. Don Siegel. 1979. Film. iv. //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Alcatraz History //. Ocean View, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. <[]<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‌ mainpg.htm>. v. Ibid. vii. Ibid. vi. “Escape from Alcatraz.” //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Mythbusters //. Discovery Channel. 12 Dec. 2003. //<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">YouTube //. Web. Transcript. 26 Sept. 2010. viii. "Haunted Alcatraz." //Haunted Places//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2010. <http://www.prairieghosts.com/gpalcatraz.html>.