The history of Alcatraz prison demonstrates the ineffectiveness of super-maximum security institutions which offer no rehabilitation for inmates. During its heyday, Alcatraz served as a model for the incarceration and treatment of "hopeless" criminals. Despite its closure and limited success, penologists persist in attempts to modify the Alcatraz approach and adopt it to modern conditions: "Although no longer used as a prison, Alcatraz still stands as a monument to the philosophy that certain criminals can never be reformed and must be forever segregated from society under the most secure and repressive of conditions."
The Alcatraz maximum security prison was located on the island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay. The Spaniards who founded the island in the late 18th century discovered a "bleak rock in the middle of the Bay . . . a craggy, inaccessible place covered with pelicans." The name "alcatraz" is Spanish for "pelican." The prison population referred to Alcatraz simply as "The Rock."
The use of Alcatraz evolved as a prison early in its history. During the Civil War, the Army was stationed on the island, and used their military guard house as a holding place for soldiers who violated Army regulations. In 1861, the military expanded these operations and designated Alcatraz as a collection point for prisoners on the West Coast. Alcatraz was used as a military prison for 73 years until 1933 when the War Department announced plans to abandon its operation on the island.
The abandonment of Alcatraz for military purposes opened the way for its establishment as a federal prison. In 1933, the country was in the midst of a "get tough on crime" era in the history of the American criminal justice system. President Herbert Hoover, elected in 1929, strengthened the federal role in crime control by broadening the powers and responsibilities of the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The general public experienced...