It's no longer a prison but Alcatraz still has a forbidding presence. writes Jared Savage.
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The former prison islet of Alcatraz, sitting in the middle of San Francisco Bay, has been immortalised and mythologised in modern popular culture as "The Rock", a grim, forbidding place once home to America's most wanted.
Notorious convicts such as Al "Scarface" Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert "The Birdman" Stroud all did time on Alcatraz, but with its prison days long over, the infamous island is now one of America's most popular tourist resorts, hosting more than 750,000 visitors every year.
Despite its fearsome reputation as an inescapable fortress, the island is just a short ferry ride from San Francisco's famous Fisherman's Wharf - and once ashore with the rest of the temporary tourist inmates, you're guided around the prison by an audio commentary, via headset.
The award-winning audio documentary, narrated by four former prison officers and four ex-cons who were imprisoned on the island, is a truly sombre experience that brings home the horrors of prison life. The gnarled voices - punctuated by wolf whistles when you walk in as "fresh meat" - guide you around the 300 cells, recalling such incidents as the famed 1946 Alcatraz Siege when convicts shot dead eight guards in cold blood.
Conditions for prisoners were inhumane by modern standards: inmates were kept in solitary confinement in cells only 9 foot by 5 foot (2.7m x 1.5m), and escape really was impossible. Surrounded by dangerously strong tides and freezing waters, only nine inmates managed to get off the island in its 29 years as a federal prison, two are known to have made it as far as the shore, where they were promptly apprehended and sent back.
The only option for most prisoners was to escape into creative endeavour and some of the inmate artwork on display in the prison is impressive. Crochet was also apparently a favourite pastime - although it's hard to imagine America's most hardened criminals sitting with hook and yarn.
Sometimes imprisoned for years without letters or visitors, inmates still knew what they were missing, thanks to the sounds of music and laughter that would drift across the harbour on a calm night, if the wind was right.
Good behaviour was rewarded with exercise and sports in the concrete courtyards, where prisoners were able to catch a glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge through strands of rusted barbed wire.
The federal prison was shut down in the late 1960s when the US Government decided to rehabilitate prisoners rather than break them.
Although today it is enjoying a revival as a popular tourist destination, the inside of Alcatraz remains dark, damp and cold.
Everything is iron and concrete and although the convicts were the worst of the worst in their time, a visit to their cells is an insightful experience and you can't help but feel some sympathy for those who were locked away here.
*Jared Savage flew to San Francisco courtesy of Air New Zealand.
- Detours, HoS
