Life on Alcatraz

Imagine living on an island with the world’s most dangerous criminals. I just spent a day on Alcatraz Island, which is a few kilometres offshore from San Francisco city in California. Alcatraz is best known for having a federal prison that had famous criminals like Al Capone between 1934 and 1963. While there I found out that some of the guards who worked at the prison lived on the island with their families – including some teenagers.

At the time there was a lot of crime in San Francisco City but there wasn’t any crime on the island – just dangerous criminals locked inside their cells. Families on Alcatraz never had to lock the doors of their houses. And teens could do whatever they wanted to do. They took a boat to and from school in the city and all the other pupils thought they were really cool.

Today 1.4 million tourists visit Alcatraz every year to see the prison and learn about prisoner life. I learned that every prisoner had their own cell, where they could read, paint or listen to music. They had hot food and hot showers and spent a few hours outside every day. Some of them even had jobs in the library, the kitchen or best of all, in the garden.

Only three prisoners ever escaped from Alcatraz. Many believe they drowned in the water around the island because nobody ever saw them again.