Correctional Officers

In the late 1700s, the United States began adopting a prison system based on the Quaker philosophy of penitence, emphasizing reform over corporal punishment through enforced isolation and silence so prisoners could achieve personal transformation. By the 1900s, U.S. penitentiaries had moved away from isolation toward group meals, work, recreation, and eventually rehabilitation programs. United States Penitentiary Alcatraz Island opened in 1934 and quickly gained a reputation as the most dreaded maximum-security prison in the United States. The government initially transferred its most experienced guards there, and over its 29-year history the prison held more than 1,500 people described as desperate and irredeemable. It closed in 1963 because of high costs and crumbling facilities. Despite 24-hour surveillance, cold water, and rapid currents, thirty-six inmates attempted to escape in fourteen separate attempts, using varied tools and tactics from outside work areas and from within the cellblocks. Seven were shot and killed, two drowned, two reached land but were immediately recaptured, and five disappeared and are presumed dead, though some believe they survived.

San Francisco, California · United States