Tourists were intrigued by Alcatraz in 1962, following an audacious escape attempt. More recently, jaws dropped when a certain President announced a desire to revive the legendary prison, with a vision of placing society’s most hazardous lawbreakers out of harm’s way. Puzzled reactions surfaced as observing eyes questioned how seriously these words should be received. After all, America’s most ruthless criminals find their confinement within the ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’, a supermax prison stationed near Florence, Colorado.
The Colorado supermax serves as the home to notorious wrongdoers such as Zacarias Moussaoui, El Chapo, Eric Rudolph, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The conditions at this high-security lock-up surpass anything that Alcatraz had, in terms of isolation, harshness, and unrelenting confinement. Ignoring the initial smattering of disbelief, the President reiterated, casting Alcatraz as the ultimate symbol of firm, impenetrable law enforcement.
The President’s rhetoric touched upon Alcatraz’s cinematic representation, the unsuccessful jail breakouts and the historical appeal in an attempt to paint it as a remarkable paradox, that it’s both awful yet magnificent, robust yet sorrowful, intriguing in its various attributes. His intention seemed to be to invoke the enduring allure of Alcatraz in collective American minds, and its potency as a symbol for relentless justice with no room for leniency.
Infamous high-security prison, Alcatraz, is as much an abstract concept as a geographical landform, tethered to the public consciousness through its austere legacy. It has never been detached from a pinch of mythos. Strangely enough, ‘fantasy’ doesn’t seem too powerful a term to associate with a notorious prison, but it becomes all the more valid due to the role cinema and popular culture have played in illustrating Alcatraz to the masses.
The likelihood of the President’s plan coming to fruition, however, remains dubious. Several roadblocks mark the path to such a realization, like substantial financial investment, the restoration of deteriorated infrastructure, and severe logistical challenges.
The island’s lack of a fresh water source poses a significant complication; every necessity to sustain life, including food, water, and fuel, would need to be delivered via barge or boat. Standing tall amidst the choppy waves of San Francisco Bay, the iconic Alcatraz building, perched on a craggy island cliff, was never originally symbolized as anything in particular.
The main structure of Alcatraz was erected in the early 20th century, intended to accommodate military captives following the Spanish-American War. Only after the reins were handed to the Justice Department in 1933 did chatter begin surrounding its potential as an ‘escape-proof’ hub for criminal elements.
Triggered by a wave of criminal activity in the Prohibition epoch, the Justice Department felt compelled to designate a spot to secure gangsters, bootleggers, kidnappers, and notorious jailbreak tacticians that local prisons and lower-tier federal establishments were unable to contain.
Alcatraz wasn’t a perfect selection due to its evident constraints, but the fiscal strain in 1933 meant compromise. An existing structure that could be upgraded for stringent security at a comparatively manageable cost presented an attractive option. Additionally, the ‘island prison’ concept was deeply ingrained in societal psyche, providing a backdrop of historical relevance.