The ship seemed to return fire, but it was ultimately determined to be firing a salute. Alcatraz then responded with a twenty-one-gun salute, and it is documented that Fort Point commenced firing to join the salute. The approaching vessel was identified as Her Majesty’s ship the HMS Sutlej, the flagship of Rear Admiral John Kingdome (The Sutlej was a Constance-class 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy). The Admiral was not impressed with the welcoming. Several months later, correspondence was still being exchanged and the military was accused of a careless action.
Though in its entire history as a military installation, the fortress had fired only one 400-pound cannon round (and missed), nevertheless the island lived up to its self-proclaimed status as an icon of U.S. military power. But within a few decades the island's role as a military fortress would start to fade and its defenses would become obsolete by the standards of more modern weaponry.
Military soldiers in formation at the dock in 1902. The brick bombproof barracks are visible in the background. The predicted attacks by the Confederacy during the Civil War never materialized, and the original casements, which accommodated two tiers of mounted cannons, were eventually fully converted into permanent barracks. The wooden structure on top was added only as temporary quarters for enlisted soldiers.
A contemporary view of the corridor located behind the bombproof barracks, known as “China Alley.”
Another view of the temporary wooden structure set atop the unfinished bombproof barracks in 1893. Note the neatly trimmed decorative planters set in front of the First Sergeant’s dwelling and the other cottage, which served as a barbershop.
A photograph from 1893, showing the interior of the temporary wooden barracks. Visible are the gun racks and the neatly made bunks on both the upper and lower levels. The barracks were always immaculate and kept in perfect order.
The Casting of a New Prison Concept
The punishment of criminals has existed as a social force throughout the history of mankind, and the earliest records offer horrific tales of rat-infested dungeons and the use of barbaric torture devices. Before offenders were sentenced to serve time in confinement, they were publicly tormented both physically and mentally. One of the most common means of punishment in past centuries was to lock the convicted criminal into a pillory device for public display. Use of the pillory can be traced back to a remote period in English history, as early as the twelfth century. Throughout the history of this device, the prominent display of a pillory represented a firm presence of law and order within a community, and emerged as a popular mode of punishment even in more modern society. There were several other forms of discipline that were equally barbaric, such as public lashings and mutilation, as well as a variety of other means of degradation. Public executions were also frequent; hanging and fatal stoning were other common forms of punishment for sadistic crimes.
A broken device which resembled a pillory was found in a storage area on Alcatraz during the institution’s transfer to the Bureau of Prisons in 1934. Although its use was never validated or proven it was an actual pillory, it did suggest that t method of punishment was used during the island’s early history as a military prison.
Prisons have been documented to exist for several centuries, but until the 1700’s they were grim places that served only for transitory confinement while prisoners were awaiting trial or punishment. The conditions in these jails were horrendous, with open sewers and diseased rodents that scurried across dirt floors on which the men were forced to sleep without bedding. But after the American Revolution, the newly formed United States sought to reformthose who violated public laws. The Pennsylvania Quakers initially introduced the concept of reforming criminals through time spent under confinement. The Quakers built a small prison, which was comprised of sixteen individual and fully isolated cells. This new concept was intended to achieve reform by forcing criminals to serve out their entire sentence in complete isolation and silence. The criminals were left only with a Holy Bibleand the reformers believed that this would help them to achieve penance. It was from this practice that the word “penitentiary” was cast into modern society.
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the world’s first true penitentiary. Eastern State opened in 1829, and was designed to inspire penitence in the criminals incarcerated there. The idea was to reform criminals through a Quaker-inspired system of strict isolation, which would allow for deep thought and remorse. It was from this philosophy of spiritual penitence that the term “penitentiary” was born. The medieval castle-like structure was intended to present a forbidding and haunted facade.
As a prison, Alcatraz would become a modernized and less barbaric form of the pillory. From its humble beginnings as a small military jail, it would eventually silence the most feared public adversaries, in the interest of maintaining the good order of society. It became both an icon and a societal pillar, a symbol of firm justice for America’s worst offenders.
The Early Years as a Military Prison
In August of 1861 the U.S. Military began sending Civil War prisoners to Alcatraz Island, which seemed perfect for this purpose because of its natural isolation. At this stage the island had no formal prison facilities, and prisoners were housed in a large damp cell located in the basement of the Guardhouse. Living conditions for the inmates were grim. Their jail was a crude structure, similar in many ways to a medieval dungeon and accessible only through a fortified ceiling hatch via a small ladder. The primitive cell was unheated and it accommodated approximately fifteen soldiers. There was no plumbing, and the inmates were forced to use buckets to relieve themselves. By day, the prisoners were assigned to exhausting hard-labor details, and by night, they were generally forced to sleep in cramped conditions on the ground, side-by-side. In a 1969 historical military report to the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, Herbert M. Hart described some of the problems that the commanders at Alcatraz were faced with in 1862.
A period photograph of the sallyport entrance. The support beams along the ceiling include both the base floor of the library and the distant passage is situated under the lower prison cellblock. At least one historical reference indicates that the gunroom on the immediate left was used as a dungeon cell for troublesome prisoners who were housed in the original jail, which was accessible through a hatch panel on the floor of the guardhouse.
An exterior view of the entrance leading to the lower prison in 1902. The blacksmith shop is seen on the right.
A modern view of the sallyport entrance as it appeared exactly 100 years later.