Volstead Act Issues Essay Research Paper In — страница 3

style of rule, than he decided to leave Alcatraz. In 1955, Paul J. Madigan became the next warden of Alcatraz. Within a year of his arrival, the escape attempts started up again. July 23, 1956- Floyd P. Wilson, a murderer serving a life sentence, grabbed 25 feet of cord from the dock during his work duty and disappeared beneath the dock. Below he began tying pieces of driftwood he had collected together to make a raft. When his absence was discovered, the alarms were sounded. Wilson abandoned his raft idea and decided to allude the search teams by hiding in a crevice in the rock along the water’s edge. For nearly 12 hours he hid there, being repeatedly hurled against the rocks by the tumultuous waves of San Francisco Bay. Finally, bruised, battered and hypothermic, Wilson gave

up his attempt and turned himself in. The final warden to run Alcatraz came to the island in 1961. Olin Blackwell had no way of knowing that he would hold the distinction of being the man in charge when one of the most inventive and possibly successful escape attempts was hatched. The most famous escape attempt involved Frank Lee Morris, John William Anglin, and his brother Clarence Anglin. This great escape, which occurred on June 11, 1962, became the inspiration for many movies, including Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood. Although not directly responsible, the 1962 escape did lead officials to closely evaluate the costs and benefits of keeping Alcatraz operational. Ironically, the one thing that made it such a secure prison was also the thing that was causing its

demise. The salt water from the bay had taken its toll on the island. The concrete in the cellhouse and other key structures on the island absorbed much of the salt and were quickly disintegrating. This is one of the things that made the 1962 escape attempt easier to pull off. It was estimated that it would take $5 million dollars to bring Alcatraz back up to standard. That was a price tag no one was in a hurry to pay. A survey also looked at operating costs for Alcatraz, compared to other mainland prisons. The survey found that while it cost $9.27/day to house and secure an inmate in mainland prisons, it cost $23.50/day to house and secure each inmate on Alcatraz. In late 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy announced that, rather than focusing solely on detention of

prisoners, the federal prison system needed to learn to factor rehabilitation into the equation. To begin this new direction in reform, Kennedy announced that a new maximum security prison would be built in Marion, IL. that year. Faced with the huge expense of day-to-day operations, coupled with the $5 million dollar renovation price tag and Kennedy’s shift in punitive ideals, Alcatraz was closed on March 21, 1963.