The Last prisoners leave Alcatraz, on March 21, 1963.
Alcatraz operated for 29 years from 1934 - 1963. It housed infamous prisoners that included Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, Machine Gun Kelly, Robert 'Birdman' Stroud, and Clint Eastwood (ik). The prison's closure had been in the works for years, but its demise had nothing to do with its notorious inmates.
Its extreme isolation, its most touted advantage, was its downfall. Daily operating costs at Alcatraz were far higher than any other federal prison in the nation. An investigation in 1959 revealed it cost $10 per prisoner per day at Alcatraz; another comparable federal facility cost just $3 per day. Alcatraz's island location meant everything, including water, needed to be shipped by boat. One million gallons of fresh water were shipped by barge to the island every week.
In addition, Alcatraz's infrastructure was failing, and the government had no interest in contributing funds to maintain it. It was easier, everyone agreed, to slowly relocate the prisoners and shut the place down. The last prisoner to leave Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a man named Frank Weatherman.
When Weatherman arrived at the dock, a crowd of reporters pressed to ask him, the last man off Alcatraz, what he thought of the Rock.
"Alcatraz," he announced, "was never no good for nobody."
The closing of Alcatraz on March 21, 1963, marked the end of an era in the history of American prisons. This notorious island fortress had earned its reputation as one of the most secure and forbidding correctional facilities in the nation. But its demise was not due to its infamous inhabitants or its reputation; it was the very factors that made it an ideal prison that ultimately led to its downfall.
The Florence Supermax prison, often referred to as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” has been described by a former prison warden as a “clean version of hell.” Established in the early 1990s, it was conceived as a response to the growing need for a facility that could effectively contain and manage the most dangerous and high-profile inmates. This massive complex, nestled in a remote region of the Rocky Mountains, has housed some of the world's most notorious criminals, including figures like Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman and Ted Kaczynski. Unlike many traditional prisons, where rehabilitation forms a part of the broader mission, the Florence Supermax is designed primarily for isolation and control. One distinctive feature of this facility is the prolonged solitary confinement experienced by inmates. They spend up to 23 hours per day in their 7-by-12-foot cells, with a small, slit-shaped window as their sole connection to the outside world. This approach to incarceration is a stark departure from the rehabilitation-focused systems seen in many other correctional facilities. The Florence Supermax has earned its reputation as one of the most secure and restrictive prison environments in the United States.
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