Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Gallery
From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).
Photo by Yolanl via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Photo by Slyronit via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Slyronit via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Anthony J. Bentley via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Photo by Zann Cannon Goff via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo by Gianluca Cogoli via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Photo by General Services Administration. Public Buildings Service. via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by kevinmcgill from Den Bosch, Netherlands via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Background
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built from 1910 to 1912 as a U.S. Army military prison. The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and security increased. Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's most secure prison.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
312
Current population
—
Occupancy
—
Year opened
1934
Operational
Facility profile
Operator
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
1934
Region
—
Security level
—
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
No major issues documented in our database.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
Compared to other facilities in United States
3134 peersData completeness
30%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.