| Night on The Rock: An Adventure on Alcatraz Island, No Prison Uniforms Required
By Kathy Chin Leong
Overturning tables. Clattering dishes. Shouting. Scuffling. We're inside the prison of Alcatraz Island at night, and there's literally no escape. The cafeteria has served spaghetti to the inmates one too many times, and they've had it. Now there is more than a kerfuffle going on. But when the battalion of guards arrive with loaded guns in full force, the prisoners are petrified, and a lone toot of the guard whistle brings everything to a standstill.
In the middle of the mint-green cafeteria with peeling paint, I peer out the barred window as the pink-laden dusk of twilight settles over the city of San Francisco.This is a bare room except for the hanging menu that lists what these guests can eat each day. I hit the pause button on my audio player, satisfied that the spaghetti incident ended peacefully with no one harmed.
The night time experience in Alcatraz Island is the newest tour offered by the National Park Service. Even if you are a seasoned tourist or a jaded one, you will be fascinated by The Rocks interesting factoids and stories of the Bird Man of Alcatraz, Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly. For $38, only $7 more than the daytime tour, you get additional programs and stories, and access to the prison hospital, the prison laundry, or the military prison.
You get a behind-the-scenes glimpse and historical perspective of these sites only at night. And while I came a year ago for the day tour, coming in the PM hours recently was even more mesmerizing and dramatic as I envisioned what it must have been like for the convicts as they lay in their cots, alone with their thoughts.
And here’s another PM advantage which is a photographer’s dream: you get expansive views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the jeweled San Francisco skyline, and the incomparable shimmering silhouette of the skyscrapers in the water.
BY BOAT
The old sages say that in life there is joy in the journey, and in this case, it is very true. Getting to the island is a delight because you take a 15-minute ferry aboard Alcatraz Cruises which is usually quite tame. You must get reservations in advance, and you can do so up to 90 days ahead of time. I am glad I booked two weeks out. When I got to the ticket window, I overheard other tourists who were turned away at the gate. The sailings were already sold out for the next ten days.
However, once you are lucky enough to get in and board the ferry, I suggest getting on the second or third level so you are outdoors to see and experience everything in full Technicolor clarity. And as a San Franciscan, I never get tired of the incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge which practically makes me tear up each time I see it in the distance.
ON THE ROCK
The evening tour begins at 3:50 p.m. You can wander on your own and also pick up the audio tour that takes you through the main arteries of the prison including the cells, solitary confinement, the library, the showers, and the warden’s offices. You should plan on staying until the last ferry returns at 6:40 p.m. It is so worth it! You can step inside a former federal penitentiary without doing anything wrong. You get less than three hours on the island, so know that you won’t get to see everything. However, something eerie and mysterious seems to happen when you come in the late afternoon and see the transition of the sky dim from day to evening through the bars of the prison alleyways.
THE HOSPITAL
Very cool is the hospital where the inmates could go if they were ill. Sometime during your visit, you must go on this self-guided tour. The operating room at night with a patient table in the center and a solitary circular light directly above conjures up scenes from spooky movies. Different rooms reveals see where the prisoners would sleep overnight as they were recovering from their ailments.
According to National Park Conservancy staffer Jim Moran, sick-call occurred each day after lunch. If an inmate needed surgery, the doctors were prepared with needed tools. There were regular visits by a dentist, optician and other specialists like physical therapists. Moran recalls interviewing prisoner Darwin Coon 1422AZ, convicted bank robber and escapee. Darwin said the "health care offered on Alcatraz was excellent." And he should know. The guy suffered from appendicitis and had an appendectomy while incarcerated on the island in the 1950s.
WHO SHOULD COME?
While you can bring your preschoolers and babies (0-4 is free), unless your child is able to follow the audio program and read the placards, they won’t get much out of the tour. You must move about the prison in an orderly fashion, and there are but a few restrooms on the island. Plus, you cannot purchase food or drinks on the island either.
Kids in elementary school and higher who can read and follow an audio recording would fare best and find Alcatraz most fascinating. And let me tell you: this is the best audio tour I have ever experienced. The sounds and voices are reenacted, so you feel as though you are there. You hear the clanging of the door cells, the vicious quotes from the inmates, the shuffling of feet, and every prison sound imaginable.
Do note there is a lot of walking and steep hills on this island, so if you have someone who cannot walk far, consider taking the tram for those with mobility issues.
INTERESTING PROGRAMS
Each night features a short film, two short talks and two longer walking tours. Subjects range depending on staff interest. A few of these topic titles include:
Back From The Dead: The Escape of Floyd Hamilton
Obsession & Murder Driven to Desperation (escapes)
Pirates, Rebels and Spies: Fortress Alcatraz and a Confederate Plot to Capture California during the Civil War
The Road to Solitary (about Solitary Confinement then and now)
How To Rob a Bank (about the history and methods of bank robbery, not a primer!)
The Convict Code (about the unique rules developed by the inmates)
Capone Birdman Robert Stroud
Sharks and Shipwrecks
Sounds of the Slammer (cell door demonstration)
Escapes, Assaults and Explosions: Not Your Ordinary kitchen
Our family enjoyed the tour guide’s account of Jim Quillen. As we moved from place to place during the story, the guide would point to places Quillen probably stayed and worked. The former kidnapper and escape artist found meaningful work in the hospital which would change his life forever.
As the story goes, after being trained to assist the X-Ray technician, Jim was transferred to another prison where he continued to study the trade. He eventually was released, returned to the Bay Area, and got a job in an east bay hospital where he married a nurse and started a family. He stayed clean and respectable for the rest of his life.
If you are lucky, you may hear the redemptive tale from Jim's granddaughter who volunteers on the island. Before we left for our boat ride home, our young male storyteller added, “So remember, kids, stay and in school and keep out of trouble.” Be sure to set aside time to go into the bookstore and gift shop where you can purchase memorabilia such as: Alcatraz-based movies, prisoner memoirs, posters, metal prison cell mugs. You can also buy prisoner uniforms and guard uniforms so you, too, can look like a tough cookie.
Today, more than 1.3 million visitors from around the globe flock to The Rock annually, happily stepping inside the same prison cells that the 1,545 Alcatraz convicts couldn’t wait to leave.
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DETAILS:
Alcatraz Island Tours
Meets at Pier 33
www.alcatrazcruises.com
Phone: 415-981-7625
Prices: $38 adult, $37 ages 12-17, $22.75 ages 5-11, FREE for kids under 5.
Time of departure: 3:50 p.m.
Night tour offered only Thursday through Monday.
Meets at Pier 33
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