In actuality, there were three separate occupations of Alcatraz Island, one on March 9, 1964, one on November 9, 1969, and the occupation which lasted nineteen months which began on the 20th of November, 1969. Between 1934 and 1963 … However, this included some of the best-known names in that category. Alcatraz prison, situated on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay off the coast of California, has had a storied past. Why was Alcatraz eventually closed as a prison?

When Alcatraz penitentiary closed in 1963, the U.S. declared the island as surplus federal property. The prison was closed in 1963 by Robert F. Kennedy as attorney general because the cost of transporting food, water and other supplies to the island made it far more expensive than the other federal penitentiaries. On November 20, 1969, this symbolic occupation turned into a full scale occupation which lasted until June 11, 1971. Alcatraz Island, also known as ‘The Rock,’ a rocky island in San Francisco Bay, off the coast of California, in the United States. Even though Alcatraz is legendary as having housed the USA's most notorious and dangerous criminals, there were in fact only relatively few inmates who really fit that designation. Learn more about the history of Alcatraz Island here. “Alcatraz, the federal prison with a name like the blare of a trombone, is a black molar in the jawbone of the nation’s prison system.”—Thomas E. Gaddis. September 9, 2010 , maureen , Leave a comment Although it was almost forty years have passed when this prison was forced to close, this was still the subject of urban legends, giving it the reputation of being the well-known United States federal prison. The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long protest when 89 American Indians and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. The name eventually became Anglicized to “Alcatraz.” With the inmates gone, gulls and cormorants are now the most plentiful inhabitants of Alcatraz. It opened in 1861 as a military facility for detaining Civil War prisoners. Why Was Alcatraz Closed? The only “Rock” back then was Alcatraz, the maximum-security prison perched on a small island in San Francisco Bay.

On March 9, 1964, Richard McKenzie and other Sioux occupied Alcatraz for four hours. From 1934 to 1963, a facility on the island served as a federal prison for some of the most dangerous civilian prisoners. On November 9, 1969, another group of activists returned. Actually, Alcatraz had 14 escape attempts during its 29 years of operation, involving 36 prisoners. Alcatraz Island is home to the abandoned prison, the site of the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets). At that time the island was used exclusively as a ground troops fortification, and the prison was just part of a larger military installation there. Alcatraz Island (/ ˈ æ l k ə ˌ t r æ z /, Spanish pronunciation: [al-ka-tɾas] (Latin America)/Spanish pronunciation: [al-ka-tɾaθ] (Spain) from Arabic: غطاس ‎, romanized: al-ġaţţās, lit. 'gannet ("the diver")') is located in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States.
After the prison closed, Alcatraz was basically abandoned. When an October 1969 fire destroyed San Francisco’s American Indian Center, an activist group known as “Indians of All Tribes” set their sights on the unused land at Alcatraz. Alcatraz was closed in 1963, nine months after three prisoners escaped. We need you to answer this question! Of these, 23 were captured, six were killed, two were drowned, and five others including the final three escapes, were "missing and presumed drowned". So Red Power activists reclaimed it. A group of Native Americans claimed the island in 1969 and occupied it until they were driven out by federal marshals in 1971. 4. Many ideas were proposed for the island, including a monument to the United Nations, a West Coast version of the Statue of Liberty, and a shopping center/hotel complex. Alcatraz Island, AKA “The Rock,” is a small island located in San Francisco Bay, California. The protest was led by Richard Oakes , LaNada Means, and others; John Trudell was the spokesman.