Alcatraz Island 1906 San Francisco earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for safe confinement. On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western U.S. Military Prison, later Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, 1915. In 1909 construction began on the huge concrete main cell block, designed by Major Reuben Turner, which remains the island's dominant feature. It was completed in 1912. To accommodate the new cell block, the Citadel, a three-story barracks, was demolished down to the first floor, which was actually below ground level. The building had been constructed in an excavated pit (creating a dry "moat") to enhance
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary prisons in the country, especially the food, and many volunteered to come to Alcatraz. On December 3, 1940, Henri Young murdered fellow inmate Rufus McCain by running downstairs from the furniture shop to the tailor's shop where McCain worked and violently stabbing McCain in the neck; McCain died five hours later. Young had been sentenced to Alcatraz for murder in 1933, and was involved in an escape attempt at Alcatraz during which the famous gangster Doc Barker was shot to death. He spent nearly 22 months in solitary confinement as a result, but was eventually permitted to work in the