Alcatraz Citadel Alcatraz Citadel Alcatraz Citadel, also known as Fort Alcatraz, was the original military defense and prison on Alcatraz Island, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The citadel was built in 1859 as a U.S. Army military defense, and began function as a war camp in 1861 and long-term military prison in 1868. During the American Civil War, the citadel and its batteries provided an important line of defense. The island continued to develop in the 1870s and 1880s, and in 1893, the first hospital on Alcatraz opened. A new upper prison was built in 1904, but after
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