Joseph Bowers Joseph Bowers Joseph "Dutch" Bowers (December 13, 1896 – April 27, 1936) was the first man to attempt an escape from Alcatraz prison. On 27 April 1936, convict Henry Larry claims to have watched Bowers, who was feeding seagulls, stack some empty barrels and climb up next to the fence so he could retrieve a bit of food which had fallen on the barbed wire. He stood there feeding the birds for several minutes until a tower guard turned, saw him atop the fence, and fired on the convict. Bowers fell seventy feet to his death on the rocks below.
HM Prison Forest Bank tests were positive. The report also found a significant deterioration in safety for staff and inmates at the prison with routine intimidation of staff, prisoner assaults on other prisoners running at 25 a month and staff turnover of 25 per cent a year. There had also been 2,500 prisoner discipline hearings in six months. In February 2006 another inmate escaped from Forest Bank while visiting hospital. The prisoner managed to escape from two prison guards and fled from the Manchester Royal Infirmary wearing only a surgical gown. In May 2010 another inmate, Michael O'Donnell, escaped from Forest Bank. The inmate