The Case Study Assignment About The Alcatraz Escape (Case Study Sample)

Criminology
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Abstract.
Alcatraz is an Island in San Francisco Bay in the United States of America. It was originally named “The Rock” before it became a host of one of the strictest federal prison in the United States which detained prisoners for more than 30 years until the escape incident. The Alcatraz prison was built in 1934 and was referred to as one of the most secure prisons in the whole of the United States until the escape that occurred in 1962 involving three inmates namely Frank Morris, John and Clarence Anglin and Allan West. It was a conspiracy escape that left the federal police in shock because it had never happened for a period of 30 years since the prison started operating. Long before the discovery of Alcatraz, it used to be just an island which majorly served as a harbor for military warships. It was also used as an army prison for detaining army convicts. This followed a war that broke between the United States and the Mexican army that were fighting over the ownership of the island. The Americans secured the island and recovered it from the Mexican army. Several scholars arrived on the island including English sea Voyager Sir Francis Drake who passed by in 1579. The Alcatraz remained undiscovered until 1775 when Spanish voyagers Pedro Fages and Juan Crespi discovered the island (Summer, 2015).
The Alcatraz Escape
Introduction
The 1962 Alcatraz escape was the first successful prison escape in the history on that federal penitentiary. It was an escape that involved three guys Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and Allan Wells. It was an over planned event that started for a very long time. There were several unsuccessful escape attempts that took place. Out of the 36 inmates who initiated 14 attempts over the 29 years in the history of Alcatraz Federal Prison, 23 were caught, 6 were shot dead, two were reported to have drowned and then five of them including Morris and the Anglins were listed as missing and assumed to have drowned. Frank Lee was believed to have been the mastermind behind the successful escape, he had spent his whole lifetime investigating the prison trying to establish any possible escape route which he finally found in June 1962 (Baart et al, 2014).
Frank Morris was one of the escapees. He was born in Washington D.C and got orphaned at an early age. He was first convicted at an age of 13 and this became the starting point of his criminal life. He was severally convicted and charged due to possession of narcotics as well as involvement in armed robbery. He served for a short time in Florida and Georgia prisons. His first successful escape happened when he escaped from Louisiana State Penitentiary while serving 10 years for committing a bank robbery. He was later recaptured while doing another robbery but this time sent to Alcatraz in 1960, inmate number AZ1441. John and Clarence Anglin were well known as the Anglin brothers were born in Georgia. The two began by committing bank robbery in the early 1950s. They got arrested in 1956 and were both sentenced to serve at Florida State Prison, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, and Atlanta Prison for 15 years term each. After several unsuccessful escape attempts, the two were transferred to Alcatraz Prison (Baart et al ,2014).
Allan West was the third escapee. He was first imprisoned for car robbery in 1955 in Atlanta Prison then to Florida State Prison where he tried to escape and then taken to Alcatraz in 1957. However, Allan West did not succeed in the Alcatraz escape despite the fact that he actively participated in devising the escape plan. He was stuck in a ventilator grill that hindered him from getting out of his cell.
The escape was started by formulating the escape strategy. This was done by the four inmates under the leadership of Frank Morris who was the most intelligent out of the four. The four were assigned cells which were adjacent to each other and this made the escaping plan work...