Federal officials recently visited Alcatraz as part of the president's efforts to reopen the historic site as a prison. How did we get here?

Alcatraz Island, a military fort turned an army prison in the San Francisco Bay, is most well known for operating as a federal prison from 1934 until 1963. That distinction is being challenged ...

Alcatraz Island, a military fort turned an army prison in the San Francisco Bay, is most well known for operating as a federal prison from 1934 until 1963.

The prison was first built in 1850 as a military fort, but in 1934 it was converted into Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, where it housed some of the most notorious criminals of the time, including ...

In 1981, the facility became the state-operated, minimum to medium security McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC) and remained as the oldest prison in the Northwest and the last U.S. island ...

Some say inmates and prison guards who died on Alcatraz over the years continue to haunt the island. In addition, some Native American tribes believe the island was a place of malevolent spirits.

Alcatraz Island tours today focus on the main cellhouse, where Alcatraz inmates lived out their sentences when the site operated as a federal prison from 1934 to 1963.

Alcatraz Island, a military fort turned an army prison in the San Francisco Bay, is most well known for operating as a federal prison from 1934 until 1963. That distinction is being challenged ...