Life on Alcatraz
Children's Perspective
Alcatraz was a very high quality prison, the worst of the worst. In a prison, there has to be different workers. Most workers have families and children. If they had families, or if they didn’t, they would have homes by Alcatraz. This is the children’s view of it all.
^Alcatraz ^
School
The children of Alcatraz still lived a life like any other. They went to school, had free time and made friends with other kids around. The kids had to live a prison life and a school life. The kids were not allowed to tell other people, even family, what life was like on Alcatraz. It was like living two lives for them.
The children were taken to school every day on a boat. During school, they were supposed to basically forget their life on Alcatraz. They weren’t supposed to speak of it. Just because they weren’t supposed to, doesn’t mean that they didn’t. The children, not all, told lies about their life on Alcatraz. They made up rumors about it to look cool.
The children of Alcatraz had normal school days. The adults had normal work days. None of it was really different from our life. Except for their location. Alcatraz workers and their families have a life just like ours, except for the place they call home.
Free Time
When the kids weren’t in school, they were on the prison island. In their free time, they got to do many things. They got to hang out in the canteen, the post office, the bowling alley, and the prison held movies every now and then. The parents were worried about the steep cliffs and the kids falling off more than anything. They said they were happy they at least knew where the bad guys were.
Life on Alcatraz could be a good thing. You have all kinds of guards around. Protecting the prisoners from getting out and/or to you. It could also be bad. Living by prisoners, being afraid all your life because you thought they would get out and get to you. It all depended on perspective. How the person thought of living there.
Once in a Lifetime
At the age of 10, Roy or “Rocky” Chandler became special. In Alcatraz, there was a criminal named Al Capone. After Roy (Rocky) got his asthma shots, he got to meet Al Capone. He was so nervous he was shaky from head to toe. His father introduced him to Al Capone.
Rocky got a once in a lifetime chance that day. He is very lucky he took it. Because if he didn’t, he probably wouldn’t have written the book with his father that he did. Rocky had his life changed forever, when he met Alcatraz’s most famous criminal.