Sally Port: Prisoners at Work

Fort McDowell Tug at the Alcatraz Dock

circa 1900

You just passed through the Sallyport. Its two gates barred entry to the nineteenth century fort on Alcatraz. Looking back, the Guardhouse surrounds the tunnel. It is the oldest standing building and the site where the first soldiers were locked up on Alcatraz Island. A trapdoor in the small room across from the cannon room led to a jail below. Soldiers who committed military crimes were held in that room starting in 1859, when the first men arrived at the fort. That prison room was used to hold soldiers needing discipline through the Civil War until 1865.

How would prison conditions affect your motivation to work?