The Lower Prison Complex: Seven Prisons

Alcatraz lower prison and guard house, c. 1893.

National Archives

The area from the Guardhouse to the burned-down Officers Club was the site of a large wooden prison and workshop complex constructed by the Army in the late 1860s. Most prisoners in the tiny cells were soldiers, sent here from forts across the Western United States. Fort Alcatraz played a role in the American Indian Wars of the late nineteenth century, and Native Americans like Kaetena, a Chiricahua Apache chief who rode with Geronimo, also spent time in this 150-cell prison. So did nineteen Hopi from Oraibi, Arizona, who refused to send their children to US boarding schools. 

Military prisoners, including the Hopi, were put to work around the island. If you were a prisoner, would you want to work?