Even recreation in the small concrete yard was limited to a few hours a week. Former inmates have described the most haunting part of Alcatraz as not the isolation itself, but the sound of San Francisco drifting across the water. On quiet nights, they could hear laughter, music, and the faint clinking of glasses from the mainland — reminders of the world they had lost. The Alcatraz history page sketches out 14 escape attempts, but none that mentioned a shark-bitten shirt. In fact, it states that ‘one of the many myths about Alcatraz is that it was impossible to survive a swim from the island to the mainland because of sharks.
In fact, there are no “man-eating” sharks in San Francisco Bay, only small bottom-feeding sharks. The main obstacles were the cold temperatures (averaging 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit), the strong currents, and the distance to shore (at least 1-1/4 miles).’ Alcatraz was an experiment in psychological control. The philosophy behind its design was to remove inmates from any form of comfort or community. Solitary confinement cells — especially those in D-Block, known as “The Hole” — were used for punishment and sensory deprivation.
