“Attorney General Homer Cummings announce that the federal government was building a new prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay for convicts with “advanced degrees in crime.” The prison, he explained, would symbolize the federal government’s determination to reestablish law and order in American society. “Here may be isolated the criminals of the vicious and irredeemable type,” said Cummings, “so that their evil influence may not be extended to other prisoners who are disposed to rehabil...itate themselves.” Among the prison’s first inmates, he promised, would be Machine Gun Kelly and Harvey Bailey, and Al Capone would soon follow.1 Cummings’s address signaled the final phase of an executive branch plan to act decisively against the wave of crime that was widely perceived as a threat to American society. When the first inmates arrived on Alcatraz less than a year later and were locked up securely on the island fortress, the capstone of that overarching campaign would finally be in place.MoreLessRead More Read Less
User Reviews: