Alcatraz: A History of the Penitentiary Years

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It's generally a well written book that provides some useful information about the island and the prison. What is disturbing is that Mr. Esslinger either overlooks or more likely deliberately ignores some key points. Hardly the definitive history it claims to be.Alcatraz was all about the deliberate dehumanization of the inmates starting with the fact that all cells were only one man cells. It was a place where the guards were worse than most prisons and they're never nice. The rote routine imposed was meant to break the minds and spirits of the inmates. It totally deserved its reputation as the hell hole of the US prison system. It's very existence was meant to be a deterrent to criminals.Most troubling about the book is the fact that Mr. Esslinger is either a Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") sycophant or, what is more likely. simply relied on the "official" history presented by the BOP so he could get this book over and done. This book never mentions the stand up cages where prisoners were forced to stand up for days, if not weeks, while literally immersed in their own excrement. These cells were at a lower level (the dungeon) which was also never mentioned in the book. He follows blindly, and without any apparent research on the issue, the official but false BOP assertion that the staff at Alactraz never beat or hurt a prisoner and were simply doing their best to rehabilitate tough prisoners. It's just easier and quicker to follow what is already written while getting the BOP to cooperate with providing you materials for your book.It is also notable that this book was first published in 2003 which was long after most reliable first party sources of information were long dead. Esslinger had the option of either working from what was already written or simply toeing the BOP line. The latter course of action was the easy road to follow. Unfortunately Esslinger fails to examine much less challenge the BOP story line despite its many well known and obvious defects.In following this path of least resistance, which would entail significant additional research, Esslinger just follows the party line. Any time the actions of a prisoner came into question he's adopted the BOP position. This is exemplified in the Henry Young case. While Henry Young was no choir boy, he was able to bring to light many of the abuses at Alcatraz and escape a murder conviction in the process. Esslinger predictably defends the the BOP position while ignoring entirely the evidence admitted into evidence, often at great risk to those that gave it, at Young's trial. He also fails to mention the significant abuse Young received back on the Rock after the trial. The BOP cared not about the view of a jury. Esslinger completes the BOP circle by parroting the BOP lie that Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers drowned during their escape because that perpetuates the fiction that no one ever escaped Alcatraz.We the readers are denied a balanced view of what really went on at Alcatraz which is what I hoped to get when I ordered the book. I will give Mr. Esslinger credit for a good if not balanced book that is fundamentally disjointed given the three separate books in a book. There are a number of BOP documents and photographs in the Kindle version. The photographs in particular are very interesting as are the Prisoner Rules and Regulations. Unfortunately it looks like Mr. Esslinger sold his journalistic soul to the BOP to get these gems and to get the project done as quickly as possible.This book is not a bad place to start if you want to learn about the general history of Alcatraz. Do not stop here. Take what you are told here with a grain of sand and continue your own research. If Esslinger had followed that same advice, we would have a different book here. Plainly he is a capable author but it was quicker and easier for him to follow the BOP "official" history to write this book in as little time as possible. Your own research will likely lead you to a much more complete and balanced view of Alcatraz and its inmates than you will get in this book.

I would like to have had a map of the entire layout of the island as it was originally and as it has changed through the years so as to get a better feeling of what-was-where-when, as it were. Page 388 has a pair of photos labeled as separate cell shots of two of the players in the most famous escape attempt portrayed by Clint Eastwood in "Escape From Alcatraz", but they are clearly two different shots of the same cell.THAT is about all I can say against this book!Esslinger does an excellent job amassing facts and staying away from speculation. This is no "Ghosts of Alcatraz", which I was unfortunate enough to buy without reading much of it because it was the only Alcatraz book at Border's that day. No ghost stories, no silly Ripley's 'Believe It Or Not' references to spiritual sightings or sounds. Just plain facts, presented in a concise, readable manner. There are enough photographs to give much insight into the areas one might never see otherwise.The book is massive at 451 pages, and gives all the details on the various breakout attempts. It has photos or scanned documents on virtually every page. The reader gets more than just information from Esslinger's copy, they walk away with a feel for the convict who is shown as he aged, often at an advanced rate due to prison life, in photos from different years. They see history as it happened with shots of island families being evacuated during hostile actions at the prison. They feel, through precise descriptions, the biting cold and isolation of the guards on the towers and come to know, by seeing the handwriting of officers and wardens on original documents.I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to delve deeper into Alcatraz and it's chilling past. As far as I know, there is no better book for the task. It would have been nice to see the aforementioned items included, but it would not stop me from buying this book now, and should not stop you.

As a fan of criminal justice studies, the material itself was fascinating. The pictures are well done with the captions and the amount of historical value is very well tied together. It is obvious the amount of pain that the author went through to compile the amount of information in this book......but that's all. There were several sections where the writing was sloppy (1st draft sloppy), and the grammatical editing was atrocious. Many of the same sentences and thoughts were merely paragraphs apart, as if the author couldn't decide where in the chapter the material should have been located. I started to mark all of the editorial errors, but after the first few chapters, decided that I couldn't read the book for enjoyment because of all the "editing" that I was doing.Again, the facts are presented, and where the facts couldn't be verified as to which story was accurate, the author was careful to make such annotations. This however did not stop the book from being very lopsided in its view. While we all understand that criminals (especially in that era) were not all "angels," neither were the guards and/or administration staff. The author does a great job, of placing the factually provided letters from the various staff members throughout the book; however, those letters are written more like political speeches moving throughout the government. I am not naïve enough to believe that ethical lines were not crossed by the guards, beatings of prisoners were never conducted, and punishments were not so severe that inmates complained of it. Again, the book is a good compilation of the available documented facts; however, the story is very lopsided as if the staff members were always professional robots, never did anything that crossed any lines and were always completely innocent in everything they did.For a book to be labeled "A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years," you might add, "from the view of the government."

Yeah great account of the rock ,bit boring though and hard going .I found some of the chapters great for getting me off to sleep at night though....

Brilliant what an excellent book,couldn't put it down .form start to finish informative and well written can't fault it in anyway

Very happy with my purchase!

Great book

Very informative insight into life for inmates in and around the rock.Some very interesting characters and rogues. Very good