Welcome to Alcatraz..Imagine yourself cold and shivering on adamp and thickly fogged-in morning. Heavy steel shackles
squeeze your wrists and ankles, and the constricting metal seems to amplify the cold. Your movements are constrained, which makes it difficult to maintain your balance as you embark on the island ferry. You catch a brief glimpse of what will soon be your new home across the foggy bay…

Your new roommates are considered the most hardened criminals in the American penal system. Their resumes boast crimes ranging from

kidnapping to espionage, bank robbery to murder. As you disembark with the firm assistance of a correctional officer, he smiles, looking up toward the cellhouse, and utters words that will never leave your memory: "Welcome home, welcome to Alcatraz."

Each year over one million tourists board the Alcatraz ferry and visit what was once considered the toughest Federal prisons in America. Today, Alcatraz is one of the biggest tourist magnets and most famous landmarks of San Francisco. The island's mystique, which was created primarily by books and motion pictures, continues to lure people from all over the world to see firsthand where America housed its most notorious criminals. Cramped cells, rigid discipline, and hard-line routine were the Alcatraz trademarks, and it was the last stop for the nation's most incorrigible prisoners.