Alcatraz Uncovered: What It Was Really Like to Live on the Island
SmartHERNews
Jenna Lee
4.9 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Note: We’re resharing this conversation as Saturday marks the anniversary of Alcatraz Island closing as a federal prison in 1963. This interview originally aired in May 2025, when President Donald Trump publicly floated the idea of reopening the island.
Could Alcatraz reopen today? And what was it really like to live there?
In this episode of SmartHER News, Jenna sits down with Jolene Babyak — one of the leading experts on Alcatraz Island — who actually grew up on “The Rock.”
Jolene shares what most people don’t know about Alcatraz: families lived there, kids took boats to school, and daily life looked very different than the movies suggest.
Together, they explore:
* How Alcatraz evolved from a military fortress to America’s most infamous federal prison
* What life was like for the 75 children who lived on the island
* The truth about escape attempts, including the famous 1962 breakout
* Why Alcatraz closed—and whether it could ever reopen
* The surprising role of mental illness in the prison system
* Why Alcatraz should be viewed as a “site of conscience,” not just a tourist attraction
Jolene also shares how an unexpected job loss led her to become one of the foremost historians on Alcatraz — proof that sometimes, it really does work out.
If you’ve ever wondered what really happened on Alcatraz — or why it still captures our attention — this conversation offers a deeper, more nuanced look.
00:00 Could Alcatraz Reopen
00:36 From Fortress to Prison
02:00 How Her Family Moved In
05:02 Daily Life on the Rock
07:22 Prisoners and Escape Attempts
12:10 The 1962 Escape Night
14:45 Water Sewage and Supplies
18:00 Becoming an Alcatraz Historian
20:55 Who Went to Alcatraz
23:13 Capone and Famous Inmates
25:26 Was Alcatraz Effective
26:54 Why It Wont Reopen
29:49 Alcatraz as a Site of Conscience
31:46 Changing Minds and Farewell
Jolene Babyak: http://jolenebabyakauthor.com/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Could Alcatraz ever open again? We're going to talk to a woman who live there with her family |
| 0:05.3 | and is one of the premier experts on the nation's most notorious prison. Her story next on |
| 0:11.6 | Smarter News. Alcatraz, just saying the word out loud instantly brings you an image, a place, a movie, |
| 0:24.5 | a feeling. Alcatraz is notorious because there's truly nothing like it. I was born and raised in |
| 0:29.6 | San Francisco. I can't even imagine the city without it. It's such a part of the view out towards |
| 0:34.3 | the Golden Gate and such a part of the city's story. The island itself in |
| 0:37.9 | San Francisco Bay was discovered around the same time of the American Revolution by a Spanish |
| 0:42.0 | explorer. And the name Alcatraz is believed to come from a Spanish word that roughly |
| 0:47.0 | translates to seabirds or pelicans, which would make sense given its location. The island became a |
| 0:53.0 | military site. In fact, the most heavily |
| 0:54.8 | armed place on the West Coast during the Gold Rush. And then around the time of the Civil War |
| 0:58.9 | and later became a site to house military prisoners. Military prisoners built Alcatraz, built |
| 1:04.0 | the actual prison, and that's how it got its name, The Rock. That's how that reference came about. |
| 1:10.0 | It became a federal prison less than 100 |
| 1:11.6 | years ago in 1933, but only lasted about 30 years, a short period of time. It's during that |
| 1:18.1 | period of time, though, that we get the legend and lore of the prison. And we also come to understand |
| 1:24.1 | that families had to live on Alcatraz. |
| 1:36.2 | And our next guest, Jolene Babiak, was one of the children who live there full time with her family. |
| 1:40.9 | I guess, Jolene, let's just start with some of the most obvious questions, because I'm sure when you start a conversation and you say, well, you know, one time I lived on Alcatraz, it's not like a normal thing that, you know, where are you from? Where did you grow up? I don't do that. Yeah. Okay. How did how did your family wind up living on Alcatraz? Okay. So, you know, my father graduated from college in |
| 2:03.5 | 1933, the big, you know, horrible year of the Great Depression. And, you know, he had a series of |
| 2:10.9 | part-time jobs up until 1938. And by then they had two children, my older brother and sister, |
| 2:17.1 | and he needed a full-time job. |
... |
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