Photos: New Alcatraz Exhibit Showcases the Hidden Costs of Incarceration

For years, San Francisco's former island prison, Alcatraz, has made its reputation mostly on famous escapes and infamous people.

Now a new exhibit, one of its first new permanent showcases in decades, is highlighting injustices in the U.S. mass-incarceration system.

It’s called “The Big Lockup: Mass Incarceration in the United States." Free with admission, it's the first major permanent exhibit on the island in 30 years. The exhibit is a self-guided experience that uses text, photographs and interactive content to inform audiences about the history of incarceration in the U.S.

Its exhibits explicitly question the criminal justice system, with panels that say "Who is harmed?" and "Can we do better?"

KQED reporter Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman stands in the front of a ferry arriving on Alcatraz Island on Oct. 28, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

“We have a new impetus here to try to make Alcatraz relevant to conditions in the country today, as well as to move away from the Hollywood image of Alcatraz to more relevant issues and to get people thinking about these issues in a critical way," said Will Elder, a spokesperson for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Visitors exit the ferry onto Alcatraz Island on Oct. 28, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

The exhibit features infographics explaining how the war on drugs and systemic racism has disproportionately incarcerated people of color, as well as panels describing how education, affluence, drug use and whether or not someone is placed in foster care can influence the likelihood that someone is incarcerated.

According to data from 2017, 28% of people incarcerated between 2000 and 2013 had a history of either an open child welfare case for in-home services or an out-of-home foster care placement. In 2018, 44% of children in the foster care system nationwide were Black or Latinx.

Photos and stories of formerly incarcerated people line a wall in a new exhibit on Alcatraz Island on Oct. 28, 2021, featuring stories of the United States prison system told through the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated people, scholars and criminal justice advocates. 'The Big Lockup: Mass Incarceration in the United States' is a free self-guided experience that uses text, photographs, and multimedia and interactive content to engage audiences on the history of incarceration in the country. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

The exhibit also explores the social cost of being incarcerated, not only to the incarcerated themselves, but to their families and communities, primarily shown through video interviews of formerly incarcerated people discussing their experiences and the challenges of reentering society after incarceration.

Visitors look through a new exhibit on Alcatraz Island on Oct. 28, 2021, featuring stories of the United States prison system told through the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated people, scholars and criminal justice advocates. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

There are examples of how other countries' criminal justice and incarceration systems function, an opportunity for visitors to come to their own conclusions about which systems are most humane.

A new exhibit on Alcatraz Island displays different handcuffs used on incarcerated people. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

“We try to present the exhibit in ways that ask questions. So how did we get here? Does history matter? Who is harmed? Can we do better? We try and present the information in a way that really asks the visitor questions more than we tell them the answers,” said Michele Gee, chief of interpretation and education for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

An installation displays a graph showing how the United States has the world's largest prison system. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

There’s also a strong interactive component. Polling stations ask visitors questions for their opinions on incarceration and are designed to be used by two people simultaneously. The idea is that after learning more about mass incarceration, the exhibit will become a place for people to have discussions and exchanges of ideas.