Even though the prisoners at Alcatraz were treated much better than prisoners at other 20th century prisons, they still tried to escape. While escapes from the actual prison were successful, no one was ever able to get off of the island without being reported missing and presumed dead, or being found drowned. Out of all of the 14 mastered escape attempts, none of them were able to survive after getting to the islands edge; not all of the escapes even were successful enough to reach the water. Much of the reason behind why some of the prison escape attempts wouldn’t make it out of the prison is because of the ratio of guards per prisoner. The first ever warden James A. Johnston said that there would be one guard per every three prisoners
